Show God's Love

The world needs to see the truth of who God really is and why He sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to die for us.  If we are not showing the love that God did in sending Jesus and that which Jesus showed to the masses during his ministry, then we are doing it wrong.  People will see it immediately even if they never heard of Jesus before in their lives.  Our choice of actions will always speak louder than anything else and show the truth of who we really are.

Sure there is plenty of sin and lifestyles out there that do not fall in line with God's will for the world, but we are not to make them feel condemned for it.  All of us are sinners and no sin is greater or smaller than another.  Sin is sin.  However, what we Christians need to remember is how we were adopted into God's family by accepting Jesus as we were at the time.  Romans 8:1-2 states, "Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." (NIV)  If He does not condemn us upon accepting Him, how are others going to even learn this truth if you first condemn them for their sins?

Sure God is going to judge sin for everyone in the end, but we are not to be judge and jury here on earth.  Most people are not going to see you as a loving person if you go for the sin first.  Each of us must reconcile ourselves to God through Jesus by our own choice.  Then if we pursue the relationship with Jesus the truth about sin will be revealed to us.  Each of us will understand this and grow in it at different rates.  So we should not even be condemning other Christians just because they have not learned to see things the way we have learned to through Christ.

I find it sad that churches actually send people out to disrupt funerals of service people just because of some disagreement with the war the US got into that caused the death.  Would you want someone yelling about things they don't like outside the funeral of one of your family members?  I know I would want to slap a few people upside the head if I saw them doing it.  That reaction I would like to do is not the one I would do because slapping them would just make it worse and definitely does not show love.  But this is what I thought when I read about this happening to a friend of mine last fall.  A really close friend of his died fighting in Afghanistan and a local church came out spewing hate against what the war stood for during the funeral.  No wonder my friend still does not like and trust Christians.

The people that made me know they were real Christians were the ones who treated me like a friend even when I did not believe and even admitted to dabbling in occult and magic.  It felt more like them getting to know me first.  My talking of my beliefs opened up the path for them to tell me about theirs.  These few friends were the ones I sought out immediately upon returning home after the weekend at mom's where I did accept Christ.  I knew this was a real thing and I knew I needed real Christians around me to help me understand it.  Sure I knew at least forty other so called Christians, but it was these few ladies that I met before accepting Christ that made me want to have what they had.  I had to get plugged into their church.  I still remember how happy they were when, after knowing me a little over two years, that I told them I accepted Christ and needed to go to their church.

I thank God every day for the true Christians He put in my life.  God knows what He is doing and where He will get us to see His truth and love.  The day the truth lit up my world will always blow away anything I thought was the truth before that.  This past weekend marks my eleventh anniversary as a Christian.  It all started out with Christians who bothered to show me love rather than lambasting me for being mixed up in the occult and other empty beliefs that I knew deep down did not cut it.

God's love is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails." (NIV)

So are you showing the love of God or striking out with condemnation?  Let us think before we act to be sure what we are showing the world coincides with God's Word.