Gang members show more love than Christians

I’m out.

Simple words from a man. This man was mentioning how he recently became a Christian, giving up life in a gang to follow Jesus. He came into the church and said these two words to the pastor indicating he was going back to the gang. The Pastor replied, “Why are you out?” The man replied, because I thought following Jesus was a brotherhood. You have each other’s back, you care for one another and are around each other all the time. The man found the opposite to be true. This was a story from a book I read, I can’t remember which book it was (Maybe “It” by Craig Groeschel) but I believe it was a true story. Part of me wants to debate this. The church in general is better than this, but part of me thinks the opposite.

It was November 5, 2000 when I was baptized. It was a great day. One of the things I remember after getting baptized was a lady. This lady almost came running up to me saying loudly “Welcome to the family!” She gave me a big hug, I was thrown off by this. For the past two years I attended this church off and on, I never got more then a dirty look from this lady. I would be standing next to my friend Jason and she would talk lovingly to Jason and how great he was, than she wouldn’t even acknowledge I was there. One time in particular, she talked to Jason (While I was standing next to Jason), praised him for reciting scripture in Sunday School than looked up and down at me, giving me a dirty look and walking away. I was not a Christian at the time and I told Jason, “Dude, did you see the look she gave me, what’s her problem?” Those weren’t the exact words I said, but you get the point. He replied, “Don’t worry about that, she is like that to people she doesn’t know.” Until I became a Christian, I had not one positive interaction from this lady. This was part of the reason I didn’t get baptized earlier. I thought all Christians were hypocrites, they talked about love but didn’t show it. We need to change this.

Paul shares some words that applied to the Thessalonians and they can apply to us today regarding love. 1 Thessalonians 3:12…

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”

Paul showed amazing love for people. Even from jail he wrote encouraging letters to people. He shared how hearing of their love for one another lifted his spirits. May your love increase and overflow not just for people in the Church but people outside the Church. I love the overflow line, that is how much we are supposed to love. Our love can be so much, it can overflow just like fizz from filling up a fountain drink, it can overflow.

We have the opportunity to show our faith by our love. Christians have a history for fighting and having bitterness in church over small trivial things: color of the carpets, getting rid of hymn books and showing words on a screen, calling a gym a gym instead of family life center etc. We as Christians need to still show love to each other even when there are disagreements. Our love is supposed to overflow from those inside the church to those outside the church.

For those who are Christians, who have you been bitter towards inside the church and why? As a Christian, who do you need to do a better job inside the church of showing love? Now in general, who can you show a love that is overflowing from you today?

We have the opportunity to show the world our love, how can you show your love today?

Have a great day.

Ankle-ligament=problem

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Take out a 10 year old or take out the ankle? I was playing basketball at the Y years ago. We started a pickup game and it was mostly adults, but some kids came along we allowed to play. During the middle of the game, someone stole the ball on our team and was running down the court. I was trying to catch up running fast (Well pretty fast for me). Then one of the 10 year old boys ran cross court in front of me. I had two choices, plow this kid over or try to stop on a dime. I tried stopping. I missed the kid, but my ankle made a loud weird crackle that you hear from crumbling up newspaper or wrapping paper. I severely sprained my ankle that day.

It took over two months for my foot to heal. It’s amazing how the human body is wrapped together. You need multiple different parts in different sections to wrap together in order to properly work together. It’s the same with the church.

Colossians 2:2…

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and untied in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ.”

Paul was talking about people in a place called Laodicea that I believe we can apply today. Encouraged in heart, when was the last time you felt encouraged? When was the last time you encouraged someone else? Paul called for the people to be encouraged and united in love.

The word united is a Greek word meaning to bring together. This word also means to be a unit, unite or to combine. In Ephesians 4:16 it talks about this in regards to the body, united by bringing every ligament together. In this scripture it talks about being united in love.

I haven’t felt united in love for a while. Since being forced out of my previous church, I have had some bitterness towards some people since leaving it two years ago, that bitterness was still around. This weekend I went on spiritual journey called the Emmaus Walk. I highly recommend going on this walk. It brought to my attention the fact I was trying to walk in faith like I was walking on a sprained ankle and thinking I was fine. I wasn’t united in love and that was my fault.

It doesn’t mean that the situation is resolved. It does mean, I have forgiven those people and no longer have bitterness against the people that hurt me. What they do with that is between them and God, it’s out of my control. I am not going to be bitter about it anymore regardless.

An ankle can’t work correctly without ligaments tying it together and the church can’t function correctly with that love.

Who do you need to show love and forgiveness too? Who do you need to try and unite with today?

Have a great day.

So much pain in love

It can be hard to show love to one another. When Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself, it sounds simple. Yet we like to throw our minds in the mix and that makes hate more prevalent sometimes. I have been blessed to have some amazing neighbors and try to take care of them as they also take care of me. Not all my neighbors make loving an easy feat.

