Accepted

Written by cycleguy on March 22nd, 2012

 

Have you ever noticed that no matter how hard we try not to, there are certain people we want to avoid?  I know, I know, that is not very “Christian,” but it happens.  Certainly more in the church than I would ever like to see it happen.

Love, acceptance, forgiveness-those three things are absolutely essential to any ministry that will consistently bring people to maturity and wholeness.  If the church is to be the force for God in the world that it should be, it must learn to love people, accept them and forgive them.  Jerry Cook in Love, Acceptance & Forgiveness (p.11)

I read that book back in the 80s and it rocked my world.  Love is the ultimate gift we can give anyone.  A church that can make a commitment to love is a force to be reckoned with.  With that love comes acceptance of people for who they are, not for what we think they ought to be.  Acceptance is not a license for sin though.  Forgiveness is the willingness to stop playing God.   Chuck Swindoll wrote:

Acceptance is the fruit people taste when we show them love.  It means allowing others to be who they are without disapproving of or losing patience with them.  Luke Study Guide (p.18)

Please understand I am not condoning sin.  What I am saying, though, is that some people are so “hell bent” on condemning a person’s actions, they forget about the person who is doing the action.

Take a gander at Luke 7:36-50 here.  Jesus’ reaction to the whole scene totally blew the self-righteous Pharisees out of the water.  They were so “hot under the collar” they lost sight of her for a few minutes and set their barrels on Him.  He was okay with that.  🙂   Jesus looked beyond her exterior to know her heart.  I believe by His reaction that He saw a heart that was searching, and KNEW that He was the One to give her what she was desperately seeking.  He didn’t turn her away.  He didn’t proposition her.  He didn’t degrade her.   His eyes didn’t avoid her, scoping out the room.  He accepted her.  HE ACCEPTED HER!

I reckon I wonder how we can do any less.  What about you?  Do you have trouble accepting people as they are?  “I’m Accepted” is my sermon topic for Sunday.  I will also be using the following video as part of my introduction.  Enjoy.  But don’t let the truth of the video wash on by you. Any thoughts you care to share? 

 

32 Comments so far ↓

  1. Daniel says:

    Good stuff here. Coincidentally, I have been thinking about the notion of acceptance today as well. I can tell you that it is wicked hard to accept others when you have trouble accepting yourself. When I get down on myself, get frustrated with how I seem to be in my very fiber, I get so focused on my crap, that I turn negative and dismissive toward others.

    • cycleguy says:

      You are so right Daniel about the difficulty accepting others when you can’t accept yourself. Perhaps that is one of the reasons Jesus said, “Love you neighbor as you love yourself.” Just know that God does love and accept you. Thanks for the honesty.

  2. Eileen says:

    “Jesus looked beyond her exterior to know her heart. I believe by His reaction that He saw a heart that was searching, and KNEW that He was the One to give her what she was desperately seeking.” Love that, Bill. It’s all about the heart.

  3. I love that Jesus looks past MY exterior and sees my heart. Were it not for grace and Christ’s acceptance, I’d be in a real heap.

  4. God has really been drilling this in my head lately.

    Loving an individual does not mean we agree or condone everything they do.

    It does mean we recognize them as a person, created and loved by God.

    It does mean that just as God works through love in our life to draw us to Him… so too are we to be present in the lives of others.

    Love builds up.

  5. One of the problems is that we want to remain comfortable. God does not want us to remain so. To be like Christ requires us to give up comfort to become Godly. It’s a daily struggle, sometimes hourly.

    • cycleguy says:

      Someone has said, “God wants to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.” When He does that it is a struggle. Thanks.

  6. floyd says:

    Bill you know by now that I struggle to accept the legalists among us. It is a weakness. When I see anyone being judged by rules or the hearts of ignorant people who know scripture, “but deny the power thereof,” it makes me want to turn tables over…
    That’s not my job, my job I think is mostly to keep my mouth shut, because that’s my weakness, and show everyone love through my actions.

    • cycleguy says:

      I struggle with the same thing Floyd. It is one of those things that tears at the heart and soul. And it sure is hard to keep the mouth shut and instead show love with actions. Thanks.

