Have Mercy

There is a time to lovingly speak truth, and there is a time to shut up and show mercy. Mercy and judgement have always been difficult for us Christians. We tend to fall into extremes. That's human nature. 

I've said for years that if I am to err, I should err on the side of mercy. The merciful will obtain mercy, and the measure in which you judge others will be the measure in which you will be judged. I'm not perfect. We all fall short. And whoever is without sin...go ahead...cast the first stone.

According to a recent study, the church is considered to be judgmental in general and to be hateful towards people who live alternative lifestyles. We Christians are called to live holy and righteous personal lives. We are also called to show love and respect to others. 

Yes, we sometimes need tough love and to also give that tough love to others, but we are not called to be others' holy spirit. There is one already that has the responsibility to guide and convict, and he does it much better than we can. 

Because we are loving and merciful, we desire to share life and truth with others, but we cannot and should not force our way onto others. God gives us free will. Who are we to not allow others that same free will? 

I try to live a holy life because I love and respect God and others around me. I try to show mercy to those who, like myself, fall short and struggle. And I think it is perfectly biblical to teach and advocate mercy, love, grace and forgiveness, just as it is biblical to teach about sin, repentance and hell. 

I'm a little bothered because of all the things I've read and heard over the past few months from Christians who have chosen to speak so much judgement and so little mercy. 

God is love, and with that love comes an element of holiness as well as mercy. In my years of life and ministry, I have found it is often much easier to try to make others be holy, and it is so much harder to live honestly and transparently and with mercy and forgiveness. 

Lately, I have found myself asking God what the Gospel was intended to be before we Christians got a hold of it and transformed it into what we have now. I desire to find that pure, unadulterated Good News that Jesus lived and taught. I pray that I can live out the great command to love God with everything in me and to love people as I love myself. 

The older I get, the more I realize I have to learn, the further I have to go. God, may you continue to increase in my life, and may my way and will continue to decrease...until everything I am resembles you.

Hating People Into the Kingdom?

"You're going to hell!"

"You're an abomination!"

"God hates you, sinner! Repent!"

...and the list goes on. These are just a few of the statements that non-Christian friends of mine have heard by "Christian" groups "evangelizing."

Does anyone actually think it works to hate people into heaven? It both breaks my heart and angers me to see my friends being treated this way. I can assure you these tactics do not work.

Sometimes I think it's a miracle that I haven't been rejected by my friends for being a Christian, but they tend to be somewhat more accepting of people different from themselves.

And so was Jesus.

He was criticized by the religious crowd for associating with the ungodly people in his day. Unless I'm mistaken, he never tried to hate them into the kingdom. Instead he taught us to love those within our reach as we love ourselves. He ate with "sinners." He cared for women and children. He touched and healed the diseased. He fed the hungry.

The bottom line is that we are called to love God and love people. We are told to treat people like we want to be treated. We are shown the example of serving others. Jesus lived this himself. His example should inspire us to go out and do likewise. After all, he changed the world doing this.

And I believe we can change our world by following Jesus' example. What if we ate with sinners? What if hung out with those rejected by others? What if we said "Thank you" to those who serve us rather than treating them like it's their job to cater to our every desire? What if we said, "God cares about you" rather than screaming that he hates them? So many what ifs.

I guess I just have a heavy heart because it seems that more and more Christians are missing the point of Christianity. It's not just in the big things, but in the little things we do. And that includes our attitudes and motivations. It just shouldn't be that way.

But it should be this way:

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! --Galatians 5:22-23

either i missed the rapture or it didn't happen

i never thought i'd think, "i'm so sick of that bible verse!" but i have heard and read "no one knows the day or the hour..." more times than i can count. it may be true, but i seriously don't want to hear it again for a while. =)

yes, i made a few jokes about the impending day of judgment, but as soon as the funniness faded, i started to feel sorry for those who believed and were let down. then i got on twitter and saw what was trending. that's when i started feeling sorry for those mocking. the hardening of hearts toward GOD really broke my heart. this isn't JESUS. this isn't what he is about.

i’m praying for both sets of disillusioned people. i pray both find truth and peace in the days, months and years ahead.

Keepin Us Honest

The other day I talked with a friend after class. She and I are the same age, and both of us are married. We actually have quite a bit in common.

In the course of our conversation, we drifted to politics. She has it in for fundamentalists, and I have a feeling she has a good reason. I responded that someone needs to keep them honest. ...and that's true.

We all need people in our lives to keep us honest.

We may not like what others have to say when they criticize or disagree with us, but we need to listen.

