The devil does not need you cruel.
Cruelty is obvious.
For years I believed
there were good men
and I was working my way toward them.
He does not need you drunk in a ditch,
stealing from your neighbor,
or running from God.
Sometimes respectable will do.
Pay your bills.
Love your children.
Hold the door for the old woman.
Be the kind of man
people speak well of at your funeral.
Then stand before God
holding all of it in your hands.
The Pharisee brought evidence.
He prayed.
He fasted.
He kept the rules.
The thief beside Jesus
had almost nothing left.
No reputation to repair.
No good works to perform.
No tomorrow to become a better man.
Only enough breath
to ask Christ to remember him.
And Christ did.
Grace requires empty hands.
It means admitting
the old woman you held the door for
cannot save you.
Neither can the money you gave,
the church you attended,
or the good name you spent a lifetime building.
Those things may be good.
They are simply not God.
The danger was never goodness.
The danger was believing
goodness could do the work of the cross.
The devil does not have to make
a man hate Jesus.
Sometimes he only has to convince him
he is doing well enough without Him.
I have stood at that door.
I held it open for everyone.
I never walked through.
Boutwell Jones
redclaygospel.com
love this 😇🥰