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Posts Tagged ‘acceptance’

LGBT and the church

Posted in Acceptance of Others, Community, Lifestyles, The church, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2016| 44 Comments »

Recently I read an article that I enjoyed reading yet I had some reservation with it because it had an undertone that seemed to make sure to say that being gay is a sin. Basically the article was on LGBT issues and the church. I thought the article was good but there were a few things in the article that made me think it was stating that we should accept gay people but still needed to point out that being gay is a sin, or that acting upon those feelings was sinful.

Obviously I may have misinterpreted what the author was saying and I am not sure if the author meant to make it sound that way, yet there are many Christian writers that definitely feel the need to make a point of saying that being gay is sinful. My thought is why do we christians feel the need to point out what we think are faults and sins of others. Why do we have the sense that we can play God and say what is and what is not a sin and who deserves our love and who does not?

First off, no matter who we are or what we think I do not believe any of us as followers of Christ are to be the sin police. We are called to love God and love others, not to point out what we think is sinful behavior in others. The law shows that we cannot live a perfect life and the Spirit convicts the world of sin, so by pointing out what we think is sin in other people is going beyond what God has called us to do.

Second, I am not one to say that being gay is a sin. I do not think that is the job of followers of Christ. There are certainly many different ideas and interpretations of biblical verses that shed a different light on the subject than what we grew up with in the church and to make a judgment on what is and what is not a sin in this area is not for us to do.

What about gay and transgender people who are Christians, are we to completely discount their faith and experience just because we think they are living sinful lives?

If we want to talk about sin then we have to point out that we all have sinned in one way or another, yet because of Christ the sinful nature has been crucified with Christ and the spirit within us is holy and righteous. Of course in the world we still commit sins but we are cleansed and forgiven of our sinful nature through grace. This is not narrowed down to only certain groups of people, grace has been made available to human beings as a whole.

John 3-16

To start separating people into different groups because of sin is wrong. We are not called to separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters and we are to love and accept everyone in this world just as Jesus did, showing the love of God to everyone.

What has always bothered me is that we are so quick to make being gay a sin that is worse than anything else. Even those who accept the LGBT community still make a point of saying that gay life is sinful. They use such comments as hate the sin love the sinner or being gay is OK as long as you do not act on your feelings, yet statements such as these can be very hurtful.

What about in the bible where it says God hates divorce? Why don’t we separate those who have divorced into a lower class group of people like we do gay and transgender people? Based on statistics published in the online version of Charisma Magazine a report from a few years ago by the Barna Research Group revealed that 32 percent of those identified as born-again Christians have experienced at least one divorce. A related study also conducted by Barna Research found that among Protestant senior pastors, 15 percent have experienced divorce. Why is it that we Christians want to overlook such happenings among the Church yet make gay and transgender people the worst of sinners?

Obviously we all have our personal convictions of right and wrong and we want to live our lives in a pleasing way to God, but we are not to force our convictions and views on others. Just because others have different convictions and interpretations than we do does not mean we are right and they are wrong. We are not called to finger point, judge and condemn. We are called to love.

Love is the way of God and love does not include separation, judgment, condemnation or exclusion. Love is what we are called to show as followers of Christ and that includes everyone not just those who act, live and believe like we do.

Godloveseveryone

Whether gay, straight, lesbian, transgender, atheist, male, female, black, white or whatever religious belief you follow, apart from the labels we put on each other we are all human beings. Coming from a Christian perspective I believe we were all created in the likeness of God and loved by God. As followers of Christ we are to love our neighbor and respect each other no matter if we agree or not.

We are all entitled to live and believe in a way we feel is right. None of us should be pushing our beliefs on others and we should not have the attitude we are right and everyone else is wrong. We all have things to learn and we all should be willing to love others no matter what we believe. Our personal beliefs are basically all a matter of faith because none of us can prove beyond a doubt if our beliefs are right or wrong.

Speaking of people who see things differently than we Christians, whether you believe there is a God or not does not make a difference in how you should be treated. Unfortunately many times atheists are considered to be the archenemy of our Christian faith, yet we forget that atheist is just a label and there is a human being behind that label who deserves to be treated like anyone else. All of us are entitled to have our personal way of thinking and believing without condemnation and judgment from others.

