Rights vs. Responsibilities

 

 I personally,  have no right to judge or criticize anyone else for their sin. I have been among the most vile of sinners because I willfully sinned long after I met The Lord; ignoring Him and choosing to sin instead. As far as i'm concerned,  I don't have any rights at all, nor do I have any reward laid up in glory, except,  perhaps,  the reward of getting there. 

I do have the responsibility however,  of obeying the advocate for all humanity  - the Judge of the whole earth. When He is grieving,  I want to identify with and join Him in His sorrow.  As He says - "mourn with those who mourn". Likewise,  when He is rejoicing,  I want to rejoice too. I want to see what makes Him rejoice and I want to react the same way He does.

When He, not I, points out sin and injustices, when He shouts "Woe to you, Pharisees - HYPOCRITES!" and He wants to use my tongue (or pen) to do it, it is my responsibility to obey. When He pierces the darkness of deception so thick upon the souls of mankind with His laser-light of Truth - sharper than a two-edged sword, I must obey Him, though at times the condition of my own heart is no better than the sinners He is confronting (He always points out sin - not to condemn,  but to save). 

I know that for me to enter into full-time ministry again,  my charachter must be Christ-like. My heart must no longer give secret sins safe harbor.  My will must be crushed till I no longer obey the will of my flesh at all - indeed, I want to despise fleshly lusts as strongly as I've despised His holiness in the past.

It's one thing to minister truth on Facebook, quite another to do it face to face - in a relationship with precious souls whom Jesus died for. So, this post is my confession  - my expression of my desire to exchange my wicked ways for His righteousness.  I have none of my own, not even a little.  I have all the rights of a prisoner - in chains, on death row. I have responsibility too, as an apostle,  to disseminate truth - as He chooses to to reveal it, to prophecy as He prompts me to, to surrender my heart to Him completely  - so He may love wholeheartedly those He leads me to, who desperately needs His love, His touch, His voice - not more religion - that introduces people to facts about Him, but does not make those facts flesh and blood, that doesn't model how to enter into and sustain a deep and intimate relationship with Him by entering into intimate relationships with the people He brings to us to love on His behalf.