2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
Psalm 101:6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.
To those who say "Christians are not perfect, just forgiven" I say, you have a very limited view of what Jesus did, and what God can do, FOR YOU! And I'm not tying to be picky or judgmental. But we know that Jesus says:
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Were I to preach it I would say:
God is not looking for sinless people. Nor is He looking for people who have no room to grow, or people who see themselves without need of growing. He IS looking for people who want to stop sinning, who want to grow, who know their need of repentance and transformation, and deeply desire to please their heavenly Bridegroom and Father. Is it perhaps that the heart can be perfect, that the heart can be full of that which God loves even while the soul still operates in some degree of frustration and falleness? We are to crucify the flesh, mortify the deeds of the body, and die daily. If we are practicing these, if this is our lifestyle, not yet flawless sinless perfection, but our yielding to a steady ongoing filling of the Holy Perfect Spirit of God... "I can only imagine..."
Somehow we need to go on to know the Lord, and know our calling and gifts, and serve the Lord in and with them, knowing that we are not flawless, but are called to be perfect and holy too! I am finding out that I have used my past and my PRESENT imperfections to excuse me from serving! I was disqualifying myself for fear of being disqualified! It seems I may have been sinning as a way to say to God: "I am not able to repent, therefore not able to serve!" (There are relevant details I could go into). I am wondering as I write if I was set up by satan to come to some very wrong conclusions about God's ways and His requirements! But whatever the details I also have a heart which God knows, and He is greater than it! I also have a deep desire to repent and He has the enabling power for that(!) AND also for serving Him!!!!
I did not get this from my own mind, the ideas began to flow when I read a book by Jack Hayford, A Passion for Fullness.
God is AWESOME! He is looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward Him, whose deepest desire is to come to the end of there life and hear Him say: "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
Are not these the people God will perfect and complete in His likeness?
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Hebrews 12
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Colossians 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