As followers of Christ we are to live in the way Jesus lived which is the way of love and acceptance. That does not mean we all have to agree and live in complete harmony with one another. It does mean we can accept one another even in our differences knowing that in the eyes of God we are all loved and we can all respect one another and treat each other with kindness.

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Love of Money or Love of God

Posted in christian living, Lifestyles, tagged , , , , , on August 11, 2016|

In our world the love of money is the driving force. Obviously money is important in our way of life and we all have to work to make money to live. Money itself is not evil and can be used for good things yet the love of money and the importance the world puts on it is a completely different thing.

Money pays our bills, buys us our daily needs and things we want for our enjoyment. Money can be used to help others, pay for education, helps us live comfortable lives and a host of other things. Money in itself is not the problem.

LoveofMoneyThe love of money is the issue and many people will stop at nothing to get it. The love of money is a driving force and many will spend their entire life working, doing what it takes to make all the money they can. Some will cheat and step on toes and whatever they can to make more money. They will give up time with their families and loved ones, give up all relaxation and things they enjoy doing and spend all their waking hours doing whatever it takes to make more money.

In the Kingdom of God the driving force is love. This is very unnatural to us humans and without the Spirit within us we cannot love with the love of Christ. Yet love is the name of the game when living for God.

Loving like Jesus loves means thinking of others more than ourselves, doing for others more than doing for ourselves, giving to others more than trying to gather more for ourselves.

Loving like Christ is a life of serving others and living an unselfish life. It is not allowing personal feelings, doctrines, interpretations, lifestyles or anything else to cause division and hatred among us.

Love is accepting others no matter what they look like, what they believe or how they act. Love does not see the labels we so easily put on others. Love sees beyond the outer layer and sees a human being, someone who was created in the image of God.

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Obviously this type of love is a spiritual, godly type of love. We are not going to love everyone is a natural worldly way. There are too many personality types that just will not do well together. We are not going to like and agree with everyone, but we can respect and accept all we come in contact with during our lives. Loving others like Christ loves them is showing love in a godly way, respecting them and treating them as fellow human beings. Being mean, judgmental, condemning and showing hatred and non-acceptance is certainly not being loving in any way.

When it comes down to it there are two types of love. The love of money which leads to selfishness and greed, and the love of God which leads to loving and accepting others, kindness, peace, joy and a life of serving our fellow man.

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The Body of Christ

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Community, Ekklesia, Kingdom of God, The church, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 6, 2016| 6 Comments »

Ephesians 1:22,23 — And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

What stands out most to me is the description of what true church is, which is His body. It is not a building. It is not a place we go on a certain day. Christ is the head of all of us who are saved by grace. We are the church.

I do not see separation in this statement. I do not see denominations, buildings, programs and formal services trying to get people to come to us. I do not see separated groups based on doctrine.

I see a living, active group of people going out into the world day by day in the love and strength of the Spirit. I see a united effort seeking to show the love of God to all we meet each day.

Body of Christ

I see people looking to Jesus through the Holy Spirit for truth and guidance. No more looking to a man, woman or a group of elders for teaching and guidance. Christ is our head and the Spirit is our teacher. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, bishops, elders and any such leader mentioned are not positions of authority but are fellow believers who help encourage and build up their brothers and sisters through servant-hood example.

This leads me to think it is time to stop arguing over doctrines and interpretations. It is time to stop looking to other brothers and sisters whom we elevate into a higher position. We need to realize we are all kings and priests and able to teach and give a word to uplift one another. We need to allow God to live through us daily as we go out into the world and show His love to people who are hurting, who are outcasts and who need to be uplifted and encouraged. It is time to look past the labels we put on one another and see human beings who were created in the image of God and who need love, acceptance and fellowship with the Spirit and with one another just as much as the rest of us.

We are the Church, we are the people of God who are filled with the power and love of the Holy Spirit going out into our world showing that God loves them.

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Why Are We Always Against Something?

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Lifestyles, tagged , , , , , on June 29, 2016| 12 Comments »

I am becoming increasingly aware of the fact that I do not want to be someone who is always against something. Seems so many christian people today speak out more about what they are against and who they are against.

Whatever that may be, against this sin or that sin, against particular lifestyles, against a particular denomination or Bible version, all the different subjects we Christians can think of that end up taking away our main focus….loving God and loving others. We will take the bible and twist interpretations and meanings or use verses out of context trying to prove our point.

