Ezekial 33:14 Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
:15 If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
:16 None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
:17 Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
:18 When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
:19 But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

There’s this episode of Andy Griffith where Barney is trying to delve into the Real Estate business. He has it all figured out how he can make $3,439.52 (thereabouts, but he has it figured to the penny) if he can get several different people to sell their own homes and purchase one of the others. When it comes to Andy’s turn to show his home, there is an embarrassing and disruptive moment in which the flaws of the house (leaky roof, dripping faucet, etc.) are pointed out by Opey, Andy’s son. This obviously puts a hitch in Barney’s dream of riches, and there is a conversation between Opey and Andy where Andy tries to explain the need to conceal certain things at times like this. All of his reasoning, though well spoken and given from a ‘mature’ and grown up perspective, just can’t quite make it past the honest and pure little mind of the little boy. To Andy’s frustration, Opey doesn’t give up on the question of how his Dad can stress honesty and require it of him, while asking him to not speak about things that are known to be wrong with the home. When given another chance to show their home, and the question is brought up about the problems Opey had previously pointed out, Andy is put on the spot. He knows how important this is to Barney and he is caught up with the concept of selling his home, yet he has Opey standing there looking up with these honest little eyes that are yelling out at him, “Are you gonna do what’s right?” Andy’s actions right at that moment would say more than any lecture he could ever give his son. It would be what he did at that moment that would far outweigh the effect of any other means of instilling honesty and character in him.

There is a tickling of the ears, where a home is attempting to be sold that really has quite a few problems here and there. And, there is a world looking at us with querying eyes, waiting to be told by what we do, rather than what we try to conceal in the name of acquisition and kingdom living, who we really are and the validity of the One we would represent. We will be aligned with righteousness, not by our ability to make the deal and get the stuff, but by simply doing what is right, speaking the truth and letting the righteousness of Christ cover and make up for any of our fallacies. Actions that are driven by a true love and care for people and their well being above any need for self promotion and preservation will also ultimately define salvation, both for us and for those that we might consider to be sinfully unacceptable at this time. Our true profession/confession of faith will be validated alone by how our steps follow the way of love, rather than the way of covetousness. Our actions will best speak of our conversion and define the reality of our repentance.

For the wicked there is hope, and for the ‘religious’ there is a need to live, before watching and wondering eyes, the reality of God’s love and His righteousness. In the end, both will be judged by what they have done from the point of their exposure to holiness, while the nature of proclamations (their beauty or lack thereof) will be forgotten in the magnitude of what they have done with the truth. For us this day, there is an opportunity to suppress the need to sell the house and show each watching eye who we really are. They will get to see who Jesus really is then, and be given the opportunity to take their own journey to a righteous end.

Ezekial 33:31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
:32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 5:17 am and is filed under Righteousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.