Sunday, December 22, 2013

My heart... take it or leave it

I have no intention to make people upset so if this offends you I am sorry.  I am also thankful that I live in a country where (at least for now) I can express my beliefs.  I understand that not everyone will agree with me and that is okay.

This whole Duck Dynasty controversy has saddened me.  I am sad because we live in a world where Christians have allowed the nonbelieving world to silence us.  Phil was being interviewed and expressed his beliefs.  I support him that he was true to God's word.  Now please read the rest of this blog in light on this sentence: I believe that God has called us to love others.

Now how that love looks is what makes me disagree with what I have read so far on Facebook and popular blogs.  I believe in the inerrant Word of God and therefore, Matthew 22:37-40 "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.   All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Due to this verse and many others I believe in showing love to others and loving them as Jesus would.  However, there are two equally important measures to this:  Grace and Righteousness.  With only Grace you get chaos, with only Righteousness you get legalism.  All bad.  Which is why God, in His wisdom, provided both under the arch of LOVE.  If you truly love you will provide grace when it is needed and Truth of righteousness when needed.  I have heard it said "If we are not careful we will love them (any nonbeliever) into hell".  I want to say Amen to that.  Because I love, Jesus first and then others, I will speak the Truth in love and call sin a sin.  I pray that when I am falling into sin and another person sees that they will love me enough to tell me Truth.  I have purposely chosen for friends people who I know will do this.  I realize that we can be talking about nonbelievers here but I think the same applies to them.  Why?  Because sin has consequences for all whether you believe in Jesus or don't.  The consequences may be different but there are consequences and I want to love people enough to try to help. What they do with the Truth is up to them.

Please understand that I don't mean this at all irreverent.  I feel as though our culture tries to wussify Jesus.  We are quick to talk about love and the come to church and get a hug mentality but, have forgotten that Isaiah clearly tells us that in the throne room "Holy, holy, holy" is what is called out to God.  God could have chosen any of His attributes called out to Him in His throne room and what did He choose?  His holiness.  I am not down playing God's love but I believe our culture has downplayed His holiness.  Jesus was no wall flower.  He loved and He demanded righteousness.  He caused quite a scene to those who turned His Father's house into a place of business.  He overturned their tables and ran them out with a whip.  He was passionate about the holiness of God.  

Whether it be homosexuality, abortion, or any other hot topic we as Christians need to be loving enough to speak the Truth.  Be careful not to let our culture silence us.  I have struggled with this topic recently.  It is hard to love the sinner, not the sin.  So I think we swing even more towards love because it is so hard to speak the Truth in love.  We think well I will just love him and he will know I am Christian.  At some point we need to tell them about our Jesus.  This is me preaching to myself.  I pray that we, the church, will be loving and stand for Jesus and His Word.  I pray that for myself because I struggle with it.