I was reading some comments that someone had written; it appeared on my Facebook newsfeed. I want to tell you something; old tapes, are hard to erase. Especially, if certain things have been drilled into your head, since you were a small child. We sometimes wonder how some folk can have such set and cemented opinions about other people. They are taught this blanket kind of judgment; and they do it. It’s what they know.

The truly sad thing is, we don’t even know these people; we have no idea of their circumstances or what’s happened in their lives. I can attest, that in most cases, we have never sat down with this person. We really don’t know what kind of person they really are; no real idea of their journey; we’ve already written them off. It’s like we were told to; but, by whom? Because we were told to, we likely avoided these people; we were sure their lives were full of sin. It didn’t matter, that we had no true basis for that; we felt justified.

If a young lady used some eyeliner, she was backslid. If an older sister trimmed the ends of her hair, or just used some Silver Minx, she was disobedient and had failed God; ignoring authority. If a brother was seen with a drink, he was washed up. In other words, the old, one strike, and you’re out theory. And if they did not repent before us and pass our re-inspection, we were to avoid them. Did it ever occur to anyone, to ask, where we got these slanted codes?

There is one serious problem with this; we believed it, and many others are yet doing so. If you were guilty of even one of these infractions, you were guilty of it all. Unless you’ve visited other Christian type churches, you’d never know, they had their own lists of rules and regulations. So, many of us just left. The peril of most assemblies is, that they do not know, what it’s like to be a lost sheep. I’m so glad today, that Jesus did not think, like we all did.

Somebody, needs to have mercy on themselves today! We are all going to slip sometimes; especially if we still try to live by other people’s expectations. There are some things, that we can only learn, the hard way; anyone remember the term, “trial and error.”

David, if you’ve read him enough, continued to repent. Somebody, needs to realize something, that can save you from throwing the rest of your life away. Your relationship with Jesus Christ, does not disappear, because of other people’s rules.

Show the same mercy to yourself, that you would show to others. And be a better person.

~ Robert Blackburn

Robert Blackburn