I Am Who I Am

I wrote this on my facebook page: I am who I am and God is willing to work with that. He does not expect me to be perfect but to seek His perfection. There is a big difference in the two. The first is not possible but the second is a continual process.

What keeps a lot of people from attending church is a preception that those already attending are sinless or nearly sinless. It is true we are to be pursuing a life without sin but the truth is we will never actually reach that destination in this life. My vision is of a church where people come as they are warts and wrinkles and all. I do not mean they come content with who they are but real about who they are and what baggage they carry.

Let me break down the above statement.

I am who I am. I am not sure what your age is but during the course of your life you have become a certain personality and you have certain wounds and yes sin in your life. You are who you are.

God is willing to work with that. Believe it or not God is pursuing you just as you are. He is not waiting for you to clean yourself up because if He did that it would never happen. Let's be honest with ourselves we are a mess and well we have things hiding in our closets we do not want anyone to know about. The true is God already knows and He still wants to have a relationship with YOU. 

Romans 5: 6-8 (The Message) Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

He does not expect me to be perfect but to seek His perfection. A lot of energy could be put into what really counts if we could only accept what God knows about us and that is we can never be perfect. What God does expect us to do is to hunger for righteousness.

Matthew 5:6 (New International Version) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

The first is not possible but the second is a continual process.

I do not care who you are or how much Biblical knowledge you have you will never reach the goal of perfection as a human being apart from the full measure of God's Holy Spirit. 

2 Peter 3: 18 Instead, continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Messiah. Glory belongs to him both now and on that eternal day! Amen.

Growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus is a life long process and God is willing to work with who we are until the day He changes us completely.

Until then I will admit "I am who I am" and I am thankful that "God is willing to work with that".