We should be helping to make it easy for people to come to know the Lord. We are signposts pointing the way.
By being accessible. Our lives are an open book. Paul says we are letters “known and read by everybody” (2 Corinthians 3:2). Christians should be the most accessible people on the planet. The reason is: we contain Christ. Someone rummaging around in our lives is going to bump into Jesus. Can’t help it. This isn’t about being a good witness; it’s about being.
By being imperfect. Our ordinary, fallible, broken lives are a constant source of life poured out to others. It is through our sin that others come to know forgiveness. It is through our suffering that others come to know God’s comfort. It is through our sickness that others come to know God’s healing. It is through our pain that others discover joy. It is through our death that others find life. (2 Corinthians 4:12)
By being non-judgmental. This attitude is the natural and normal result of finding out what a total jerk you are (and that word is about four stages removed from what I dare not print here). When you are the poster child for how far grace will go, you can’t possibly bring anything close to judgment upon another human being. Judgment is only for those who are working their way to heaven and relatively smug about already making it. People who know they don’t deserve heaven don’t care who else gets in.
By being full of gratitude. This is what makes you pleasant to be around. This is what makes you approachable. You just can’t believe you get to breathe another breath. You can’t believe you get forgiven. You don’t know why you are loved and accepted, but you’re not going to bring it up in case one of God’s angels might find out they made a mistake and you aren’t supposed to be there!
John Fischer The Catch 
This particular “catch” has touched me so much I want to comment but I’m struggling to compose what I want to say.
All of the elements you define are those required to reveal Christ in us. Unfortunately they are also the elements which will automatically reveal the true nature of us to anyone looking. Revealing ourselves takes real courage and is very hard. I know it will bring ultimate good but the dip in self respect just after the revelation may feel worse than the “sin” itself. Courage in the mundane things of every day can be harder to sustain than single acts of courage leading to fundamental improvement. Drug abuser to “saved” ex-drug abuser is possibly easier to manage because the only way is up.
We all need to pray for the courage to live open lives
Amen!
LOL at that last comment! Yes, better to keep your mouth shut than risk having the “mistake” corrected! (And yes, I’m fully aware that you wrote that tongue-in-cheek. Just wanted to confirm that at least someone found it humorous!)
if, perchance, this is one you ‘knew’ you wanted to share immediately w/ Marti – well, why shouldn’t she get ‘the best( God has to offer-in-you)” – look at all the years she’s had to deal w/ the rest:-P
(incase you missed the implied part where the nouns are changed to me/my bride above, that was meant to be a compliment you can palate)
Today’s post is a good reminder for me. My first 63 years of life were a huge violation of all the points made jw. I learned to love, God’s way, not my way. I would like to share some part of this journey.
Yesterday I read I Corinthians 13. Made a note to myself that this needs to be read and contemplated on, on a daily basis. My favorite is, “Love does not demand its own way”, because I always want my own way. Have prayed to God to force me to do it His way. This brought the following result.
Love is not about me alone, it is also about God and others. Balancing that is a daily task that gives me no time to see how others are doing with this. Each person’s faith journey is between them and God, it is not my business, it is God’s business. It is my business to love God and others, as myself. It begins with listening, trying to understand the other person, not agreeing or disagreeing but understanding. God takes each person on a faith journey that suits their needs as God sees it. Hindsight has shown me how good He is at what He does. Twenty years ago I did not know the depth and breadth of what He was doing in me. I am the worst of sinners, and have seen how utterly gentle and loving He is in dealing with me. This motivated me to deal with others in the same way. Many times I have had to bite my tongue, judgmental statements were on the tip of it. After a lot of practice in acknowledging what others had to say and affirming them, I now no longer need to bite my tongue, because the tip of my tongue is no longer there. (I went from a conversation dominator to a listener, man that was hard. Praise God for His help, I could not have done it without Him.)
Love is hard work, because it does not come natural to people who are filled with pride. Pride, boastfulness and arrogance are the root of our sin, it needs to have the stump ground out and the roots wrested out of our souls. In this I am a work in progress.
The last three years I have been giving away unconditional love to my family and all people I come into contact with. The joy and peace that brings to my family and me is incredible. I have begun to live a “Still Life”.
Thank you John for your authentic and down to earth way of getting at the truth. At one point in Jesus ministry many disciples left because they found following Him too hard. Love is hard, for some impossible. Christ did the impossible, because as Gabriel said to Mary in Luke 1:37 Nothing is impossible with God. So for us to love others is hard but not impossible.
Peter, thank you for your comment. I suspect you are also a bloke and spent a lot of time trying to sort peoples problems for them. I went on a listening course and learned to hold my tongue, well at least more often than before.
I pray that God continues to bless both our works in progress.
Peter, I greatly appreciate your comments, I need to apply your words of wisdom to myself to myself as well! Thank-you for the reminder.
“People who know they don’t deserve heaven don’t care who else gets in.” Beautiful thought, especially in light of the recent firestorm of controversy surrounding this issue. Thanks for writing this.
Great “Catch”! But I do have a comment/question about the sentence “People who know they don’t deserve heaven don’t care who else gets in.” If I am to love others as Christ loves me, then I have to care about their salvation. I know I don’t deserve heaven, but I also know that God continually pours His love and grace on me anyway and I try to have faith that one day I will get there. I certainly want others (especially those closest to me) to be there too. I am probably not interpreting this the way it was intended and would love to hear additional thoughts on this.
I meant this to be they don’t object to anyone else getting in.
Thanks for the clarification. Well said. Sometimes things read are not the way the author intends. We know that God wills that all should be saved. If we follow him–we wish for the same.