Dirty Christians

          OK strong title to this journal entry, but there is some truth to it that may hurt.  Today’s reading out of Proverbs 30 caught my attention.  Although just a simple little passage and not much to write about here, I still think it carries much weight.

Proverbs 30:12 those who are pure in their own eyes
and yet are not cleansed of their filth;

          How do we see ourselves when we really get down to it?  Sure we know that we sin and need Jesus to purify us in order to obtain eternal life.  My question would be is it really Jesus that we use as a yardstick in our lives to understand that we do not measure up?  After all we are always going to fall short if that is the case and who likes to say to themselves that they are not all that good?  We are down right worthless compared to Jesus and no one wants to hear that.  So how do we tend to measure ourselves if that is the case?  We use others in our lives and in the world to measure ourselves against.  Then we can tell ourselves compared to this person or that person I am a saint.  In this case then we become pure in our own eyes.

          So we have to keep Jesus as our yardstick in which we measure ourselves and not others.  We have to come to terms with the fact that we are never really going to measure up to this standard that is set before us.  This does not mean that we quit trying however.  We attempt to achieve this standard each and every day of our lives in this world.  We do this not for ourselves to try and obtain this unobtainable goal in this life, but to honor the one that made it possible for us to go before the Father despite not being able to obtain this standard.  We will never become like Jesus in this world, but we know that Jesus made it possible to be with Him in the next.