My dirty bucket.....

Many years ago there was some water crisis in Subang Jaya.... probably in Malaysia. I remember like it was yesterday, waking up in the morning and saying to myself, another day without water to brush my teeth, another great reason to continue sleeping. So I heard my mum shouting at me in mandarin " Get up, grab the bucket and get water outside, the water truck is here!!!" Dammit, now I really have to wake up and pull some muscles. So I ran out of bed, went into my bathroom and grab the first bucket I see. It was a blue bucket. It was a nice bucket. I use it to wash my school shoe mostly. It has been sitting dry for a few days now due to the water shortage. It was kind of dirty, there are some small leaves inside but I couldn't be bothered to wash it.... hell there is no water to wash it anyway. So, off I went outside, queuing up to get my bucket filled. I was an exciting times. I see neighbors all stinking and smelly queuing up for the same old reason. To brush their teeth for the first time in days...... Finally it was my turn to get my bucket filled. As I place my blue bucket on the floor, one uncle said to me "Clean your bucket first, it's dirty". I said "But I have no water to clean it with", then he replied, "Sorry, next!!!" shouting to the person next to me. What happened next? Well I don't want to continue just in case some of you will think less of me:P
Sometimes I think churches are like that. We set a standard so high, that when sinners want to come, they somehow need to miraculously become clean before entering into God's sanctuary. People need the Lord... we can't set any condition for them to receive Christ into their life. Who is easier for you to welcome into your church? A nice professional good looking lad or a 70 year old ex-prisoner coming to church to beg for money and a place to stay?
Our job is not to judge the intention of a person but to fill the dirty bucket with God's love. Can we do just that?


⁹To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.

¹³"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner

Luke 18