It’s easy to love neighbors when they say and do the right things, but what about when they don’t? A little while ago we had cable issues, our wifi kept disconnecting and soon we knew two hours of our life would be calling customer service. After four hours and three calls a technician came to our house. He checked inside our home system and then when outside to our box. He came back and said that our neighbor opened up the box and split our cable wire. Our neighbor was stealing cable from us for a couple of months. It’s easy to love neighbors that do what we think neighbors should do, it’s hard to love when they do the opposite.

Ephesians 4:31-5:2

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God’s example, therefore as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

I will admit, I didn’t think highly of my neighbor after this happened. Yet this isn’t the love God was talking about. It’s easy to love the people we love, it’s hard to love everyone because we hold bitterness, rage and anger in us. Outburst of anger and settled feeling of anger have crept in my heart at times. If there were a couple of people I ran into in my daily life, love is not what I would want to say to them. I would want to say a couple other choice words. Yet, Jesus teaches us not to do this, why?

Jesus died for us. With how imperfect I am, Jesus still thought I was worth dying for. All the good and all the bad I have ever done in my life, Jesus still thought I was worth dying for. This is why we are called to let go of the hate because even while we were and still are sinners, Jesus didn’t give up on us and laid his life down for us.

Jesus loves us. This is why I need to still show love to my neighbor and those who I feel have wronged me because of the love of Jesus. Love is not easy, sometimes it can be a hard challenge when we let it. It’s time to let go of some hate and do a better job of showing genuine love to one another.

Have a great day.

Why is it hard to love Christians?

Today I have been reflecting on a couple of verses, Ephesians 1:15-16. “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people. I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

I find it very easy for Christians to love God. This is the purpose of Sunday morning church, to praise and honor the one true God. God gave us Jesus to sacrifice for our sins. This is powerful. I am humbled every Sunday that God would do this for a sinner like myself. This is why I have faith, but the second half of this first sentence is extremely tough. We as Christians can truly struggle with love all God’s people.

Let me take you back a little while…I grew up Catholic, I have always loved Jesus and God, but not the church. By middle school I was weary of Church. A large group of people lived one way Sunday morning and another way the rest of the week. I was fed up with the church. Eventually I started attending Youth for Christ (Campus Life) and my friend Jason got me to go to church with him.  I started attending church infrequently.

I would go into church extremely timid. I didn’t know anyone other then Jason and his family. I would attend high school Sunday School, but everyone in the class for the most part looked like they didn’t want to be there. Nobody went out of his or her way to talk to me and people just knew me as Jason’s friend.

One time in particular a lady stopped Jason in the hallway and praised him for his Bible knowledge and answering questions in Sunday School. It was a three minute conversation, but at the end of it she looked up and down at me and walked away. I felt like dirt. This lady didn’t know me but shot daggers at me and treated me like I was scum. It took a while for me to move past this. Eventually I started attending church more frequently. Yet I felt like an outcast and felt out of place every Sunday. Eventually I moved passed that and got baptized one Sunday.  When I came down the stairs a group of people were there to congratulate me. One of the first people was this same lady who didn’t care for me and she said, “Welcome to the family!” It was the first time she said something nice to me in over two years of attending church. Christians then wonder why people don’t like them?

Christians can be some of the most hateful people. Westboro Baptist doesn’t help, but we all can tell story of Christians that act like awful people. I have had my moments where I haven’t acted Christian. Most ministers leave a church because of less then 10 people in their congregation. A minister could be liked by everyone in a 300 person congregation but still feel useless because of less then five people. I once met a person that tried singlehanded to run three ministers out of a church because he disagreed with them. I have been apart of three hour reviews where not one thing positive was said and left the meeting questioning my calling and if I am even meant to be a minister.

Ask any waitress which day they hate work and the majority they will tell you Sunday lunch because church people are lousy tippers and demand the most attention. I once had a conversation with a Christian who told me they wished a vulnerable looking guy would go to a downtown city protecting his second amendment rights. When one of the black thugs tried to mug him, he would use his second amendment rights and shoot him.  This way it would save taxpayers $40,000 a year.

We Christians are flawed people, but there is something we can do about this hate, change. We don’t have to be known as hateful people. We can choose to be loving and it starts within the church buildings. Love God and love his people, it’s so easy and we mess it up. We need to be encouragers of other believers. Whether we like them or not we are called to put or bitterness aside and show love. Paul praised the Ephesians for this. When we get in a praise mood rather then a bitter mood, it changes us. Stress and blood pressure can go down and love can flow again. If we truly want to be a representative of Christ in the world it starts with how we treat each other in a church building. Who will you encourage today? Who have you been bitter with and what will you do to change?

Have a great day.

FU

Forgive you.

I have seen this video several times, I love it and have shared this video. Christians are supposed to be known for forgiveness and grace. Sometimes we are the furthest things from it. We want people to forgive us for the wrong we have done but don’t give the same gratitude. Honestly, we screwed this up.

