The Problem of Religion.6

"Your vision extends not one inch in front of your face. Piously you strain a gnat from your wine, and proceed to swallow a camel. Self-righteously you clean the outside of your cup, while inside remains the grime of extortion. How blind can you be! First take care of what is concealed within. Only then, will the outside be clean."

--Jesus

God's Difficulty in Creating Man:

• How to fashion a being that would satisfy God's glorious heart and will
• How to create a being that could be independent of Him yet need Him for its completion
• How far to separate the distance between Himself and His Creature 
• How to give Will & Independence that yet recognizes the need:

• To turn and regard Him
• To Choose Him and say, 'I will arise and go to my Father'
• To Desire the Divine Character, in which the Creature is capable of choosing Good against Evil
• To Will to be One with the Life from which it comes
• To Work the Perfection of Reunion
• To Live immediately, consciously and actively from its Source

(adapted from Life, George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons II)

To help man in his "vision" to perceive God's working and wooing the human race toward Righteousness and Oneness, God sent His Son. The Living Son, in turn, enlists, energizes, employs and examines those who would lead and influence His people toward the Father. His rebuke falls harshest on those least like him:

image from kingsenglish.info

• Self-absorbed leaders that succumb to the demonic allure of status and power
• Leadership that uses that status and power to cheat people out of their birthright: to be Like the Creator! 

Constructive Leadership vs Destructive Leadership

• Constructive Leadership sees the potential for God-likeness in individuals
• Destructive Leadership sees only the worst in others burdening them with excessive regulations
• Constructive Leadership encourages truth seeking
• Destructive Leadership stunts thought and free expression
• Constructive Leadership aspires to openness and transparency
• Destructive Leadership masks and hides insidious evil
• Constructive Leadership lives what they teach
• Destructive Leadership live comfortably with hypocrisy
• Constructive Leadership lives to give
• Destructive Leadership lives to take

...we all like sheep, need shepherds after God's heart. Let us with discernment recognize True Leaders.