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Posts Tagged ‘love’

Two Ways of Life

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on March 26, 2013|

Galatians 3:10-13: For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”.

Today’s Christian seems to live in two worlds. Not only the spiritual world and the earthly world, but the Old Covenant and New Covenant world. The problem with the Old and New Covenant combination is that if we don’t live by and obey all things written in the Law, we are living under a curse.

The Law was given to the ungodly as a tutor and guide to show us that on our own, we can’t measure up. We can’t live a life acceptable to God and the perfection He demands. Righteousness doesn’t come through the Law, and if it did, then Christ died needlessly. Jesus came into this world born under the Law. He lived and taught it for the first 33 years of His life. When He died, the Old Covenant came to an end because Jesus lived a perfect life and fulfilled the Old Covenant. When He rose from the grave, the New Covenant began.

By accepting the grace He provided, we can live a life pleasing to God. God sees Christ in us, and we are now counted as holy and righteous in His sight. The Law is no longer needed for those saved by grace. We are free, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law. We now live under the New Covenant, one that is a free gift provided to us by Christ. We now live by Christ’s commands to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and love others as ourselves.

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Where’s the love

Posted in christian living, tagged , , on March 13, 2013| 2 Comments »

Jesus command in the New Covenant is to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love others as ourselves. So why is there so much disagreement and arguing over matters that none of us really have any control over.

Christians especially can’t seem to get along. There are so many different denominations and groups, all because we can’t agree on our doctrines and interpretations of the Bible.

I think we are all, Christians and non-Christians alike, people of faith. We all have faith in something. The thing is, we fight and argue over our faith and beliefs, yet none of us can prove our faith one way or another.

We get mad at each other because we have different views. We separate ourselves and think less of each other, yet we can’t prove what we believe. We’ll condemn and convict others, yet there is always the chance that what we believe may be wrong.

Why is it that we can’t just accept one another. We can have our beliefs, interpretations and ideas, yet not force them on others. We shouldn’t expect everyone to believe just like we do. God teaches us and brings to light new truths over time as we are ready for them.

Rather than fight and argue over what we believe, and try to force our beliefs on others, why can’t we just love one another like God commanded? Why can’t we just love God and others and accept them for who they are, where they are and leave the rest to God.

Rather than look at people of this world according to what they believe, and who or what they have faith in, I think to be more like Jesus we should be loving and accepting them just the way they are. This isn’t to say everyone can live the way they want without consequences. It isn’t to say everyone will come to God in their own way, that all roads lead to God. Christ came for the purpose of redeeming fallen, sinful mankind and restoring fellowship between people and God. It is by grace, provided by Christ, that we come to the Father.

Reading about the life of Christ, we see a man who loved people. A man who accepted people for who they were. He didn’t condemn them, He didn’t separate himself from those who were different. Jesus loved them. To be Christ-like in our world today, I think we should do the same.

No matter what we believe, what our faith is in, what interpretation we have, none of us can prove a thing. None of us has any control over it. It is all in God’s hands. So why spend so much time fighting and arguing. Let’s allow the love of Christ to flow out of us to touch a world that is so desperate for true love and acceptance.

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Love and Unity

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on November 8, 2012|

Colossians 3:14 — And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

 

With all the different thoughts, ideas and interpretations, all the different denominations and versions of the Bible, how is it possible for us to get along?

Well, on our own strength, it isn’t possible. We would rather fight and argue our views and try to prove our way over everyone else.

Fortunately, with God, who is love, we can live in unity with one another even though we have different interpretations of His word and different viewpoints on many things.

Love will bind us together and will let us live in peace with one another. Many times in this world, love is pushed out of the way for our own selfish way.

God is love, and we should be allowing Him to have more control in our lives. He must increase, and we must decrease. Allowing the love of God to flow out of us will cover our differences and allow us to accept one another.

Only by loving God and loving one another will others see a difference in us as believers in Christ.

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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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