Paul shares a story about this in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11. In this story it talks about a guy and how he shamed all these people. These people sent him away and he was an outcast. We aren’t sure what exactly this guy did but he was sent away. Paul is telling the church it’s time to give him a second chance.

2 Corinthians 2:7-8…”Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”

People deserve another chance. This isn’t a free opportunity to do something stupid and expect forgiveness, but when someone is in the wrong. They admit it and apologize, we can forgive them. When we as a Christian or as a Church don’t have a forgiving heart we are told in what happens in verses 10-11… “Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven – if there was anything to forgive – I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”

I have seen where people have forgotten how to forgive. They grow more cold through the years. Their hearts and attitudes become calloused. When we forgive and accept someone back after forgiving there is a weight lifted off our back. We don’t have to carry that hatred and bitterness that can overcome us. Satan loves that aspect when good people become full of hate and resentful. Sometimes people live years of their lives like this. Imagine if we changed as people, we allowed those burdens to go away. Life can change and sometimes it’s up to us to relieve our selves of those burdens.

If your still feeling bitterness, remember FU.

Have a great day.

Falling off a bunk bed, how bad could it hurt?

Falling off the bunk bed = not fun.

Recently we have been  blessed to have two bunk beds given to us.

I know each of our kids have their own bed but I am an advocate of bunk beds.

My brother Zach and I had bunk beds since we were about five.

One of the negative aspects of bunk beds, when you fall off of them.

I remember this happening two or three times.

I remember waking up and flipping over to land on my back, it didn’t hurt and I just went back in bed and went to sleep.

It’s different being a parent of kids with bunk beds.

You worry about them falling off.

Both Connor and Nevaeh have bunk beds, but that isn’t what we worry about, it’s Ty.

Ty is a dare devil and isn’t really afraid of much.

He saw Nevaeh swim without a floating device so he wanted to do the same and tried.

He isn’t afraid of bunk beds, would climb up the ladder and be jump on the top bed.

This kid would be warned, but we knew it was only a matter of time.

A couple of weeks ago Ty fell off the bunk bed.

He was crying and sad.

I looked him over and he looked fine, I got him our kids ice pack and held him. 

A minute later he is out playing again.

It’s a miracle!

Just kidding.

It is funny how that kid could face a tough experience and be fine a minute later.

We are unfortunately filled with cases that aren’t this simple.

I know several people that have cancer and other problems that hurt.

I try every week to spend time and go over our prayer list in our Church and it’s full of hurt people.

It makes you sad that sometimes you can pray for that person but you can’t do more.

In biblical times this was even worse.

They didn’t have the doctors or health system we are blessed with today.

On top of it, a lot of people looked at it, if you were sick or in pain, you did something to tick God off and nobody would spent time with you.

In Acts chapter 3 was one of those times.

A man who was crippled from birth was picked up and dropped off in front of the temple gate called beautiful.

He would spend time begging from people.

Peter and John walked by this man.

They started to talk to him.

He thought they were going to give him money instead they said and you see the response in the next verse Acts 3:6-8…

“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.  He jumped to his feet and began to walk.”

People who knew this man would walk by and say, how is this man walking?

He praised God.

God performed many miracles in that day.

Jesus healed many people in his ministry, but there was so much more to Jesus then just healing people.

He taught them and he forgave them.

In a class I took my first year at Bible college the professor posed the question:

“Which was easier for Jesus, healing or forgiving?”

The answer…

Healing, forgiving people put him on the cross.

While Peter and John were able to heal the people in the name of Jesus, we don’t see this happen much today.

At least in our minds.

I have seen some amazing people that were given no chance to live and overcome all odds and get better.

I mostly see a different type of miracle.

A miracle in someone’s mind.

I have seen and experienced what Jesus has done for me and many other people.

I have seen when people have had a bitter heart towards someone else for years all of a sudden become close again.

People were abused, raped, hurt in almost every way you could imagine and were able to forgive those people and not that that traumatic event control them.

Jesus does miracles every day and sometimes because it’s not a miraculous healing in our mind it’s not that huge.

Jesus forgives people for the greatest mistakes they could make and those people can be knew again.

Hearing Ty fall of the bunk bed is scary, and we are glad he is alright.

That was something small.

God can help us work on the areas we fall short in.

Forgiveness and moving on in life.

Did Jesus die on the cross for your sins so you could have hatred and mean spirited feeling towards other people?

Or did he die on the cross to forgive you of your sins and allow you to forgive other people and show them grace?

Jesus can heal your hearts and allow you to move past those hurts that are slowing him down, but first you have to make the decision to believe in him and believe he died on the cross for all of your mistakes, shortcomings and sins.

Are you ready to move on from that bitterness?

Jesus can make that happen.

Pray to him and see what can happen.

Have a great day.