WhatAreYouAgainst

Jesus told us in the New Covenant that His commands were to love God and love others. We do not have to agree with everyone to love them. We obviously all have our convictions of right and wrong and we are not going to agree on every one of them. We do not have to focus on those convictions or try to push our views on others. We are told to love others no matter what. We are not responsible for converting people, that is God’s job. We are told to love them.

When Jesus walked the earth He did not spend a lot of time with the religious people. He was out with the sick, poor, the neglected, and those the religious people did not want to be around.

I know I did it for a long time. I thought I was better than others because I went to church. I felt I had to stay away from those who did not believe because their sins would rub off on me. I would always hang out with my church friends and stay away from the “worldly” people.

I would spend more time trying to prove my points and my beliefs, telling people what was wrong and what to stay away from, rather than spend time with God and others.

Obviously God calls us to follow Him and that is going to be in different ways for each of us. Yet to spend more time arguing, condemning, trying to prove our views on the Bible, pointing out people’s mistakes and shortcomings does not do anything except turn people away from us.

When we begin to understand the freedom we have in Christ and start living through grace that Christ provided, we can be free to love and accept all those we come in contact with each day even in our differences. We can show the love of Christ to all by allowing the Spirit to live through us.

Do not worry so much about who is right and who is wrong. Do not always be against something. Be for Jesus. Be for love. Be for others. Follow Jesus and let him love through you. Let him be the central focus of your life and allow his love to flow out of you and touch those around you.

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The Us vs Them Mentality

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, The church, tagged , , , , , on June 23, 2016|

It is sad but I am seeing more and more how a lot of us have an Us versus Them mentality….and that is just among Christians.

For those of us who are followers of Christ we are to love and accept others in the name of Christ. Yet many of us cannot even accept other believers.

We get upset when someone has a different interpretation, a different doctrine, or they go to a different church or no church at all.

UsvsThem

Why is it when we are to be known for our love for one another that we can be so condemning and mean to each other?

I feel being a Christian is being in community with others, not necessarily with others with the same doctrine or interpretation, but someone to communicate with, fellowship with, have discussions and be ourselves without judgment and condemnation.

For those who do not see eye to eye on church attendance, there is no reason why we have to argue with each other. So many people who still attend an organized religious organization are quick to say those of us who have left the organization are wrong or disobeying the bible by not assembling together.

Yet those who are outside the walls of religion can easily argue with those who still attend, saying they are wrong and disobeying God by staying within the man-run organization.

Acceptance

We should be able to understand that we all have different ways of seeing things, different ways of worship and different paths in our walk with Christ. Whether we are in or out of the organization we are seeking to serve and follow the same Father.

Rather than fight and argue amongst ourselves, we should realize we are all seeking the same purpose in living for God and showing others that He loves them. Those in the organized church love God and want to serve Him just as much as those outside the walls of religion and traditional church.

When we realize we are the Church no matter if we attend an organized service or if we never walk into a church building we will do much better at showing the love of God to a hurting world. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit and he lives within us. We are all equally functioning parts of the body of Christ, who is the head of the body.

They will know we are Christians (followers of Christ) by the love we have for one another. We need to stop fighting and arguing over our doctrinal differences and various interpretations and love God and one another. Our goal is to be loving and kind and have a servant spirit to all we meet along the way.

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Beware of the Extremists

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Community, Lifestyles, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 15, 2016| 6 Comments »

Thinking about the tragedy in Orlando and several of the other terrorist tragedies around the world got me to thinking about all the blaming and finger-pointing going on. My personal opinion is more about extremists, which is a group we really do not hear a lot about. We hear a lot about Muslim extremists but extremists in general are much more than Muslim or any particular group of people.

PrayforOrlando

Extremists are a group made up of many groups. We have religious extremists, political extremists, LGBT extremists, racial extremists,  Christian extremists (another group we hear little about), Muslim extremists and a host of others groups that go to the extreme with trying to force their belief on others.

Extremism according to the dictionary is: going to the utmost or very great lengths in action, habit, or opinion; exceeding the bounds of moderation.

Today this seems to be associated with those who are dangerous and who will go to any lengths to promote their way or life and get others to accept their beliefs, even to torture and killing.

In a world where extremism takes over there is no peace. No one is safe from verbal and physical abuse and harm.

