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Posts Tagged ‘love’

Acceptance

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , on October 24, 2012|

We know when the word church is used, we are talking about the modern day, organized religious organization that people attend on Saturday or Sunday, with the many programs, leaders and pastors.

I think an issue today among Christians, especially those of us who are not part of an organized, modern day church, is to feel those who are still involved in church, and those who think differently than us are our enemies.

Even though people attend church for various reasons…obligation, guilt, to meet with God, the thing to do, or for social purposes, we should remember there are many people attending church that truly love God and are trying to follow Him.

Many outside of church start thinking they are more righteous or further along in their walk with God than those who still attend church. In all fairness, we need to accept those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ no matter if they attend church or not, along with those who have different interpretations and understandings. Just as those who faithfully attend church should not look down on those who have left the organized system, looking at them as if they are backsliders. Our Father will lead His own in His way and His timing.

The important thing is our relationship and fellowship with Christ. No matter what we do on Sunday mornings, our goal is to decrease to self, our desires and plans and allow Him to increase and live His life in us.

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How are You Known?

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on August 24, 2012| 1 Comment »

We Christians want to be known as followers of Christ. We all go about it in different ways. Most of us feel that if we can preach in public, be a pastor, evangelist, missionary where we can tell others about the Gospel message, we will be known as good Christian people.

Others feel if they can give regularly to their church or programs to help the poor, they will be known as good Christians.

Many will base their identity in Christ on their works and all the good things they can do to show that they are good Christians.

Others will consider how much they can promote how good of a Christian they are, and how much they can condemn those who aren’t Christians.

Basically all these are a waste of time. First, we are saved by Grace, it is a gift from God and there is nothing we can do to earn it or pay for it.

Second, the only way that Jesus says we are to be known as His disciples is by the love we have for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus commandments in the New Testament are ‘believe on the one who God sent’ and ‘love others as you love yourself’ (1 John 3:23). When we try mixing the New Testament commands with the Old Covenant law, we are getting away from the true Gospel of Grace and we are getting away from loving one another as Jesus meant.

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What Are You Against?

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on July 26, 2012| 3 Comments »

I am becoming increasingly aware of the fact that I don’t want to be someone who is always against something.

Whatever that may be, against this sin or that sin, against particular lifestyles, against a particular denomination or Bible version, all the different ideas and subjects we Christians can get into that end up taking away our main focus….Christ.

Jesus told us in the New Covenant that His commands were to love God and love others.

We don’t have to agree with everyone to love them, we obviously all have our convictions of right and wrong and we aren’t expected to change or give them up. We don’t have to focus on those convictions or try to prove our reasoning to 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 didn’t spend a lot of time with the religious people. He was out with the sick, despised, neglected, and sinners of the day.

I know I did it for a long time, thought I was better than others because I went to church, felt I had to stay away from those who didn’t 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, than the time I spent talking with God or reading His words.

Obviously God calls us to follow Him and that is going to be in different ways for each of us. But to spend more time arguing, condemning, trying to prove what we feel the Bible states, pointing out people’s mistakes and shortcomings, doesn’t really help.

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. We can show them the love of Christ by allowing the Spirit to live through us.

Don’t worry so much about who is right and who is wrong. Don’t always be against something. Be for Jesus. Be for love. Take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. 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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Love Each Other

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Community, The church, tagged , , , , , , , on June 29, 2012| 1 Comment »

Do you read many Christian forums these days, or Christian blogs and all the comments made on the article?

If you are like me you may find them all very disheartening. In fact, I have about come to the decision to stop reading comments or forums at all.

When I read that in Bible times Christians were known by the love they had for one another, and then read all the arguments, disagreements, disrespectful comments on these sites it just depresses me.

LoveEachOther

I know we are not going to agree on all things. We all have our own interpretations and beliefs, but I thought we should be able to look past all those and still love one another and respect each other.

Here in the USA we have grown up in religious freedom and in a land of plenty and we Christians, me included, sometimes seem more like a bunch of spoiled brats.

