JMD Devotional 245 Ephesians 2:1-3 Repugnant People

AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins
In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God]. Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God's] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind. But God…

There are some people who are repugnant to me from a mile away. They revel in debauchery, they twist the truth, they cherish perverseness and evil calling it ‘their good’. They reek of all that is false and superficial. They pursue trivial things. They use others, and turn on their ‘friends’ when it suits them. They are selfish and uncharitable. When I start to contemplate their faults, I need to remind myself that I am really sensitive to what I hate most about myself. God didn’t choose me because I was good or noble or because I possessed any virtue; I was DEAD in my trespasses and sins. A reject, a rebel, repugnant, fuel for fire and food for worms. I was in cahoots with the DEVIL. I looked human; but sometimes functioned like a beast. I hurt a lot of people. We cannot afford to forget where we came from or we will loose compassion for the lost.

Dear God,
You could have written me off and washed Your hands of me and been well justified in sending me to Hell; but I praise and thank You that You chose to extend outrageous grace and mercy to this sinner. Without You, I am a man of utter depravity. Help me to consciously live as a man redeemed and forgiven by grace so I extend that grace to others. Help me to see past their sin to Your latent image. Help me to see what they could be in Christ. I do not have the right to ‘write off’ anybody. May I not forget that all of my good qualities are imperfect reflections of You. When I see someone stumble may I remember; but for the grace of God go I.
Amen

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**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

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