  7. lindaM says:

    Hi Bill,
    I want to turn this idea of ‘being accepted’ around this morning. Is it really about Jesus accepting us (as we know to be truth in scripture) or is it more about whether we accept ‘Jesus for who he is?’

    This sinning woman in Luke did. She was accepting Jesus for who he was. She was weeping in repentance and sorrow for her sins. Jesus says ‘your faith has saved you’.

    He was accepting her on the basis that she was accepting Him. She was seeking and repenting. Jesus could see into her heart. He could see her sincerity.

    I think we need to remember, we are not trying to convince people that Jesus accepts us. We are saying to people that they need to accept Jesus. On this basis, anyone who is working to accept Jesus should not be judged but encouraged and accepted.

    Anyone who rejects Jesus is rejected by Jesus. that seems to be the teaching in scripture. The Father sent his Son… the ultimate sacrifice. We need to accept this, and live by it. Those who don’t, the Bible says, will be condemned.

    We see this in the flood of Noah. God destroyed the sinner. They perished. Is this the Jesus or God that we accept? Not really. In our churches today we only want to accept the loving Jesus. We don’t have that option I’m afraid. We either take all of Him or likely none of Him. Because we will make up our own God. A God that fits our desires, and our wants. A good God that never hurts anyone, will accept our sin, our rebellion, our rejection, our nose-thumbing, our errors etc.

    • cycleguy says:

      I understand what you are saying Linda but I still think we also have to accept the fact that He accepts us as we are but doesn’t want us to stay that way. His desire is for us to come to Him and allow Him to change and make us what He wants.

  8. Jon says:

    Right there with you, Bill. A church that can make a commitment to love is a force to be reckoned with . I love that!

    Acceptance, as you, and others have stated, doesn’t mean that we agree with everything, but that we recognize that every person is human and deserving of love. Honestly, I believe we could use much more of that these days.

    Also, I just think of how Christ took me in with all my flaws, and I’m so thankful for that.

    • cycleguy says:

      A church that does that will be a force. I hope someone likes you and those your age will remember that. I think it will happen. Thanks Jon.

  9. lindaM says:

    Hi Bill,
    I love this song here. I like it more listening to it without the pictures. But the pictures did set the idea of the song when I first viewed it.

    We accept a caucasian Jesus. Other parts of the world accept a black Jesus, an oriental Jesus, a spanish Jesus, a mexican Jesus, an asian Jesus a russian Jesus etc. He is all things to all men. The whole world owns him. Those who accept Him. To the rest of the world He is their judge, He will destroy them. We have to accept this.

    Common church… lets get off our high horse and accept Jesus. The real Jesus. Lets get on our knees and say, ‘whatever you want Jesus, whatever your word says, that’s my desire’.

    • cycleguy says:

      I think the song was great. I have always like D & K and that song. No comment about the Jesus. I think that is not even the issue in the video. 🙂

      • lindaM says:

        Hi Bill,
        Accepting the ‘right’ Jesus is not the issue in the video, but I think it is an issue in the hearts of believers.

        This song can be turned around to be Jesus saying ‘accept me’ ‘be accepting of me’.
        This is the way I am interpreting your post today and the song today in my own mind.

        We know that Jesus accepts us when we come to Him, the geater issue to me seems to be ‘have we accepted Jesus?.
        this is not about salvation per se, this is about believers who are having trouble accepting the teachings, the person of Jesus, as being different from what they think that they want their God to be.

        • cycleguy says:

          I respectfully disagree Linda. Your comment was about a caucasian/Asian/etc Jesus. I was commenting on that statement. That was not the issue of the video. Neither is the acceptance of Jesus. For anyone to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus, he has to “accept” Him (I dislike that term) as Lord and Savior. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. So He is never going to change. It is understanding His acceptance of us, that we are not anathema to Him, that I am trying to get at. He doesn’t and never has expected perfection from us, or for us to clean up our acts, before He accepts us. If that is the case, I may as well close the door now on myself.

