Nonessentials

Ephesians 4:4-6
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

As we go forward with all of the election stuff I am constantly disgusted at the agruing that goes on. It is so obnoxious to me that I don't even care to watch it all. (And I love the "art" of politics and our government) I can't help but to wonder what happen if we had ONE purpose, ONE plan, and left all of the NONessentials out. I know that is easier said than done in the world of politics. But we have to take into account: will the president be black or white, with or without boobs, old or young, Mormon or Christian, funny or sophisticated. To me those seem like nonessentials. It should be about leadership for an enitre country. Maybe I am just a little old fashioned to dream that the presidential race should be about lead find a leader that will bring justice and equality for all and not about everything that the media likes to make it about.

But I have to wonder how much different are we in our churches. This being the place that we are given ONE purpose, One plan.

Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Jesus didn't talk about if we should use the red hymnals or the blue ones, he didn't talk about if our building should have steeples or stain glass, he even failed to mention what type of chairs or pews we should sit on. Jesus did, however, talk about loving our nieghbor. I think that our churches and denominations are way to caught up in the NONessentials of "religion" instead of being caught up in the ESSENTIALS of salvation.

On Sunday morning we "do church" in a banquet/wedding hall. We set up everything that is needed for our worship service and then take it all down when we are finished. We share this building with another church on Sunday mornings. Recently, their "noise" has been very loud and quite distracting to our service. A couple of weeks ago I got tickled over the irony of the situation. Here we all sit, 2 churches, the same building, fighting (not really) to worship the same God. Our NONessential differences keep us seperated. What would happen if churches came together over the ESSENTIALS (Salvation, Loving each other, taking care of the widows and orphans) and left the NONessentials between individuals and God? What if your opinion about NONessentials were the exact thing that kept someone from ever coming to church? What if you decided to only care about salvation and love, instead of having an opinion about divorce, drinking, clothing, music, marriage, lifestyle, etc. ?

I am not naive. I believe that God takes us through our lives, allowing us to have experiences, so that we can have convictions about certain things. But we have our convictions because we are in Christ and He is dealing with our heart.

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

I guess the point in all of this is simple... What is an essential and what is a nonessential? What is a heaven/hell issue? Do our opinions keep others from Christ?

I must be gettin' old!

Last night Hubby and I sat down to watch the Grammy's. Now I must admit upfront..... I am not a huge fan of the Grammy's. Mainly because I don't know who anyone is. It is just a bunch of faces singing songs that "Hmmm, maybe I have heard that before". Now of course I have my favorites and I love to hear the legends but all in all I feel very clueless about the music industry.
Hubby, being a much bigger music fan than me, seems to enjoy this show a little more. He is like a kid in a candy shop when TRUE musicians show off their stuff. BUT, last night seemed more like a comedy routine to me. I was shocked at the lack of quality that showed itself on that "grand stage".
The best example of CRAP that was shown last night (IMHO) was Kanye West. This guy gets up on stage and "preforms" what I think was a rap. But it was filled with language (that had to be bleeped), really bad rhyming (a line about Let's get lost tonightYou could be my black Kate Moss tonightPlay secretary, I'm the boss tonight.) and then was followed by a song tribute to his Mama (that sounded something like an American Idol blooper). It topped it all off for me when West accepted one of his 4 awards for the night, his speech was rude, disrespectful, and he was a complete punk about it (and the crowd applauded him).
If I were to paint a picture of what the Grammy's should look like... I would imagine it to be a night of awwww. A point in a musicians career that they dream of. The opportunity to become "a Legend" by winning and the rest of the night is a specatacular concert event showing off what those "legends" look and sound like.
I guess I would have to say that the highlight of the evening was seeing Tina Turner. But even that was sad. She was paired with Beyonce. She sang a couple of her "greats" but then Beyonce came out. And then it just looked like an old lady trying to "shimmyand keep up" with this "booty, shaking, boob floppin', my butt is too big to fit in my outfit that would only fit a 6 year old, hair flyin', crazy dancin', preformer".

I don't know.....maybe I am being way tooooo opinionate about all of this. Or maybe I'm just gettin' old!

True Religion

I know I have shared this video before. The line that stands out so much to me is : "Show true religion, because words they don't relieve."

We all talk a good talk, don't we? But words do nothing, "Your actions they heal me and show that you believe.

Our Guatemala Team will speak this mornign in church. They will talk about their actions. A challenging blog I read this morning spoke about DOING SOMETHING, it spoke about actions. CLICK HERE.

What will you do to show true religion?

James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."