Real People

Everyone who aspires to truly serve God should ask themselves the question, “What is God really looking for from his people?” What God is looking for, and what his people are showing him, sadly is quite often two very different things. Micah presented this all important question, and gave the answer to it as well: “Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:6-8) God spoke in Isaiah the same thing in only slightly different words: "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word" (Isa. 66:1,2). A whole lot of folks today would do well to seriously consider these powerful admonitions from the scriptures. Most of the body of Christ today has been trained and conditioned to do exactly the things that are mentioned in these passages, that were listed as things that God was not looking for from his people. More ceremonies, more services, more outreaches, more programs, more busy ‘church’ work, more fundraisers, more titles, more building projects, etc, etc… All of these kinds of things in large part serve as distractions from the real purpose and mission of the true Gospel of Christ, which is to purify sin from the hearts of believers so that they can fulfill their purpose of being beacons of God’s love and holiness (I Jn. 3:2,3; Mat. 5:8,16). There is one calling for God’s people, and it is not to walk in the religious traditions of men; but rather it is to "Walk in the Spirit, and… not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). God loves simplicity my friend, and he is not the author of all the fruitless and wearisome religious service imposed by Christian tradition today.

As our text passages show forth profoundly, God is only looking for his people to be real with him, with one another, and with the unbelieving world. The only thing that is going to draw anyone to God is his light of honesty, sincerity, humility, and faith; being seen in those who have been called to exemplify the same by means of his holy Spirit indwelling them. All of this other superfluous stuff serves mainly to draw those who are looking for a religious form, which is what modern Christianity has made itself about by and large. What we see from the Christian world today is a lot of religious fluff that has replaced the genuine love and fear of God in those who belong to him. Do you really believe that God is impressed with how many people are in attendance for a service on Sunday morning, or any other time for that matter? Or as far as that goes, maybe his head is turned by how many services we can have in a week? Or how nice of a building we have those services in? Or should we suppose that he’s interested in all of the titles that religious men and women relish today? I think our text scriptures have answered these questions quite sufficiently. But I will tell you what does attract the attention of the Almighty. He loves it when someone allows him to dictate his terms to them, in preference to what they have planned (Mat. 26:42). He loves for someone to give the other person the bigger end of the stick, and the benefit of the doubt (Mat. 7:1-3). He loves for someone to have a merciful and humble attitude that naturally feels that someone else is more deserving of good than themselves (Philip. 2:3). And he loves to see people who know how to mind their own business, keep their mouth shut, and do most of their talking in humble prayer before him ( I Thess. 4:11). He also loves to see people show good will toward someone when they know that the same someone is speaking evil of them (Mat. 5:44). These are the kinds of things that make up true faith, and ‘the faith’ of Christ ( I Tim. 4:1; Jude 1:3). The rest is just a religious smoke screen to mask the lack of the ‘real’ things that God is looking for from his people. Forsake the decor of busy religion my friend, and just be real with God and with one another. There’s a whole lot more peace and confidence in that. God bless.