Tag: love

Posted in Church Unity

When I Grow Up I want to be a Sonflower

Written by talk2shari Published Discussion Leave a Comment on When I Grow Up I want to be a Sonflower

Ephesians 4:11-15 ~ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

This morning when I was creeping on somebody’s Facebook page that I didn’t even know (a friend of a friend) I found the sunflower picture. My immediate thought was, “Wow, that’s love.” My second thought was a question. “Why isn’t the church in love like that?”

The reason I creep is godly (most of the time). I like to see what’s going on in the lives of other Christians and their images generally tell a story a bout what’s important to them. I run across lots of family pictures and plenty of comedy! I occasionally run across some off color image that shouldn’t oughta be there on a Christian’s page (just sayin’) But mostly I run across pictures of people they love. So it has me thinking today, if God took a snapshot of the American Church today what would it look like? The body of believers is so fractured into denominations and then sects within the denomination, then clicks within the sects and Jiminy Cricket, God Himself probably doesn’t have enough film to take as many pictures as necessary because we can’t be included in that group because they don’t believe like us.

In the beginning of the New Testament Church it had already begun; the need for Paul to reign them in. Paul was trying to put the unity back in their communities. He wanted them to know Christ’s ideas (knowledge of the Son of God); he wanted them to un-know man’s ideas (be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men). He wanted them to grow up into a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

Perfection doesn’t mean without sin, not until we come to Heaven will we know perfection. But we are made perfect through Christ in the unity of our faith in Him. Contrary to popular belief, when God pulls out His wallet of baby pictures, certain denominations are not on top, but there are some baby pictures. Crying, whimpering, selfish believers that don’t play well with others. Always tattling on the other believers to non-believers, telling them why they shouldn’t join so and so’s church rather than letting them see Jesus and deciding on their own. Paul tells them to grow up. Know what you believe and live it, stop creeping in other peoples churches, it’s messing up your own doctrine. I guess it was the Facebook of the day.

God has given us (in our church) where like believers are, our own preachers and teachers of the gospel for the work of the ministry. It’s time to get to work. That’s what people do when they grow up. They work. And we need to be edifying the body of Christ (that’s each other). I know it’s just an image, but when I look at the sunflowers faces I see the love of the artist that created it. It’s with that love that God created us to love one another. (But speaking the truth in love, may grow up). When I grow up I want to be a Sonflower and love people just like that.

Posted in Uncategorized

Do you love like that?

Written by talk2shari Published Discussion Leave a Comment on Do you love like that?

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…

Posted in Uncategorized

Things that Restore a Relationship

Written by talk2shari Published Discussion Leave a Comment on Things that Restore a Relationship

#thingsthatdestroysarelationship

Trending today on twitter ~ things that destroy a relationship

I find it somewhat odd that most everyone wants a great relationship with those they love but the media caters to anything but. Television, social media, print media and most all other forms of media have a fascination with promoting the worst of the worst. It’s a most definite trend for people young and old to make their heartaches known to the world on social media and then in the next post tell the world to mind their own business. What irony! And the end result of all that ranting is more heartache and a destroyed relationship, the very thing they didn’t want.

So… how do we not destroy our relationships?

1 Corinthians 13:13

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity.

The greatest of the three is love, but love alone is not enough to keep from destroying a relationship else many couples would still be together; all three are crucial.

Faith

While a foundation in the faith of Christ Jesus is key to any good relationship, I have unfortunately witnessed many Christians with lousy relationships, in many of these cases I’ve seen that a relationship moving too fast destroys the entire relationship. Somewhere between “I do” and “I’m done” they lost faith in one another. I don’t throw stones; I may have the 33 year wedding anniversary tee shirt but it’s got some holes in it. But as I grow closer in my relationship with Christ, what I discover is my relationship with David grows closer too! We haven’t always been perfect, or anywhere close, but there are some things that have kept us together, and faith in each other is one of them.

Mariam Webster’s definition of faith is:

1)     Allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty. A fidelity to one’s promises,  sincerity of intentions

2)     Belief and trust in and loyalty to God: belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion; firm belief in something for which there is no proof, complete trust.

3)     Something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs

Can you see why it’s so important? Allegiance, fidelity and a sincerity of intentions… that’s what we all want! But we’re human, we let each other down, break our promises and sometimes our sincerity is about as real as a signature at the bottom of a letter to “To Whom it may concern.” I speak truth, do I not? But when faith in God comes into the picture we learn to trust Him to help us trust each other and it’s that “strong conviction” that will keep a relationship together in the toughest of times.

Hope

1)     To cherish a desire with anticipation; to desire with expectation of obtainment

2)     To expect with confidence: trust.

3)     To hope without any basis for expecting fulfillment

Sometimes that’s all we have. Faith appears to be gone, the “I love you’s” are no longer spoken, but we hope (a cherished desire) that a certain relationship will be mended. It would be a sad world without it. With it we can dream and imagine of that day when our relationship with that person is restored and whole again and with faith God can align all the circumstances for that very thing to happen. I have that “tee shirt” too.

Charity (love)

The greatest of these. And why is it the greatest? Because it is the foundation of both faith and hope.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have the ultimate relationship with both Him and those we love. He gave His Son for an example that we might understand loving people takes sacrifice.

How do we not destroy a relationship? We continually take an honest look at ourselves first and in so doing we’ll see that we’re messed up too. If Christ can give His life on the cross for us, surely it’s not too much to ask for a little compassion and understanding from us toward our family and friends.

#ThingsThatRestoreARelationship