          • lindaM says:

            HI Bill,
            I am not perfect, and yet I understand (i think) how I need to receive Jesus. This has not diminished my relationship with Jesus, but I think it has improved it.

            If I say to someone. This is what Jesus is like. “He’s loving, he’s forgiving, he covers your sins, he loves you unconditionally”. Is this the true Jesus? Yes, but only a part of him. There is no majesty, awsomeness, respectful fear, splendor in this Jesus. If a person ‘believes’ the description I have given them of Jesus and on this basis they have received salvation, they must now begin to learn of ‘all of Jesus’ and come to a place of reconciliation with him as being ‘judge, a king, Lord over their lives etc.

            I think that this enhances our walk with God. We learn obedience, trust, loyalty, love for God, a godly fear of him, respect for his word.

            why would this further knowledge of who Jesus is be detrimental to someone?

            • cycleguy says:

              By no means would it be detrimental. What you are speaking of here I think is discipleship. Taking a person from a “baby” to a more mature relationship with Jesus. Just like someone doesn’t know all they are doing or know it all when they come to Jesus initially, neither does a person know all there is to know about Jesus. Only study and maturity can bring a person into a deeper relationship with Him. I think we are talking about different “time frames” in a person’s walk. I am talking about that realization before conversion, while your approach is after. Am I right? Thanks for coming back and expressing your opinions. 🙂

  10. I think we need to be really good at accepting people as individuals without accepting their behavior. Our society often mixes the two, and we’re thus viewed as intolerant.

  11. cycleguy says:

    Sally and her husband are a big part of the church I pastor. She sent this comment to me so I am posting it for her.

    Try as I might to not do so, I still judge people on how they “look”! Sometimes I wish I was blind so I could avoid this sin, and love and accept more people before I even get to know them or consider their actions. If only we could all look into the heart as easily as Jesus does. Sally

    • cycleguy says:

      It is hard not to judge sometimes. I too struggle with making sure I know the person before I make a judgment. Thanks for commenting.

  12. Ike says:

    The greatest act of faith.. is for me to look at myself in the mirror of God’s Word…..and believe that He loves me. The video is a great reminder. Thanks pastor….prayed up.

  13. lindaM says:

    Hi Bill,
    I’m going to speculate that many believers are able to come to a place in Jesus and then they are not able to go further. Something is blocking them. Believers are frustrated, concerned, annoyed?

    What is confounding to me is why believers have to be continually supported on the idea that they are loved by God. This is milk, and many believers should be well beyond this obstacle by now.

    If believers are going round and round this mountain of whether they can be loved by God, something is terribly wrong.
    These believers need to get this straightened out. They are still on step one.

  14. lindaM says:

    Hi Bill,
    Believers know when they are secure and when they feel apart from God. This is needs to be acknowledged, and a solution needs to sought.

    Assurances that they must be mistaken about how they are feeling or that their feelings are wrong is avoiding the inevitable.

  15. Jan says:

    Hi Bill. I LOVE the video, beautiful statement.
    In my ladies bible study we are learning about acceptance, which for me is sometimes a struggle, because I feel like all the sin & things I have done/do make me unacceptable to a perfect God, I am learning that He accepts me & loves me the way I am, that is why He sent His son, so I can be forgiven, loved & accepted. Lots of times though the enemy attacks, leaving me vulnerable to thinking God doesn’t accept me. This is why I think it’s important for us to hear this over & over, because the world makes us think we can never be accepted the way we are, thank God He does!
    I have also been learning(it’s a process, trust me) that we are all the same….we have hurts, problems, bad habits, sin, etc…I have been very guilty of forgetting about the person doing the action(as was the case with James ex-wife)..all I knew was that I was angry at her & she was a horrible person for doing what she had done, God has worked on my heart & I can now pray for her & have realized she’s just the same as I am in God’s eyes, a sinner who needs love, acceptance & forgiveness, which I can honestly say I’ve gotten there. 🙂
    Great post!

    • cycleguy says:

      What is so cool and so important Jan is God’s grace is not determined by all the sin making us acceptable/unacceptable. That is a game-changer for me. God will continue transforming your heart as long as you stay available. You will. 🙂 Thanks.