And we need to be respectful and openminded.

When we quit listening to other points of view, when we quit associating with people different from us, we tend to become closeminded and inward-focused...and in some cases, condescending and downright mean.

People who disagree with us or ask us questions keep us on our toes.

That's not a negative thing. Instead, it's quite positive. It's good for us.

At times, we'll engage in debate. But there are rules.

• Seek first to understand rather than to be understood, so spend more time listening than talking
• At least consider the possibility you might be wrong
• Be willing to agree to disagree
• Be respectful; no name-calling
• Don't put words in the other person's mouth or assume you know where they stand
• Do your homework before engaging in debate. You lose credibility when you don't know what you're talking about or rely on what someone said someone else said...or wrote

With that said, let the conversations and healthy exhanges begin.

questioning GOD

"It is the glory of God to hide things but the glory of kings to investigate them." --Proverbs 25:2

questioning our faith, our beliefs, doesn't mean that we've turned our backs on GOD. if anything, it shows that we take our faith seriously.

i've been taking a class on religions this semester, and i'm fascinated. it's like i'm discovering faith all over again. when we got to christianity, i realized there is so much that i didn't know. and now i find myself wanting to rediscover a faith that was becoming a stale religion to me.

i've decided to try to undo faith in under to discover it again. without realizing it, i've approached christianity, JESUS and the BIBLE from a religious paradigm. and now i want to read and approach as a blank slate.
 
i wonder if i'll see things differently, if i'll have a different understanding and appreciation of who GOD is and who i am in relation to him. i want to search and investigate free from preconceived notions. i want to wrestle with the word. i want to ask GOD questions and not just accept because i was taught that it was wrong to question GOD.
 
it is not wrong to question GOD.
 
i believe that when we ask questions and wrestle with interpretations, GOD smiles. maybe i'm wrong but if GOD is all-knowing and i am lacking knowledge, isn't it a compliment to him that i am searching him out? is he not big enough to handle my questions? does he fear being found fraudulent or inconsistent? nah. i don't buy that.

 

i wonder if GOD operates like i do. i am mysterious. i don't tell everyone everything i know. but i love when someone finds me interesting enough to ask me questions and search me out to find out who i really am. i find it sweet. when david and i were dating, we used to talk for hours, sharing intimate details and discussing anything and everything. not once did i get offended by his desire to know all about me. if anything, it made us love each other more. 

 

and that's my desire. to know and love GOD more than ever. i wonder what i'll discover.

 

i must admit i feel a little wide-eyed, like a fat person at an endless buffet. hmmm. taste and see that the LORD is good. i wonder... =)

 

 

 

politics and religion

everywhere you look, you see political ads. nothing wrong with that, i suppose. there is an upcoming election if you didn't already know.

i got burned out on politics years ago, though. i get criticised for that from time to time, but that's ok. different strokes for different folks. i do take the responsibility of voting seriously. it's a privilege i enjoy and do not take for granted. but politics is not something i enjoy.

one of the things that turned me off to politics a few years back is ...well, the religious community and republicans. before i go further, i should point out that i am part of the religious community, and i do mostly identify with a republican platform. and it's not that i think christians shouldn't care about social and political issues, i just think there needs to be balance.

a few months ago, i asked people on facebook to be nice and respectful towards those with opposing views. i got blasted for it, accused of being a democrat, people tried to convert me over the issue (funny thing, i already agreed with most of what they were trying to convince me of)...

i believe that christianity is not a political movement and that GOD is neither republican nor democrat. sometimes, we confuse spirituality and politics. we sometimes equate the two. but we really shouldn't do that. i read something interesting in the BIBLE tonight. in acts chapter one, we read the words of JESUS: "Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I have told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." we then go on to read what was on the minds of his disciples: "So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, 'Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?'"

guess those closest to JESUS made the same mistake we so often make. JESUS spoke of spiritual things, yet his disciples were thinking about political matters. i guess if they can make that mistake, we can just as easily do the same. perhaps i shouldn't be so hard on us when we "go there." not much has changed, i s'pose.

GOD cares about us and our world. don't get me wrong. he does have his hand on governmental matters, but GOD and all that he is about, is so much more than a political issue.

i just think that we need to have perspective and balance. we need to listen more to each other and judge a whole lot less. i've heard people say that there is no way a christian can be a democrat, and yet i know a few. =) they really are out there. i promise. and if we just listen to each other, we may find we're not as far apart as we originally thought.

should christians be involved in social matters? absolutely. should we care about politics? i think so. but everything in moderation. politics does not equal religion. just saying. =)