What do you see when you first look at someone? Whatever it is you form a first impression and many times those impressions are wrong. Such was the case with Simon in the message I will be preaching this week called “What Do You See?” from Luke 7: 36-50. Who was this lady who dared to come into the presence of men, unravel her hair, and even touch Jesus while washing his feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair? Didn’t He know what kind of woman she was? Simon, the self-righteous Pharisee saw her as a sinner who had absolutely no business in that room, let alone acting as she was. Jesus saw her as someone else-a woman whose life was messed up-but one who needed redemption and hope…just what He was willing to give! Simon’s look versus Jesus’ look.
So…how do you see others when you look at them? As always, I would appreciate your prayers for me and the fellowship as we study.
I forgot to mention that the banner was designed by Dan Drewes, a member of OVCF. You can check him out at www.dandrewes.com.
Bill, I love when I blog about something and then read other blogs pointing in the same direction. To me, it’s God telling me I’m not, completely anyway, misguided
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I literally just finished a post about how I used to judge others. I would immediately find the worst in them and focus on how it affected me.
I’ll leave it there or no one will go read my post..HA!
Praying for you!
Tobey: thanks for the comment. It is sort of funny how God does things. I will head off to read your post and encourage others to do the same.
My prayer for the past year or so is that I would truly love people. What I’ve found is that I tend to pigeon hole people and make judgments about then that God probably doesn’t even care about. I also discovered that I have a tendency to, due to personality largely, to hang back and not talk to people.
I’ve realized that these two characteristics make me seem extremely conceited and snotty.
As I’ve tried to overcome the latter trait, I’ve noticed the first is also fading away. I pray that I can continue and can learn to love people as they are, and see them as God see thems.
Karma: thanks for being so honest. Now I know how to pray for you in a more “dangerous” and specific way. Thanks for stopping by.
Toby/Bill – that’s the “circumstance” aspect of how God communicates with us (Exp. God summary).
To me, that passage just shows how we all have “yucky” shells, but Jesus sees beneath all of that. Since we’re to strive to be like Him, we should do the same.
Coming from a broken background, I often times have to correct my assumptions about those who I think “have it all together”.
As I heard Andy Stanly say a few times, I think we have to keep on asking God to let us see people as He sees them.
I pray that we can take off our glasses tat are tinted by our experiences and understand that there is always more going on under the surface than we can imagine or appreciate.
Have a great service!
Will: I am sure you don’t believe, and neither do I in accidents or luck. I believe God has a divine plan, even to something as “small” as this. Thanks for joining in.
Ken: thanks for your input. Good advice from Andy. I think we need to continually do that. Hope your week goes well with the church also.
Found you through Pete’s blog. I’ll be back to do some reading. Gotta go catch up with the kids for now. It’s a nice but WINDY Indiana day.
Take care,
Amy
P.S. I used to road race my bike(like Lance Armstrong–only not that crazy for 18 days)my races were just for a couple of hours. It will be nice to take a look through your blog about your riding.
Amy: Nice to have you drop by! I would have to agree with you on the Indiana day. 70 degrees but incredibly windy. I never raced but would ride for weeks on tours. Look forward to seeing you back. You can check out http://billgrandi.ovcf.org/wordpress/?m=20090202 and http://billgrandi.ovcf.org/wordpress/?m=20090128. thanks again for coming by. Look forward to seeing you again.