Black and White Issues #2

Another issue that I believe we are failing at is LOVE.  Scripture is pretty clear on this one too.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment.39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Jesus didn't say:
"love only the people you like"
"love only the people who look like you; dress like you; sound like you and act like you"   
"love only the people who believe like you"
"love only the people who go to your church"
"love only the people who vote like you"
"love only the people who are happy"
"love only the people who don't disagree with you" 
"love only the people in your 'camp'"



Jesus said,"love your neighbor as yourself".  That means everyone.  And He didn't say to just love them, He said to love them as yourself.  That is taking it to the next level.  All of those ways you love yourself....food, water, clean clothes, restaurants, cars, homes, dessert, manicures, the dentist, Starbucks,  vacations.  Those are just tiny examples of the way we Americans love ourselves.  Can you image what would happen if we did a fraction of that for other people?

 I am not talking about living in poverty, giving up everything so that you can give to others.(that's another blog :-)  I am talking about doing for others, what you do for yourself.  So next time you go pull out that debit card or (shame on you) credit card, think before you spend.  And ask yourself, Would I do this for someone else? Could I do this for someone else?  Have I done this for someone else?  And if the answer is NO....then why not? 

We are failing. We are teaching our children that love is conditional.  That love is based on what people can give us and how they make us feel.  What we must learn and teach is that Love can not be based on what someone can give us, but instead what we can give them, through Christ. We the Church must learn and teach that rules, coventants, creeds, and systems do not out rank love.  Jesus ate with sinners, talked with sinners, walked with sinners, and died for sinners. Why?  Because He loves us, the sinner. He didn't follow the rules He only followed His mission.

Love is a topic that is so HUGE I could go on and on.  I think the biggest black and white issue on LOVE that we are missing is that love is an action. Love at it's truest form can only happen when we love because He first loved us. It can only happen when love is the overflow of a heart filled up with Christ. When we love each other BECAUSE Christ loved us, we can easily overlook peoples sins, people's skin color, people's religion, people's lifestyle choices, people's income, people's tattoos, people's attitude and we can see people for who God created them to be. We can love people and allow God to do the rest. We can love them and see the potential that God has created them for, not the payoff that they can give us.
Love is and action fueled by Christ's love for us. Being Judgmental is a reaction fueled by entitlement and pride. I by know means am saying that we ignore sins.  I am just saying that we love first and then let's see what happens.

The "world" doesn't step into our churches because the "world" doesn't trust that we will love them first. That we will love them without judgement. 

That we will love them like Jesus has loved us.

The world only sees that we have already judged them.  

We have failed!

1 John 4:8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

John 13:34-35 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”


1 Corinthians 13

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 
2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;t but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 
9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!
10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.t All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

~LL

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Black and White issues #1

I am shocked!  I walk around and people are confused.  Good Christian people who do NOT know the truth that the Bible teaches.  This is not going to be one of those judgmental blogs where I point fingers at people who live differently than I do and then say they are wrong for not living and believing the way I do.  This a blog about TRUTH and how we are failing at knowing it, leading in it, and teaching to our children.

There seems to be a growing population of Christian parents who have decided to "let their children figure it out on their own".  These people are parents who have stopped teaching the truth of scriptures to their families and started letting the world teach it.  They seem to sit back and pray and pray some more for their kids all the while their kids are raising Hell (quite literally) all around them.  I am not saying that praying doesn't work.  I am saying that only praying, is laziness. We as humans starve for education we starve for teachings. If we as parents aren't the ones teaching our children, then someone else will. We have to lay a foundation of truth and consequences. We will most definitely reap what we sow. And we must teach them that they will also reap what they sow. We must sow Truth into the lives of our children.Or we and they, will reap the consequences of our failed parenting.

In the next couple of blogs I will write about some of the truths that I feel like we have failed to teach.  These are BLACK AND WHITE issues in the bible that we are sliding over and ignoring.  If it's just my opinion...I'll tell ya.  But if it's black and white....you'll know it.

1. LYING- Exodus 20:15  You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

 Lying is wrong.  A little bitty white lie. WRONG!  Calling in sick.  That's a lie. Getting your kids to answer the phone and say that you aren't home....LIE.  Faking a headache....LIE   Embellishing a story...yep that's a lie too. Going out to eat and saying your 9 year old child is 8 so they can eat off of the children's menu...Lie.  Chubby old Man who comes down the chimney and brings toys..... You get the point.

What we think is if no one gets hurt then it's not hurting anyone.  What we don't realize is that it is crushing the very foundation of our character.  Proverbs 12:22 The Lord detest lying lips but He delights in those who are trustworthy. We are detested if we are liars.  Even if no one sees what we are doing, even if time passes and we don't get caught.... God sees,God knows, and he detests lying lips.

If we parent in such a way that we are tolerating those little lies, the big lies, the seemingly insignificant lies, then we are setting our children up for failure.  We are teaching our children that God tolerates that sort of stuff.  When it is very BLACK AND WHITE that He does not.

I think the most important things that we can know and teach about Lying is that #1 No lie is ok.  (not even the small ones) #2 God forgives and his mercies are new everyday. Lamentations 3:22-23  Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  And when we screw up He will still love us and forgive us.

If we as parents live lives that are above reproach then it will raise the bar for how are families are to live.  We MUST be different than what they see in the world.  We MUST guide them and show them the TRUTH.  We as parents are our children's first example of God.  We teach them how to see God.
We became missionaries the day that we became parents.  Do not fail them! Teach them.

~LL