I know ISIS is
made up of bad guys, men who turn their anger into an unholy quest to rule the
world with their religion no matter the cost of human lives.
I know that not everybody likes Obama. Or Bush. Or Harper. Or Trudeau.
I know that.
But I am tired of seeing my people, Christians, writing off anybody who disagrees with them, religiously, politically or in any other way. There seems to be a mammoth lack of understanding of the love of Christ for ALL people.
I am reading through the Book of Acts.
I know that not everybody likes Obama. Or Bush. Or Harper. Or Trudeau.
I know that.
But I am tired of seeing my people, Christians, writing off anybody who disagrees with them, religiously, politically or in any other way. There seems to be a mammoth lack of understanding of the love of Christ for ALL people.
I am reading through the Book of Acts.
LOVE it.
I was in Acts 10 today. Good stuff. This was God's lesson to me today.
God calls to Peter, a devout Jew, in a vision. God wants Peter to go visit a Roman named Cornelius. The Jews hated the Romans.
So, God says to Pete:
"What God has cleansed and pronounced clean, do not you defile and profane by regarding and calling common and unhallowed or unclean."
In other words, don't classify certain people as unworthy of God's love.
Paul wrote this in Romans 2. You think "Those people" are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.
(Romans 2:1-2 MSG)
Paul, who wrote those words, used to be Saul, an ISIS type dude who authorized the arrest and killing of Christians. God heard his people's prayer and knocked Paul off his religious high horse and turned him into Paul, the greatest Church planter in history and the dude who ended up writing over half the New Testament.
So, one Christian to Another....I say enough of Christians thinking they are better than certain people. We the church are today's Pharisees who write anyone off whom Jesus may be calling to follow Him. As Bill Hybels put it, "Don't do it. Don't make mental lists of people who matter to God and people who don't matter to God." Alan Hirsch has rightly said that if we are not careful Christians today can be the Pharisees. So we need to watch what kind of Pharisaical hate propaganda you write on your Facebook page or Blog or tweets or your talk in the local coffee shop that says to those within earshot that you think there are some people who are beyond the pale and beyond the reach of the love of Jesus.
I was in Acts 10 today. Good stuff. This was God's lesson to me today.
God calls to Peter, a devout Jew, in a vision. God wants Peter to go visit a Roman named Cornelius. The Jews hated the Romans.
So, God says to Pete:
"What God has cleansed and pronounced clean, do not you defile and profane by regarding and calling common and unhallowed or unclean."
In other words, don't classify certain people as unworthy of God's love.
Paul wrote this in Romans 2. You think "Those people" are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.
(Romans 2:1-2 MSG)
Paul, who wrote those words, used to be Saul, an ISIS type dude who authorized the arrest and killing of Christians. God heard his people's prayer and knocked Paul off his religious high horse and turned him into Paul, the greatest Church planter in history and the dude who ended up writing over half the New Testament.
So, one Christian to Another....I say enough of Christians thinking they are better than certain people. We the church are today's Pharisees who write anyone off whom Jesus may be calling to follow Him. As Bill Hybels put it, "Don't do it. Don't make mental lists of people who matter to God and people who don't matter to God." Alan Hirsch has rightly said that if we are not careful Christians today can be the Pharisees. So we need to watch what kind of Pharisaical hate propaganda you write on your Facebook page or Blog or tweets or your talk in the local coffee shop that says to those within earshot that you think there are some people who are beyond the pale and beyond the reach of the love of Jesus.
'Nuff said.
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