The Good Mystery

Last night, the family watched an old "Matlock" show.  Mysteries and courtroom dramas intrigue me.  Chic Flicks are okay, but I love a good mystery where you have to try to figure out the "who done it".  This particular show profiled the South in about the 40's-50's.  There was the stereotyped redneck sheriff and of course the prejudiced cross burning bigots.  But as is the case with any good mystery, there was also the champions who battled via the courtroom and prevailed over racial blindness and set the captive free.

Awakening this morning, I felt anger toward those who through hate and ignorance judged someone according to skin color, then it hit me.  Jesus didn't just come for those whom we deem worthy to merit His redemption!  He came for the prejudiced person...for the haters of this world who talk about someone behind their back or plot to ruin a candidate through a smear campaign.  He came for those who through hate think their god says to murder everyone else.  He came for the holier-than-thou person who sends chills down your spine when they trumpet their own righteousness.  He came for the schemers, the haters, the self-righteous, the angry, the adulterers, the murderers, the Democrats, the Republicans, the liberals, the conservatives...in fact, he came for every living soul on the face of this earth who ever was or is to come. 

He doesn't want us to stay the way we are.  No matter what we stamp as sin in others, God can expose something equally as hideous within us that He wants to cleanse. 

Instead of setting our crosses on fire out of hate, perhaps we should let the cross be a reminder that each and every day we are to be crucified in Christ...we are to let the Holy Spirit set our hearts on fire for Him.  Then, the hate and bigotry within our own life will give way to the perfect love through HIS live and true change will come.  God loves us all even when we act like the devil.