Ephesians 4:15
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
Alright fellow Christians, just because you stand on a truth doesn’t give you the right to say it any way you want. The way we talk about things certainly has a lot of people turned off. Why would anyone want to join a church that spoke so harshly and venomously as some of us Christians do. Since I talked about some lies I have believed, I want to talk about truth a little.
There are two places in today’s political climate that I just see us Christians failing to speak the truth in love. Abortion and Gay marriage are all over the headlines. I also see a church who holds signs that say God hates you and little old ladies with pictures of aborted babies outside abortion clinics and planned parenthood. I don’t know about you but that isn’t speaking the truth with love. While yes if you read the Bible both are sins, but so is lying, cheating, stealing and adultery. God also isn’t a fan of divorce. So why are we so cruel when it comes to these things.
Abortion
Yes abortion is murder. Last time I checked though we should not be the judge of others. While I am saddened by the choice people make to kill their own children, The fact is that in judging these women we are saying that all we care about is the baby and no one cares about your soul. They do need to hear that it is wrong but is shouting murderer at them going to help them find Jesus? Is telling them they are going to hell going to make them receptive to God’s word?
Matthew 7:1-5
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Let us not forget as Christians that “God so loved the WORLD.” Good thing that he said WORLD and not spotless and sinless or we would all be spending a long time in hell! I have always found the door into someones heart isn’t through judgement and condemnation but love. So have some compassion, Why not talk to the women and invite them to lunch. Hear their problems and reasons. Help them solve the real problems that have gotten them where they are. Maybe they just need support. Maybe they are homeless, give them a home! My point is that love will go a long way in saving the mother and the baby.
Another small point I would like to point out that is lacking in our fight again infanticide, is that we talk women out of an abortion and then we leave them hanging. We don’t do anything to save the souls of the baby and mother. What good was saving a babies life if we don’t care to save their soul. Just saying!
Gay Marriage
This one is a much more touchy subject to me. I have met some wonderful people who are gay. I would never treat them any different than anyone else. I have had co-workers that were gay. The fact is that we all deal with sin in our life. For me the sins are relational with my husband and living in that relationship in a way that pleases God. I want to be in control and at times try to usurp my wonderful man.
Do I think as a church we should be condoning and permitting marriage that is outside of what God had planned take place in our walls? No. At the same time, I don’t think we should be making a whole group of people be treated as they are second class citizens. The fact is that our nation was founded on freedom principles. In our country, people have the right to divorce easily, have sex outside of marriage and look at porn. These are all different types of sexual sin and the Bible speaks firmly on these. So why is homosexual behavior treated as a worse sin.
My point is that the way we are treating this group of sinners is so much worse than people who look at porn or have extramarital affairs. I don’t completely understand the hate speech and venom that comes out of Christians mouths when it comes to homosexuals. The fact is that me telling them they are going to hell isn’t going to change anything but make Christ look like he isn’t the God who loved the WORLD. I can say that I don’t agree with the behavior and leave it at that. It is much more loving than taking the Bible and hitting someone with it. The only thing we can do is love on them and be honest and kind when asked about our beliefs in this.
I would just like to remind all the Christians out there that the Bible tells us to speak the truth with love. We need to remember that how we deliver the message as important as the message. We just need to remember that we are trying to be Christ like. So as corny as this may sound think about what Jesus might say and how he might say it!
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I posted tis to my blog yesterday. See if it isn’t pretty much what you’re talking about in yours.
“If my people”, Some Additional Things.
In a post I posted a few days ago I posted regarding the need for repentance and quoted such scriptures as 2 Chronicles 7:14. However, as I was going through my journal I found a vision from June of 2009 that the Lord had given me that I think fits here as part of the original, ” If My People” posting. In this vision I saw 2 groups of people facing one another. The people were in lines opposite one another. Each person in each line were holding signs and on the signs were accusations and insults accusing and insulting the people on the opposing side. In addition to holding the signs, the people on each side were yelling insulting remarks and making accusations. While they were doing this, what they did not see was that the country around them was being destroyed by the ravages of sin, freedoms were being taken away but neither side could see it because they were too distracted by being focused on insulting and accusing one another.
To revisit 2 Chronicles 7:14, it says If My people( a unified body of believers not splinter groups of warring factions) shall humble themselves. I remember hearing the Lord say on July 4th of 2009 while I was watching the fireworks, ” this is the last year you will celebrate as a united nation” It was shortly after that, that I had a dream and in the dream I saw the United states as a puzzle much like you would have seen when you were a kid and your parents bought you a puzzle of the United States so that you could learn your geography. Only in this dream I saw puzzle pieces, representing states, disappearing from the puzzle board leaving gaps in the puzzle. In other words, the puzzle that showed a united nation now showed states missing. I also saw an angel with a drawn sword standing over the United States and he was near the east coast where Washington D.C.is.
Getting back to the people accusing and insulting one another what got the attention of Isaiah the prophet was the death of King Uzziah. In Isaiah 6:1 it is that Isaiah saw the Lord in the year King Uzziah died. He saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train of His robe filled the temple. Thus it would seem that it was the tragedy of King Uzziah’s death that caused Isaiah to look upward and, “see the Lord” After his upward gaze seeing the Lord, he says, “woe is me”, here Isaiah sees his own sin and was humbled in the presence of a Holy and Righteous God. The closer one gets to the Lord, the more of His holiness we behold and the more of our sinfulness we see. If you look at the chapters preceding this one, Isaiah’s pet phrase seemed to be, “woe to you”.
Isa_3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
Isa_3:11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Isa_5:8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
Isa_5:11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
Isa_5:18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
Isa_5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isa_5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Isa_5:22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
After seeing the Lord in the splendor of His holiness, Isaiah says, “woe is me”.
We all need a “woe is me” revelation or we will never get past our own self-righteous religious attitudes which condemn one another and ultimately destroy one another while the world around us is being destroyed.
After this revelation the Lord was able to say, “Whom shall I send and Who will go for us” , to which Isaiah responds, “here am I, send me”.
What is it going to take for us to see the Lord? How bad do things have to get before we see the Lord? 911 was a brief moment were it seemed that we saw the Lord, however, it did not last and things seem to be back as they had been before.
Jesus said that all would know that we were His disciples by the Love we had one for another. If we are going to be used by the Lord to minister to a lost and dying world, we need to see the Lord, have our, “woe is me moment” and then say, here am I , send me.