I love the freedoms we have here and I love the freedom of religion, but sometimes I think the only way we are going to have close fellowship with God and true love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is when this country is under some non-Christian dictatorship. When we can not get a Bible, can not go to church, when we are afraid of being put in jail for our beliefs or worse yet being put to death because we proclaim Christ, it is then that we will forget all our differences in interpretation and doctrine and will come to have real love for other Christians.

I do not want to see it come to that. I wish that all of us Christians, no matter what denomination, what doctrine we hold to, whether we are a part of the institutional church or if we do not attend a church at all we can come together because of our love for the Father and love for one another.

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Love One Another

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , on June 14, 2012|

Whether you are part of an organized religious organization, or what we today call church, or if you are not part of one, we as followers of Christ are the Church.

We should be able to get past our differences in doctrine and interpretation, get past what church we attend or if we attend at all, and focus on our love for God and our love for one another.

We obviously aren’t going to come in contact with every person in the world, but we are to be ready each day to allow the Spirit of Christ, which is within us, to reach out to those individuals we come in contact with each day.

All our organized services and plans to get people in to a service so the pastor can get the good word out will never make a huge difference. It is our job to go out into the world and live a life of love. Again, that doesn’t mean all of us has to become a missionary and go to some far off land. The people we come in contact with each day during our regular routine are the people we need to be showing love.

This is the way we will make a difference in our world, when non-believers see the love Christians have for each other and for God.

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Discouraging

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on May 18, 2012|

You know what bothers me? The way we Christians can’t seem to get along.

Now I don’t 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 sometimes.

Obviously we are going to disagree on things, but can’t we still 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 can’t accept each others views and go on. Seems like a lot of people really get upset when they can’t get someone else to think the same way they do. We’ve got 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.

Aren’t we being just like the worldly crowd? Aren’t we supposed to be known as Christians by the love we have for one another.

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

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Let me Point Out Your Mistakes

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on May 3, 2012|

Ever wonder why people are so quick to condemn others? Especially when it comes to areas where they don’t have a problem. They want to point out the mistakes we’ve made mainly because it makes them feel better about themselves. More than likely they haven’t made that particular mistake, so condemning you makes them feel better about other areas of their life.

What about the spiritually self-righteous who feel they are better than everyone else. They think they’ve lived a life of good works, church attendance and not being involved in specific actions that are ‘wrong’. This makes them feel better and able to tell other people how bad they are.

Seems everyone forgets that we all have messed up, we all have failed in one point or another and none of us are worthy of salvation. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Thankfully through Christ and the free gift He provided by living a perfect life, fulfilling the Old Testament Law, and by His death being the sacrifice for us, we can be forgiven of our sins and be made the righteousness of God.

We really need to stop arguing and pointing out mistakes of others. It is not our job to condemn people, nor is it our job to convert people. We are called to love others as we love ourselves, and it doesn’t say only Christians, or only those who agree with us. Everyone has the right to be themselves. We are to be ready to love them and allow the Holy Spirit to use us when He wants, but it is His job to work in their lives to lead them to the Father. God loves us no matter what. There is nothing we can do to cause Him to love us more, and nothing we can do to cause Him to love us less.

People are all the same, they want to be loved and accepted. That is our job as Christians, to love and accept them for who they are and the way they are. No one is better than anyone else, it’s just that those who accept Christ and have their sins forgiven are seen by God as righteous because of Christ. There is nothing any of us can do to make anyone worthy of that gift.

We should not be going around looking down on anyone, condemning anyone, or thinking more highly of ourselves. Only by accepting grace through Christ, the free gift of God, can anyone be considered any different from anyone else, and that difference is being forgiven for all our sin, past, present and future.

If you are saved by grace, next time someone wants to point out a mistake or remind you of your past and says, “what would Jesus say about that”, just tell them that He would say…”you have been cleansed by my blood, you are perfect and righteous in my sight”.

