Good morning. I hope that you have had a good week and that you have a great Saturday!
The Lord has been blessing our church as of late. We have seen several people make decisions for Christ. We have had the opportunity to share the Gospel with quite a few people. Several have joined the church and others are getting more involved in the various ministries that we do. We had a great event last night with Tyrone Flowers sharing his story and how he came to understand forgiveness. Praise the Lord for what He is doing in and through His church.
I was out for a walk recently seeking to get some exercise and enjoying the fall weather. As I walked past a new development that is being built their banners caught my attention. In various places along the security fence surrounding the project were banners advertising the new complex. These large and colorful banners were emblazoned with renderings of what the new luxury apartment community might possibly look like. Of course, the feature picture was a drawing of how the beautiful people were basking in the fruit of their success around the glimmering pool area located in the center of the complex. However, what caught my eye was something totally different. In an effort to convey that this was no ordinary apartment complex, the banners all boasted that this development was going to be, “Professionally managed.” An obvious appeal to the young professionals that they wanted to attract to yet another over-priced apartment community. They also wanted to ensure those that had possibly had a less than fantastic experience at a previous apartment complex that this would be different. This is probably a good approach, however, they made one glaring mistake. They misspelled the key word. On every one of the banners was the phrase, “Professionall Managed.” Of all the words to get right it needed to be “Professionally.” The one thing that they were trying to communicate was negated by a typo.
I had many thoughts about what to share about this. However, this is what I landed upon. I personally am a recovering perfectionist. By that, I mean that I have always been a perfectionist. I have been overly critical of myself and other people most of my life. I have sought to display on the banner of my life that I have it all together. But, just like the banner with the error for all to see, people can readily identify areas that need improvement. Sometimes, it is the perfectionist that refuses to see it for what it is. I say that I am recovering because I have sought to become less of a perfectionist. Even though I think things need to be done as well as we can, there is also a recognition that we all make mistakes. There is no sense pretending that we are perfect, because we aren’t. God asks us to do the best that we can, not to be perfect. Praise God that we worship the One that is perfect. Furthermore, that we can be accepted by God through the perfection of Christ and not our own messed up attempts at self-righteousness.
Matthew 5:48 actually tells us, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The question is how? It is only through our Lord Jesus Christ that we can be made perfect, holy and spotless in the eyes of the Father.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Let us strive for excellence, doing all that we can for the glory of God. However, let’s recognize that we are all just works in progress. Maybe, just maybe, we need to lighten up a little on those around us. Maybe we need to give ourselves a break. Even though we should all be growing in our faith, we haven’t quite reached the level of perfection. Some days it is just more obvious than others. Praise God that He is the One that desires to work in us to make us more like Him.
Be blessed. Be a blessing.
Pastor Larry
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