I just talked to someone who was interested in being a part of our church. He is currently living with his girlfriend, but they plan to be married in a month.
As I talked to him, I was reminded of the fact that Jesus accepted people as they were – sinful, needy, greedy, ungrateful – but that when they left him, they were altered.
Sometimes the alteration was immediate, as in the case of dead people being raised or blind people who saw.
Sometimes it was more gradual, like the woman caught in adultery. I imagine that the more she thought about the incident, the more she wanted to be a follower of his.
Drunk people are usually changed gradually. When they receive something worth doing and worth being a part of, the need for the drunkenness disappears. When they realize the acceptance in the church and the love that can come from it, the need for “looking for love in all the wrong places” becomes less. When they find God, they find themselves and who they can really be.
I want to be like Jesus. He was accepting of anyone, but he was also one who changed them. They came to him one way and he took them where they were and guided them to a better way. He was a healer, not a hospice keeper.
Of course, not everyone reacted well to his healing. Judas was with him for three years and ended up a suicidal thief. Just because people came to Jesus didn’t mean they stayed.
If I can bring someone to him, if I can show him to someone – even if they do not rush out and change immediately – I will do so.
And I will love them and accept them anyway.
After all, if I am an imitator of God and Jesus was the fulfillment of God, deity in bodily form, I will love and accept people, too.
But one thing for sure, I will do my best to change them and show them my love for God by my love for them.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have lover for one another (John 13:25).
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