Seeing the Evil in Others

I try to give people a chance.  But I sour when I see too many "Christians" who put on such righteous acts and then see them act worse than the "heathens".  I wonder why God doesn't go ahead and destroy the world again as He sees what His church is doing to it.

Okay, I'm on my religious soap box again, but I'm see so much of it lately, that I'm disgusted.  There is a man I know that puts on such airs about how religious He is.  He goes on and on about the charity he does and how much he gives in church and what he does for people.  He brags on how frugal and good he is with all that God has given him.  I gag.

I have seen this man with venom in his eyes.  I have heard the hate come out of his mouth.  I have seen the maliciousness that he acts upon.  I have caught him in his lies.  Yet, those in the local church community believe everything he says.

I go between anger and sadness.  How can someone claim the blood of  Jesus and commit the very acts he does?  I guess the same person that was forgiven a debt in one of Jesus' parables and yet refused to forgive a debt he was owed.  I watch this man go on and on how people need to pay for their actions while he never has.

I am watching an old movie as I write this.  It is about some of the fanatics in England centuries ago when everyone began pointing fingers at "witches" and "heretics".  In reality they were masking their own evil as they murdered, raped, and lied.  This man I know reminds me so much of them.

I'm not trying to be mean, but when he lies he does murder a person's reputation.  This led me into a preaching session about how we are not held up to the standard we are supposed to be anymore.  In the Old Testament the Lord demanded that a plum line be laid down and Israel compared to it.  They usually did not measure up due to their sinning.

What if we were put up against a plum line?  Would we measure up?  Looking at those around me, I would have to say no.  We would horribly fall short.  We tend to refuse those with a past to be a part of our fellowship.  We gossip incessantly.  We will tell lies to protect ourselves.  We will turn a blind eye to injustice if it will protect us.  We rarely hold to the true teachings.

Where is our self-control?  Where is our gentleness?  Where is our love?  Where is our patience?  Where are the fruits of the Spirit?  We dismiss our shortcomings and point our fingers at everyone else's.

I guess you could say that this is a plea to today's church to please stop trying to "feel good" and get right with God.  Are we satisfied with being like Ananias and Sapphira?  Are we content to be whitewashed like the Pharisees?  Are we stiff-necked?  Are we the brood of vipers?  What would we see if we looked in the mirror of God?