This is not to say that every person should be lumped into the extremist basket. Each and every group have many people who want to have a happy life, accept others and enjoy living in a way that they are happy and comfortable. Each group mentioned above have people who get along with others, love people, go to work, pay their bills, enjoy their family and are satisfied with life as they know it.

Unfortunately it is the extremists who get all the attention. It is the extremists who do all the damage and cause the hatred and un-acceptance of others who are different from them.

To me it is really disturbing to read some of the Christian extremists comments, a group who should be known for love and acceptance but are showing their true colors of hatred and unacceptance. These are not true Christians and it is a tragedy in itself that people will use the guise of Christianity to promote and spread their hatred and un-Christ-like ways.

StopExtremism

Rather than blame as a whole the LGBT community, Christian, Muslim and other religious people, the various races or the gun rights advocates for all the trouble, hatred, condemnation and judgment we should be looking at the extremists of each group. They are the ones who keep things stirred up and causing mistrust, unacceptance and hatred.

It is said that Jesus was an extremists in his time. I tend to agree with that statement. Yet Jesus was an extremists of the opposite kind. He was extreme in his love for others and those the religious crowd did not want to be around. He was extreme in bucking the religious system of rules and working your way to favor with God. The extremists today use hate, fear and murder to promote their way of life. Jesus used love, acceptance and doing good to others. We need more extremists like Jesus in our world today.

If we could change or control the extremists of today and get past all the labels we put on one another, maybe we could begin to see each other as human beings who want a good, happy and satisfying life. It will be then that we could learn to accept one another and live in a more peaceful atmosphere.

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Equal Service for All

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Community, Lifestyles, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2016| 10 Comments »

When speaking about all that is going on today in the USA about gay rights and transgender rights, I have found that most of the time both groups are majorly discriminated against.

christiansagainstmore

A lot of christians seem to think it is best to come against these two groups as a way of showing that we are in favor of christian values and we take a stand for God.

Personally, as a christian I think this is completely wrong and so against what Jesus taught and showed us in regard to how to treat other people.

He accepted and spent time with all kinds of people, mostly people who the religious crowd would not even talk to let alone spend time.

Why is it we think taking a stand against someone or something is the way to show true christian love and acceptance? Why is it in a world with so many diverse people and beliefs we feel the need to openly defend our way as if it is the only way?

As a christian I do believe in living for God and showing His love to everyone. That does not mean everything I do and believe is right. That does not mean other people and beliefs are wrong. No matter what we choose to believe or how we choose to live, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and accepted as is.

A good friend of mine is a firefighter and he shared a paragraph from an ethics class he recently attended. It reads: Equal Services for All. Always ensure that the services you and your crew are providing are equal for everyone on the scene. Never discriminate because of race, color, religion, age, sex, or disability. If you become aware of another firefighter discriminating against someone, rectify the situation immediately, and report it to your chief. Discrimination should never be tolerated.

equality

To me this sounds more like it came from Jesus telling his followers how to treat others.

I believe that standing up for our christian values should be positive not negative. It is not showing what we are against, being mean, condemning, unaccepting and discriminating. It is showing what we are for in Christ, being caring, kind and showing love and acceptance to everyone.

We certainly are not all going to agree on everything. We are all going to make our choices on what to believe and how to live based on what we feel is right or best for us. Yet in those differences there is no reason we cannot respect, accept and love each other knowing that God loves each and every one of us. As Mike Warnke said many years ago “if you’re good enough for God, then you’re good enough for me”. That might not be the best way of saying it but if God loves us all, we should be loving and accepting of others also.

It is time to set aside our differences, set aside discrimination, set aside prejudices and doctrinal beliefs and show the love of God to everyone we meet.

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Frustrated with Christianity

Posted in christian living, The church, tagged , , , , , , on May 19, 2016| 65 Comments »

Have you ever felt frustrated with modern-day Christianity? Obviously the church today is not what God intended and in America the church has become a big corporation more than anything.

On the other hand, no matter what church or Christian group you belong to it seems we just cannot accept each other. We always have groups that say one thing and then along comes another that says something completely different. Then one group gets mad and argues their point and it just seems fruitless to continue debating one another. One group says this is the way to do it, the other says no your way is wrong but our way is the way to do it.

grouparguing

Obviously this is not to say that the advice of trusted Christian friends should be avoided, but the continual arguing over differences, doctrines and interpretations should be something we stay away from at all costs.

