(I'll intend to update this blog AT LEAST once a week. Sorry to get off to a slow start, but we're getting there!)
I know a guy who says he's a Christian and zealously tries to convince other people that Jesus is real, who can be just about the most obnoxious person you ever saw. He'll leave a couple of quarters for his tip at a restaurant and stick a little tract on the table that looks like a hundred dollar bill. The server will come by and think there's a big tip there--only to see that on the other side it's religious propaganda about Jesus. Nice.
I know another guy who says he's a Christian but who in public will use his wife as the brunt of joke after joke. Uh...just like Jesus did? Can you imagine? "Hey Mary! -- Matthew's so fat that..."
Right mental assents about Jesus do not always lead to right actions in relationships, do they? It's the same in other areas of life too. As a minister, I visit hospitals rather regularly. When I started out doing hospital visitation I was ASTOUNDED at the number of nurses who smoked! It's like, if they aren't willing to take care of their own bodies how do I know they're going to be willing to take good care of MINE???
It seems like it is like that in the church sometimes. We show people outside of the church how we'll likely treat THEM by the way in which we treat OURSELVES inside the church.
I know a lady who calls herself a Christian who went through a bitter divorce from her husband, (and he had an affair on her), who forgave him so thoroughly that she harbors no bitterness and has become a tender helper in numerous people's lives. She went on to show such grace to her husband's mistress that later on the mistress became a minster! That's orthopraxodoxology...right action meeting right belief and transcending the normal abilities of humanity. "Um, Great Server? I'd like to try what she's having, please."
If you go to a church, what's the most radical expression of love someone expressed to you?
Local kids plead for school
2 weeks ago
1 comments:
A few years ago I was in an immoral sexual relationship in secret. Finally, I could not stand the conviction from the Lord any more and told my friend and mentor from church, expecting him to be angry and to tell me I had to break up with this girl. Instead, he told me that he was sorry I had been fighting with this sin alone for so long and he was happy that I was responding to God's speaking in my life. This was the first time I really EXPERIENCED grace in my life in a visceral way. The love of God was poured into my heart that day.
now, sacrificial love in a different way:
I used to live with several roommates who all went to my church. One of them was very emotionally unstable and would blow up at people who disagreed or challenged him. It got to be so bad that he attacked another roommate - his closest friend who had been mentoring him. Two of us had to pull him off. That roommate and close friend kept being willing to challenge the serious problems in this guy's life despite the very real fear that he would be injured by angering this man.
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