Back again. I have a feeling this may cause some issues with some of you that I love, but I feel God is leading me to this. I am not doing this on my own. I have the love and support of my heavenly Father, and that is all I need. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31b.
That past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of craziness on my Facebook feed. I have not been offended by some of the things that I have seen, but rather disappointed and confused. With the attacks against Paris last week, I saw a side of people that was very disconcerting. I said in my last post that a small group of Christians doing and saying things that go against the principles of the Bible make the entire Christian faith look bad. Before I go any further, I want to clarify that I am not judging anyone, I am simply stating facts from what I see.
A very close friend of mine is an atheist. I love her, and we get along great. Do we have a difference of opinion? At times, yes, but who doesn’t? She is an amazing person, a wonderful wife and mother, and a great friend. Atheists are treated poorly by some Christians because they don’t believe in God. Why? She is a person like you and me. She has family and friends that she loves and would do anything for. I am not going to push my faith on her. I don’t believe in bullying someone to believe. She knows where i stand as I know where she stands. We have a mutual respect for each other and our individual beliefs.
Another amazing friend of mine is gay. I love him like I love any other person in my life. I can talk to him about anything. If he needs to talk (our “venting sessions” are epic) he knows where to go. Yet another person just like me–except for the whole being a guy thing.
How about this one? I have a friend who is a devout Muslim. Guess what? He is not a terrorist. Not all Muslims are. I have seen and heard people that claim to be Christians spewing hatred against all Muslims. They are people too. They have feelings like you and I do. The few extremists give the world a poor opinion of all Muslims. Guess what else? The way people are looking at all Muslims because of these few is how people look at all Christians because of a few that are hypocritical and trying to start problems.
Matthew 22:39b “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Jesus wants us to love everyone.
John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” Jesus loves us unconditionally. He wants us to love others the same way.
I Corinthians 10:21 “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of the devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of the devils.” Saying that you are a Christian, but yet not practicing what you preach, is wrong. It is serving God and not man or serving man and not God. You can’t have it both ways.
God does not discriminate. Neither should we. That is not what he wants from us. What is classified as discrimination? Discriminating, according to the dictionary, is making an UNJUST or PREJUDICIAL distinction in the treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, sex, or age. I would tend to add religion to that also.
We all need to take a look at ourselves and work on us rather than focusing on what we THINK is wrong with others. It is not our place to judge. It never has been, and it never will be.
Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
Insightful Ramblings 