Is this how Jesus sees us?

I'd like to share a text with you that Kim sent me yesterday.

"Epic morning with Kelsi this morning.  I love that little rascal.  She is amazing, she loves me so good and she is fun to love.  Unlike everyone else, she sees no flaws in me.  The older girls don't see me like she does.  One day, things will change.  But for now, she is my princess and I am her favorite queen."

 All of my life, I've loved the scripture that says "I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter in" (Luke 18:17 NLT).  I've always associated this with faith.  It takes childlike faith to be able to accept and believe the Gospel.  

Romans 14:17 tells us that the Kingdom of God is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit". I don't think that is the only definition for the Kingdom of God.  Graeme Goldworthy  summarizes the Kingdom of God as "God's people in God's place under God's rule."  I like that summary, especially when I think about it in terms of Christ.  Jesus is saying that if you don't receive God's people like a little child, you can't be a part of God's people.

Back to Kim and Kelsi (mother & 4-yr old daughter).  Kim's text about Kelsi is exactly how Jesus looks at (receives) Christians that have been covered by his blood.  Kim has never done any wrong in Kelsi's eyes.  Not only that, she is Kelsi's favorite person...favorite queen!  Every meal Kim makes Kelsi is the best she has ever had.  Every moment Kelsi spends with her mom is spent as though it would be her last.

I was blown away when God revealed this to me.  Jesus is all-knowing, all-powerful, omniscient, and omnipresent.  He created everything including you.  Yet when he sees us, it's not through judgmental eyes wondering why we act this way.  He sees us with eyes of acceptance like a child.  He wants every moment that you will give him.  And like with our children, every moment you give Him will never be wasted.  But we can't stop here.

This is also how God want's us to look at and accept others.  He wan'ts us to ignore flaws as though we can't see them.  He wants us to forgive trespasses like he forgives us.  He wants us to give like we own it all anyway.

God loves us so incredibly much.  He desires a personal relationship with all of us.  He want's to be with you at home and at work, not just at church.

God loves you and I do too!

John Knight

My Dad...

For the past 12 days I've wanted to write a new post to my blog so badly.  But each time I've thought about it all that would have came out is pure emotion, the kind that just comes off as being a whiner or victim or attention-getter and that's not who I am.  As most of you know, my dad died on 10/25/13. 

If you didn't know my dad and you spent some time with him, you would have thought that he was a bit harsh, sometimes rude, but always joyful.  I know that sounds like an odd combination but my dad was a simple man.  So simple, in fact, that he just didn't know better than to tell you what was on his mind.  He didn't mean anything by it, he just thought that the unadulterated truth was best.  Once you knew this is how dad was, it was enlightening to his behaviors.

You see, mostly what was on dad's mind was Jesus and he was going to tell you about it.  Dad loved Jesus with all of his heart.  He was so thankful that God had healed him from cancer (dad was cancer-free when he died, he died from a brain bleed).  Anyone dad met, he told them about his miracle.  If he knew you didn't go to church he would tell you that you need to go to church.  If he thought you may not be a Christian, he would ask you if you were going to heaven or not.

Dad is the only person that I've known to not have an agenda in his relationships.  What I mean is that he didn't love people expecting a benefit.  He had no ill will or malice in his heart so he just assumed no one else did either.  Dad taught me how to give people the benefit of the doubt.  

You had to be close to dad to understand this but dad just loved.  He loved every person that walked through his door because he knew they had came to see him.  He often cried when I got there and cried when I left.  Not because he was sad but because he was so happy to see me.  We enjoyed each other's company and we talked a lot but often we just sat.  So often, we (not just me but my brother Jody and our wives) would just sit.  Dad would sometimes doze off for a few minutes and when he woke up he would always say "I wasn't asleep, I was just resting my eyes".  We loved to watch football together.  We are both huge UT and Cowboy fans.  No matter how good or how bad our teams were, we loved watching them together....together.  If UT got down by as much as a touchdown, you could be guaranteed that dad would say "It's over, UT is beat".  Kim and I always got a good laugh out of that.

I miss my dad.  A couple of people have asked me if I would bring him back from heaven if I could.  To their surprise I said YES!!!  Are you kidding?  I would absolutely bring him back if I could.  Oh yeah, he would be mad at me because I took him away from Jesus but the way I look at it, he would get to go back.  I want him here with me.  I want one more fishing trip with him.  I want to hear him say "We're gonna catch us a whampus" one more time.  I'd like one more heaping bowl of ice cream with him.  Just one more time, I'd like to look at him sitting in his Lazy-Boy with his dog on his lap and him say to me in the most sincere voice "love you son".

I love you dad, see you soon.

John

Pretty Woman

Who would have thought that I could have been inspired by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman?  Pretty Woman is one of my wife's favorite movies and when she stumbled onto it this week she had to watch it.  What stood out to me was a moment in the film when Richard Gere was telling her how pretty and smart she was.  Then, he said something like he didn't understand why she couldn't see it.  She said "it's easier to believe the bad". 