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We are the Righteousness of God

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on February 7, 2012|

Can you even imagine it? We, you and me, saved by grace and now considered to be the righteousness of God.

Funny, it almost feels sinful to think that way, but God said it and it is true. Because of Christ’s perfect sacrifice for us, we are now God’s righteousness.

A lot of Christians want to tell us that we are poor sinners saved by Grace. True, we are saved by Grace, but we are no longer considered poor sinners. Stop letting religion tell you that you aren’t good enough. In your own strength, no, you aren’t good enough. But through Christ, we have been given the gift of salvation. Through His grace, we are now the righteousness of God. When God looks at us, He sees Jesus in us. Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Stop condemning yourself. ‘There is now therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4 NASV).

Stop trying to do things to earn God’s love and grace. We are now His righteousness because of Christ. No matter what we do, or don’t do, God has provided us with salvation, forgiveness of sins (past, present and future), and now sees us as His perfect sons and daughters because of Christ. The Law was given to point out our sin and prove to us that we could not live a perfect life. Thanks be to God who provided His own Son as an offering for sin. He fulfilled the Law and became sin for us. We no longer have to try and live by the Law or the Old Covenant. We are now free from sin, and no longer need the Law to point out that we can’t do it on our own.

Let’s start enjoying the freedom we have in Christ, and start living through love for God and love for others. Don’t let someone tell you that you are anything less than the righteousness of God.

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Law or Faith

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , , , on January 17, 2012|

Galatians 3:24, 25

The Law very clearly was used under the Old Covenant as a tutor, a set of rules to basically keep us in line. The Law was there for us to follow, and if we kept it entirely, we would be perfect and could obtain salvation.

Unfortunately, due to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, evil had control over the earth and we mere men could not live up to the standards of the Law. We kept falling short and were unable to obtain perfect living by the Law.

The Law showed us that we were in need of someone to save us. We were unable to do it ourselves. The Law, through its rules and regulations were ineffective to bring us to salvation.

Fortunately, Jesus came and lived on this earth and was able to fulfill the Law. He lived a perfect life and fulfilled every part of the Law up through His death on the cross.

At that point, He said ‘It is finished’, meaning that fulfillment of the Law was complete in Him and He was now the perfect sacrifice for us. The Old Covenant was a thing of the past and a New Covenant began at His resurrection.

Now we live through love. We love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and we love others as ourselves (Galatians 5:14).

Jesus lives in us and He has fulfilled the Law. We now live by faith in Christ and are saved through His grace. We no longer need to worry about trying to fulfill the Law or any part of the Old Covenant.

Jesus fulfilled all that was needed to provide for our salvation. We live through faith in Christ and depend on Him solely for our salvation. We are no longer slaves to the Law, but we are sons of God (John 15:15). We are righteousness in God’s eyes because He sees Jesus in us.

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Concern for Others

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 12, 2012| 1 Comment »

Philippians 2:3-7 – Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

In today’s world, it seems everyone has the I’m number 1 attitude. We are all interested in what is best for us, what makes us happy, how to be more comfortable and satisfied in our lives. Seems like we will do anything we can to get ahead in life, to get all the comforts and ‘things’ to make it easier for us.

These verses state that as followers of Christ, we should be doing just the opposite. Our thoughts and attitudes should be how we can show the love of God to others, what we can do to help those in need, how can we use the money God has blessed us with to help the less fortunate.

God says that the fulfillment of the Law is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and to love others as yourself. While the jobs and ‘things’ we have been given and blessed with by God are not wrong, we need to keep in mind that they are not the important part of our lives. We are to be thinking of others and their need for love, acceptance and help. How can we encourage and build up someone, how can we help meet a need in their life.

There is nothing wrong with taking thought of our wants, needs and interests. The verse states ‘do not merely look our for your own interests’. Unfortunately, many times our own interests are all that concern us. May we daily ask for God to help us think of others and be ready to care for them in any way possible with God’s leading.

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