I John 5:1-2 ~ Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
Making Light of a Dark subject:
Two men are standing on a bridge, one is about to jump off and the other is trying to talk him out of it.
The man asks the jumper, “So are you a Christian or a Hindu or a Jew or what?”
The jumper replies, “A Christian.”
The man says, “Small world, me too! Protestant, or Catholic, or Orthodox?”
The jumper answers, “Protestant.”
The man replies, “Me too! What denomination?”
The jumper says, “Baptist”
The man replies, “Me too! Southern Baptist or Northern Baptist?”
The jumper answers, “Northern Baptist.”
The man replies, “Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
The jumper answers, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”
The man replies, “Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern region?”
The jumper answers,” Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.”
The man replies, “Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region council of 1912?”.
The jumper answers, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region council of 1912.”
The man then pushes the jumper off the bridge and screams, “Die Heretic!”
If you ask a Christian, “Do you love God?” Their answer would most certainly be a jubilant “Of course!”
If you ask them, “Do you love the brethren?” Again I would expect an affirmative reply.
But put two denominations in a room together, throw in a few doctrinal questions and you’ll see the love of both fly out the window. As funny as the afore written joke was it rings too true for my taste and entirely too close home.
I don’t ever want to be a painted saint. One that stands before her peers dolled up with hypocrisy. I’ve shoved my share of the brethren off a bridge. Just yesterday. Praise God they didn’t know it! It was only in my head, but God knew it. I was sitting in our local football stadium watching my grandbabies play ball. I don’t know how hot Hell is going to be, but if it’s any hotter than that stadium I’m glad I don’t own any part of it. It was miserable hot! Maybe that’s why my mind went cranky, or maybe I just got in the flesh, but regardless, before long I noticed that that stadium was full of hypocrites. All kinds of people that I knew for fact weren’t living the way God wanted them to. They didn’t dress right, talk right, or walk right.
Hello? Enter reality check here. When did God give me the assignment of Christian checker?
He said that we’d know we were His if we loved the children of God. Not if we loved the Baptist. While there are certain doctrinal points that I believe and are a foundational part of my faith they belong in the church, not on the playing field. Yesterday I brought them to the literal playing field. Praise God I didn’t voice them. John also said we’d know we were children of God if we kept His commandments. Jesus said there was a new commandment in John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
Today is Sunday. I’m going to the church I love with the people I love. I’m going to sit on the front row, right up next to the altar where I sit every Sunday. Not because I want to be seen, but because I don’t want to see anyone else. I’m too weak to keep my mind on Christ when looking at other people, in the church or out of the church.
I believe that it’s not what’s over the door that will get me to Heaven, but do I love like that? I mean really love? I need to love better…