In Prison

I woke up this morning remembering a dream that I had during the night.  In my dream, I found myself in a prison, sentenced to ONE day in jail.  I kept thinking that it was a mistake.  I hadn't really done anything really wrong; I just knew it.  They made me wear blue overalls and slippers.  I had to give up all of my possessions.  They took me through the jail looking for a cell that wasn't crowded and as I looked at everyone there, I kept thinking how DIFFERENT I was from them.  They were CRIMINALS!  All the while, I'm thinking it must be a mistake that I was there!  In each location in the jail, I saw people I knew.  There were students from school, kids from youth group, people from work--and all of them looked disappointed in me.  They couldn't believe that I was there with them, guilty, in the jail!  And I kept telling them it was a mistake, but as I walked further and further through the prison, I started to feel my guilt.  Could it be that I actually deserved to be there?

You know, I think as church-going Christians sometimes we have a temptation to feel better than everyone else because we think we are more "holy" or "righteous" but when it comes right down to it, we are just as guilty as everyone else.  The Bible says that we have ALL fallen short of the glory of God because of our sin.  ALL of us!  It doesn't matter what that sin is either--lying, gossip, murder, homosexuality--it is all sin to God and therefore makes us unclean UNTIL we place our faith in Jesus Christ as the savior and forgiver of our sins.

However, as Christians, we do have a responsibility to live different lives than the ones around us!  We have to "put on the Holy Spirit" and be Jesus to the people around us.  They shouldn't see us doing the same things they are.  We shouldn't want to live "in the world" and desire the things of the world like non-believers do.  We have something better to live for!  An evangelist at church today said that as Jesus was hanging on the cross, one of the thieves beside him was hateful and the other was accepting.  The accepting thief, the one who asked Jesus to remember him when He got to His kingdom in Heaven, must have seen the compassion in Jesus' eyes.  He must have felt the love Jesus had for him even though he was a sinner.  The same must be true of us.  People around us must be able to see Jesus in our eyes.  They need to feel Jesus' compassion through OUR actions and communications with them.  As our evangelist said this morning in church, the best way to witness is to live the life of a Christian that loves God instead of the fleshly desires of the world.