That one statement spoke volumes to me.  As a father with three daughters, I'm always conscience of my daughter's self-esteem.  My wife is so very good at watching out for their self-esteem.  I try to say the right things but I just don't measure up to her.  We are fortunate to have three beautiful (inside and out) girls.  But I can't help to think about all of the pretty girls that I knew in high school that thought they were ugly.  Back then, I just wrote it off and assumed they just said that so they would hear someone tell them "you're not ugly, you're pretty".  Now that I'm older I can look back and see, based on the way some of them made decisions, they really did think they were ugly.

After all these years of Dateline reports, news reports, and other studies that I've been exposed to, mostly common sense stuff I guess, low self-esteem can cause a young woman to do things that aren't very Godly.  Low self-esteem is a tool that the devil uses against our teens to deceive them into making very bad decisions.  How many teenage girls have you known that have made some really bad decisions involving a boy that just didn't make sense?  I'll go out on a limb and say 99% of those bad decisions are because of low self-esteem.  Why?  Why does someone that is so pretty need to feel accepted by a boy so badly that they will do anything to win his approval?

The fact is that the devil will use one single thing to tear a teenager down.  For some reason, no matter how much good that has been said about you and to you, it only takes one bad thing to shake your self-esteem.  Like Julia Roberts said "it's easier to believe the bad".   That's why, as a parent, we MUST tell our children how good, pretty, or smart they are.  Starting from the day our kids can understand what we say we must give them positive reinforcement.  Because there is going to come a day when some immature boy or girl tells them "you’re not as pretty as you think you are" or they aren't going to win the starting position that they've worked so hard for.  You can be guaranteed that there will be times that will shake your child's self-esteem.  It happened to me and I bet it happened to you.  When that time comes, will there be enough good that it makes it at least harder to believe the bad?

Dad's, your daughters HAVE to know (not just think or wonder) that you think they are the prettiest girl alive.  They have to know that you believe in them.  Mom and Dad, they have to know that when the chips are down, they have parents they can go to who will help them and pray with them.  You must teach them what it means to be "fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalms 139:14.  I know it's hard but we have to teach them that God's acceptance is the only acceptance that they need.  Dad's, I know it's hard for us to pay compliments sometimes.  I don't know why, it just is.  But for your children's sake, we must do a better job of complimenting them.

And above all, pray, pray, pray.  Build a hedge of prayer around your children to help protect them from the bad that the devil is going to send their way.

I love you and God does too!

Does Bad Company Really Corrupt Good Character?

Bad company corrupts good character.  That's what my mom told me.  That's what I've told my children.  That's what I've told converted Christians that wanted to witness in bars.  But does bad company really corrupt good character???

When I think about the life of Jesus I have to answer "not all of the time".  Jesus was our perfect example and, other than the disciples, He hung out with bad company.  Where did Jesus eat many of his meals?  He ate with tax collectors who were considered the worst sinners because they generally stole from the poor.  Tax collectors like Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) and Matthew (Matt:9-11) hosted Jesus.  But according to Matt 9:10,11 there were plenty of sinners there.  Sinners like tax collectors, prostitutes, and Pharisees.  In Matt 9:12 Jesus went on to say that "It isn't the healthy that need a doctor but the sick", referring to "bad company" as the sick.

So bad company only corrupts good character some of the time.  Really?  I wonder which times that is.  This just doesn't make sense to me.  Jesus is our perfect example, our moral compass if you will (WWJD).  Jesus said that the "bad company" are the ones that need a physician so we need to know which bad company will corrupt good character and which ones won't.

The problem with my thinking is that I'm focusing on the bad company as being the problem.  Really, the problem with bad company corrupting good character isn't the bad company.  Bad company is bad company, we shouldn't be surprised when sinners sin.  Good character on the other hand is a different story.  Good character isn't supposed to go bad.  

When Jesus went to the men with leprosy (Luke 17:11-19) Jesus didn't catch it.  He healed them.  When Jesus hung out with sinners He didn't sin, His good character was incorruptible. In my opinion, the reason for this is because everywhere that He went He looked to serve in as humble and loving way possible.  I'm not saying that He served up booze, porn, or drugs.  What I am saying is that He served with love, providing what the bad company really needed, with love.  He didn't tell the prostitute and tax collectors "YOUR GOING TO HELLLLLL".  That's what He basically told the Pharisees.  

So with all of that, I have to make the declaration that bad company does NOT corrupt good character!  However, I will say that "bad company corrupts average character" or "bad company corrupts mediocre character".  

The type of ministry that Jesus did is not for the faint of heart.  We like to compare ourselves to the disciples and hope that we can find similarities.  The fact is that Jesus did not let His disciples minister to "bad company" unequipped.  Jesus told them to wait on the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49, John 14: 16,17) after He was crucified.  The reason was He knew that they must have the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to endure and maintain there good character.

God has called us to witness in the highways and byways (Luke 14:23).  He wants us to server others.  You've heard the saying that "love is a verb", well Christianity should be an action word too.  Am I telling you to go to a bar alone to witness?  Absolutely not!  However, you should listen to the Holy Spirit and go where He draws you.  If you find yourself in a situation where you aren't serving the "bad company" that you are around, you should probably ask yourself why you are there.

Live for Jesus completely today so that tomorrow, you won't regret what you did yesterday.

God loves you and I do too!