I am at a point where I am frustrated with this type of Christianity and ready to say forget it. God loves me. There is nothing I have to do or stop doing to receive God’s love. I am saved through faith in Jesus Christ and I have the Holy Spirit living within me. I do not have to listen to this group or that group, this speaker or that preacher. God can guide me in the way He wants me to go and I no longer should worry about my reputation or what others think as long as I am living pleasing to my Father. Does anyone else feel this way too?

I really think if we accept God’s love for us the way we are, follow Him by being willing to do what He wants us to do and listen to the guiding of the Holy Spirit within us we will be OK no matter what others say. We no longer have to be tossed to and fro by listening to all the different voices in Christianity today. We need to listen and trust God and enjoy the fellowship we have with Him through Christ.

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Showing Love

Posted in Acceptance of Others, Community, The church, tagged , , , , on May 11, 2016|

In our world today there seems to be a lot of talk in the Christian world of standing up for our beliefs and doctrines. It seems we feel this is the best way to show our devotion to God and be a witness for Him.

I am not so sure we are going about this in the correct way. As Christians we are getting to be known more for what we are against and being unloving rather than showing the love of God to others.

A lot of us go to a church building on Sunday and sing and smile and listen to a sermon and think we have fulfilled our duties for the week. All day we are feeling good and close to God and think everything is good.

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Then Monday hits and we go grudgingly off to work with a frown on our face and feeling down. We may be in a bad mood and snap at our fellow employees and try to make them feel as bad as we do.

It seems we forget that Christianity is not a religion or a one day a week life. As followers of Christ we are to let Christ live through us in the strength of the Holy Spirit. We are to let his love flow out of us to touch those we come in contact with throughout the day.

Rather than try to win people over to our way of thinking by pointing out their mistakes and shortcomings, rather than condemning them and making them feel like outsiders we should be allowing the love of Christ to touch them. We should be accepting and treating all people like we want to be treated.

While Jesus lived in bodily form on earth he constantly spent time with those the religious crowd would not even think of being around. He spent time doing things that the religious leaders thought were wrong and against their religious laws. They could not even accept him as the messiah because he was so different from them and what they thought was a godly way to live.

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Jesus accepted people for who they were, just the way they were and did not show condemnation toward them. As followers of Christ we are to do the same. It is not our job to be the judge of others, pointing out their sins and mistakes and treating them like second class people. The Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin where conviction is needed. We do not need to do the job of the Holy Spirit, we are here to be Jesus to all people, loving, accepting and treating everyone with respect no matter who they are or what they believe.

In our world today with all the discrimination and unloving ways of the world and even of the Church, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to love through us to touch others and let them know they are accepted and cared for, and in God’s eyes they are loved beyond measure. Love is the way of God because God is love. Stop the unloving and condemning attitudes and let those you come in contact with each day know they are loved and accepted just for being themselves.

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This is Discouraging

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Community, The church, tagged , , , on May 1, 2016| 10 Comments »

You know what bothers me? The way we christians cannot get along. I am not talking about getting along with those outside of our beliefs and our way of thinking, we cannot get along with fellow christians. We are to love those who think and believe differently also, but we are to be known for our love for fellow believers.

Now I do not expect everyone to agree with each other. God gave us minds and personalities and we are all different. But as I read different blogs and postings I see a trend sometimes that is more than just disagreeing. It seems to get down right ugly.

We Can Disagree without Getting Mad

Obviously we are going to disagree on things, but can’t we disagree and yet respect and love the other person? It discourages me so much when I read a blog and go through the comments and see disagreements that turn into arguments. It gets to a point sometimes that I have to get away and stop reading.

I always wonder why it is we just cannot accept the views of others and go on. Seems like a lot of people really get upset when they cannot get someone else to think the same way they do. We have to go on and on trying to prove our point or our way of thinking.

I know when you write a blog you are opening yourself up to comments and disagreements, but do we have to go to some of the extremes of getting mad and losing our tempers because someone else has a different viewpoint.

LovelikeJesus

Are we not being just like the worldly crowd, fighting, arguing and expecting others to see things our way or else? What happened to being known as Christians by the love we have for one another?

Humans are never going to agree with others on every point, but we who are following Christ should be able to disagree with our brothers and sisters and yet do so in a way that non-believers will still be able to notice the extreme love we have for God and for one another.

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