Splinters from logs

Love doesn't judge; love doesn't condemn; love forgives and love gives.

I find myself evaluating my lifestyle today because I don't want to be a hypocrite. I am seeing alot of facebook replies that are talking about "this person said this or that" or "I hate you because you did 'xyz'"
I realized that I have made this mistake before. I rarely use the word "hate" but I might as well use it when people "tick" me off. But I was reminded this morning about how Jesus looked at this issue. Reading from Luke 6:37-42 I was quickly reminded about how I should respond.

The passage talks about using a certain measure. I came to the conclusion that this has two approaches: 1) the measure or standard is something set by me or 2) the measure or standard is set by Christ. Many times, I like to set the standard because I want to "get back" or "say my thoughts" about something someone said or did to me. But, I quickly realized that whatever my measure is, whatever my standard, either my self-righteousness or the standard that Christ shows, will be returned to me. Maybe not today or tomorrow but sometime soon. I think like most of us, we choose the first standard.

It's like this: I am a Christ-follower. I can't lead people, if I am blinded by my own self-righteousness. It's like Jesus said, "a blind man can't lead a blind man." I look at my life as a leader, pastor, husband, etc. and understand that I can't lead any of these areas if I, myself, am blinded by my own self-righteousness. I mean who are we to lead others or give council or show love, if we can't lead ourselves?

That's where the whole log in the eye comes from. How can we as Christ-followers tell others how to live if the splinters from the logs in our eyes are causing others pain and they turn away from Jesus? We can't. I think this is why Jesus was telling this to his disciples. You can't lead others or see others accept my forgiveness if you can't see your wrongs first. It reminds me of Romans 3:10-18 when it says that "no man is righteous; not even one." For many of us, we think that just because of our titles and prestige, we have the authority over others. We have been doing this longer than others. Wrong! We are in the same boat whether we have Christ or not. I am not righteous, far from it. So what would happen if more Christ-followers removed the logs from their eyes and healed the wounds that the splinters have caused in the lives of others?

We must first allow the only person that can fix us, fix us and that person is Jesus. Secondly, we must be forgiven of our wrongs before forgiveness can be received by others. So let's stop the self-righteousness, admit when we are wrong, show love the way that love was shown to us and make the standard of our lives the standard which Christ gave us: "love the Lord with all you heart, soul and mind and love you neighbor as yourself." ok?

A

Today is a new day

Today, I decided to open up the book of Romans and start from the beginning. As I started reading the opening part of the letter, I found myself experiencing a fresh fire to the purpose that God bestowed in me. Going to college and finishing my master's degree was something that I wanted to do ever since I started my undergrad degree. Long before that I knew that God called me to some form of ministry, which come to find out in the early years was student ministry. But even before that, I made a decision to let Christ control my life, my desires, my plans and in return I would have the privilege to spend eternity with Him. While I was reading verse 5: "Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name"I started to think about the way the church views this. How I view this. I feel that many people have forgotten that in our lives, new lives in Christ, that we have been given the privilege and authority to speak the love of Christ anywhere. So why is it so hard to do this? I personally believe it's pride. We are a society that holds dear to things that mean something to us. We hate sharing, we hate opening up to others in fear that people will judge us, we hate the fact that we have to speak to other people. I kept reading on and came across verse 14: "For I have a great sense of obligation to people in our culture and to people in other cultures, to the educated and uneducated alike." Wow....coming from a man who hated Christians to a man who loves Christ now, this was his desire! His whole life's purpose, Christ's purpose for all who call him Lord, is to have a sense of obligation, desire or passion to tell others about Christ so that they can have an opportunity to believe and obey the Risen King. What if this was our attitude every morning? I am obligated because Christ has given me the power and strength (privilege) and authority to tell of His great love! IF this could be our attitude then we could easily say this: verse 16: "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ." 

Just something to think about as we get closer to Passion Week. Will you do whatever it takes?

A

What Matter More To You....

So recently I purchased Derek Webb's cd and there is a song that has been deemed by critics to be controversial. Now I find this very funny because, i-Tunes didn't sell this song with the cd because one song had two "cuss" words in the song. I find this funny cause i-Tunes has countless songs that have way more profanity in them. But anywho, the song that is causing so much controversy is "What matters more to you." Now, please let me say this first if you have heard the song and disagree with the language. Before you go all hypocritical on the song, have you ever stubbed your toe and something come out that wasn't nice? Ok, let's move on. But you might say, well he said those words on purpose and that warrants a different argument. Ok, can someone please tell me when saying particular words were deemed wrong? When did cussing become such a heated argument? I guess it was from the sailors back in the day, who knows, but I can't help to agree with the attitude in which the song was written. While Jesus didn't cuss around the disciples, I think this song is a wake-up for all of us Christ-followers who have become lazy and calloused in our way of living out the Gospel. To answer the question, what matters more to me? If I were truly honest, I don't think that I am doing enough to let people know the love of God. It is so easy to give money, it is so easy to say the right words, it is easy to portray a life on the outside that doesn't match up with the private life, but does it really matter to me to make a change or just go with the status quo? But is this really making a difference? Am I really breaking free of the comfort zone that I am enclosed in? I know this may sound like a bunch of rambling but do we even care? If you want to view the video go to www.youtube.com and search Derek Webb and it will be the first song that comes up. I have already warned you about the words but are we looking for the words or do we actually listen to the meaning of the song? So you are warned, but you may hear the song and feel the same way I do.

Aaron