8-13-2014

 Good Morning All,

        1 Samuel 16:7b; “God does not see as humans see.  Humans look at outward appearances, but the Lord looks into the heart.”

       Do you remember Eddie Haskell form the “Leave It To Beaver” show?  He was probably the first TV character that really rubbed me the wrong way.  I remember thinking, “they can’t believe him.  He is as phony as a three dollar bill,” Now I was only about 6 or 7 at the time, so I thought this was a real life event. Yet I still remember fuming at him.  He was so “gooey” to the adults and just a rat to Beaver.  I would almost tell the TV to “wake up; he’s not a nice guy!”  Of course, I was much older when I realized that this was a TV show that was scripted and plotted out.  Still, Eddie still makes me grumpy.

     The problem with real life is that we don’t get to read the script of life.  So the Eddie Haskells of the world may slip by us once in a while.  We are often blinded by a person’s looks, or wealth, or the way they talk.  We tend to look and if it is pleasant to look at, we like it.  This is one of the reasons that restaurants arrange food on a plate so it looks better.  It is one of the reasons that do it yourself stores have the grills put together to see or have the patio set up in the store; if it looks nice in the store it will look nice in your backyard.  We tend to listen to and buy into how things look or sound as we make our judgment.  If it looks good or sounds good, we are for it.

      This can get us into all sorts of trouble; most of us can relate to past experiences where it looked good but was a flop.  Perhaps you have even experienced a relationship or two that went the same way.  It looked good at the start but it went “Eddie Haskell” on you in a hurry; maybe you were the Eddie Haskell.  Yet there are times when we are wrong in our estimation of people.  Too often, we are shallow in our view of people.  We only see the outside and make our judgment accordingly.  The shallow look is often wrong; it takes a deeper look.  It takes a look that we often fail to take because we can’t always see into the heart but that is where we need to look.

    God looks at the heart; he sees the desire of man and knows whose is sinful and whose seeks God’s way.  He looks at your heart; not your wallet or the way you look on the outside.  God looks at who we are not what we look like.  So God encourages us to look deeper as well.  He encourages us to look at what others do, how they treat others, especially those who cannot help them in return.  God measure for us to use is how we show his love to others.  This is what Jesus told his disciples and it is what he tells us.

    Our tools are limited so we may miss once in a while but God calls upon us to show his love to others.  How others show his love is to be our standard for those who are around us.  Sharing God’s love is always the key.

Father, help me to look deeper to see those around me that share your love with others.  Help me to share your love with those around me.  Together, let us be your agents here on earth to spread your mercy to the broken and downcast.  Use us to lift them up and to restore them to your kingdom.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret