#050

CHARACTER  FLAWS
ARE
BLINDING

          All through time, God has spoken to man in various ways.  Today He still speaks to us through His Holy Spirit and His Word as we continue our desire to know Him Better; to understand His ways.
          A Lesson A Day from the Hebrew sages [חכם ] is a very in depth study of the use of our tongues.  There is a right way to speak and a wrong way.  I looked up the definition of a sage and it says:  wise, learned, respected for their good judgment, clever, scholar, shrewd, savant, and scribe.
          God gave the law to show His people HOW to live.  So, (az=אז ), even before Christ came to fulfill the law…the sages were delving deeply into the Word they had…to understand why people do what they do.

THE SAGES OBSERVED

          Leon Lief (a sage) observed that “Every person is born with a character flaw.”  I quote him more where he says, “We want to rid ourselves of our imperfections; people do want to be good.” 

          I have to admit that some find this so impossible that they give up.  Others, are not born with this desire.  (We must know the history of the whole Bible to understand this last statement.)
          But, Leon Lief goes on to say something I see as very profound.  He says:  “What makes life so challenging is that negative character traits are blinding.

CHARACTER  FLAWS
ARE
BLINDING

          I’m speaking from the point of us being blinded to good in those we say we love.  Love is not blind.  It see’s the character flaws but is also able to see past the flaws.  Love does not let these flaws blind them to the real person behind the flaws…weakness…incompleteness.
          If you were fortunate enough to be brought up in a home where good manners were taught, where no one ever cursed, or told dirty jokes…perhaps you were offended and took it personal when this “character flaw” confronted you.
          Yet, you expected others to see beyond your flaws.
          Isn’t it amazing how we are often blinded to the flaws in others when we first meet them, but time spent together can begin to blind us to the good?  Haven’t we always wished others weren’t blinded by our flaws…and could see the real us?

GUESS  WHAT!

          God does!  Jesus came to remove those flaws.  He even saw the flaws in the 10 Commandments.  He saw that man could not follow all the commandments consistently.  Did you know the Jews have 613 commandments? 
          Praise God!  Our Lord had compassion on us and simplified the laws by combining them all into 2 simple commandments.  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. -This is the first and great commandment.
           And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
(Matthew 22:37-40)

ARGUMENTS

          It’s okay if this brings up another side of this issue for you.  It’s always good to search the scriptures…and ask more questions.  I am basically referring here to those we “say” we love but recognize we have been blinded by their flaws…even as we have by our own.

GOD IS NOT BLIND
Praise the Lord!

          God looks past our natural flaws that men see…and looks straight at our hearts.  He looks upon “…the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the SIGHT of GOD, of Great Price.”  (I Peter 3:4).
          “And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”  (Romans 8:27)

DID JESUS HAVE
CHARACTER  FLAWS?

Some Thought So

          In Matthew 11: 19 In Jesus’ own words He said about Himself:  “The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.”

THEY WERE BLINDED
BY
WHAT THEY SAW
              

But wisdom is justified of her children.”

          So the more I study about Shmiras  Haloshon  (Guarding of the Tongue) and  Loshon  Hora (Evil Talk), I try to prevent being blinded by character flaws that may not meet up with my expectations.  I do pray, that I will look beyond character flaws even in my own self at times because the devil is well versed in how to point them out to us and others. 
          And, if we lose our sight from time to time, the best source of direction is in God’s Word.  Even if we are reading in Brail.  J
    
It takes a lot of practice but I believe we can do it.

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