We hear all the time that God chooses to use people who we may not think look the part. He will use some of the strangest people to get thing done...
I'm not going to talk about that. I believe that has been done to death... But what I will talk about is even though we may not start off looking the part, by the time God is finished with us, not only do we look the part, but we have become the new definition of what the part should look like.
Everything, every job, every profession has a "look". That's why the President that gets elected is the one who usually "looks" the best on t.v. Yeah, I know you vote based on the issues, but studies have shown that people will vote for those who look more Presidential. The same thing goes for religious leaders, teachers etc... People gravitate towards what their understanding of what the part should look like.
The religious leaders in the Gospels had all of these rules about what they should/shouldn't be doing and how they should and shouldn't look. But all the while, they had stopped doing God's work. They were cheating the people, not taking care of the poor etc... They had become the idea of what a religious leader looked like and with that came their ineffectiveness with the people. How can you trust someone who looks like they look the part and doesn't carry out the primary functions of the job?
God had to change things. He had to change the way the people thought about their leaders, and by connection him. He had to change their thoughts about how the part should look. Enters John the Baptist. When we first encounter him he is preaching in the wilderness and baptizing people in the Jordan. He looked the farthest thing from "the part". ( Matthew 3:4, Mark 1:6). He would however, become the staple as to what the part looked like. The part looked like the people. Talked in a manner in which the people understood. The part led by example. The part changed the way you thought about who or what should be in it. The part gave glory to God not to the individual. By the time all was said and done, the idea of the part had been shattered.
In changing who we surround ourselves with, we broaden our understanding of things. We start to think outside the box in what things should look like, sound like act like. We allow for dreams to become reality. We allow ourselves to start trusting in God.... By getting away from what the "part" should look like, we gain Freedom...
Are you going to start to set yourself free?
I'm not going to talk about that. I believe that has been done to death... But what I will talk about is even though we may not start off looking the part, by the time God is finished with us, not only do we look the part, but we have become the new definition of what the part should look like.
Everything, every job, every profession has a "look". That's why the President that gets elected is the one who usually "looks" the best on t.v. Yeah, I know you vote based on the issues, but studies have shown that people will vote for those who look more Presidential. The same thing goes for religious leaders, teachers etc... People gravitate towards what their understanding of what the part should look like.
The religious leaders in the Gospels had all of these rules about what they should/shouldn't be doing and how they should and shouldn't look. But all the while, they had stopped doing God's work. They were cheating the people, not taking care of the poor etc... They had become the idea of what a religious leader looked like and with that came their ineffectiveness with the people. How can you trust someone who looks like they look the part and doesn't carry out the primary functions of the job?
God had to change things. He had to change the way the people thought about their leaders, and by connection him. He had to change their thoughts about how the part should look. Enters John the Baptist. When we first encounter him he is preaching in the wilderness and baptizing people in the Jordan. He looked the farthest thing from "the part". ( Matthew 3:4, Mark 1:6). He would however, become the staple as to what the part looked like. The part looked like the people. Talked in a manner in which the people understood. The part led by example. The part changed the way you thought about who or what should be in it. The part gave glory to God not to the individual. By the time all was said and done, the idea of the part had been shattered.
In changing who we surround ourselves with, we broaden our understanding of things. We start to think outside the box in what things should look like, sound like act like. We allow for dreams to become reality. We allow ourselves to start trusting in God.... By getting away from what the "part" should look like, we gain Freedom...
Are you going to start to set yourself free?
