Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Christian. I am overwhelmed at God's amazing love and grace. I see God in the life of Jesus and try to live my life by the example of how Jesus lived. When I see people behave in hateful, selfish, and judgmental ways in the name of Christ I become sad and angry. Some folks who call themselves Christian seem to have missed the meaning of “God is Love.” Jesus says to be merciful and to seek peace. He commands us to love both our neighbors and our enemies. He tells us not to judge others while ignoring the sins in our own lives. When a woman caught in adultery is brought to him, Jesus treats her with gentleness and rebukes the self-righteous trouble-makers who brought her to him. Jesus befriended sinners and told them about God's love and mercy. Jesus became angry with church leaders who were so interested in making people obey a list of rules that they forgot love, mercy and gentleness. They forgot that God's name is Love.
Recently I have seen people yell ugly epitaphs at others. In the name of Christ they yell through bull horns and make hate filled signs. They throw rocks and even kill other people because they do not agree with them . These folks have judged people by their own narrow, closed-mined interpretation of scripture and found others guilty. They seem to think that ,“Judge not,” does not apply to them. I suppose I too am being judgmental here of those who have a list of “bad” sins that they deem to be worse than their own. It just makes me so sad. When I say I am a Christian I want to explain that these hate filled folks do not represent me. They do not represent the God of love that I see in Jesus.
The way I understand it, Christianity is not so much about keeping a set of rules as it is relying on the amazing grace of God. Christianity is loving God with all my heart and soul, and loving my neighbor as myself.
La Liga là gì? Lịch sử hình thành giải đấu
11 months ago
12 comments:
Amen, amen and again I say to you, Amen!
I couldn't agree with you more...so many so called "Christians" are really not followers of Christ.
A fine rant indeed!
I'll never understand those that scour the Bible in search of passages they can interpret to fit their own prejudices.
These people ruin it for the rest of us. Do they think Jesus would scrawl hatred on a piece of posterboard?
AM.. Of course he wouldn't use posterboard... he'd draw it in the sand! :-)
Our chaplain just preached a few weeks ago about the 10 commandments. He said that Christians misunderstand "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." To sum up, he said we think it's means not swearing or cursing or saying OMG. (Which, he was NOT advocating we do) But instead he said it means that you are wearing Christ's name by calling your self a follower of Him... Christian. Your words, actions, and deeds you are basically saying "I am living how Christ would." Kind of a walking advertisement for Jesus.
Most of the time, we do a terrible job advertising, don't we?
This makes me sad that someone made you sad. But I guess as they say in the Tao Te Ching: What is a good man but a bad man's teacher? What is a bad man but a good man's job?
I'm with sling....and i feel better too just reading your post.
There is a better way, that's for sure. There's such a thing as righteous indignation, but we can't forget the righteous part.
Gee - and I thought it was just me who found these "Christians" to be total hypocrites.
I understand DH saw you today - doing good deeds as usual. (Where I come from we call them "mitzvot.")
You are an outstanding example of a Christian and a human being.
I agree with you 100%. I've often suspected that the Christians who behave that way are really just looking for something that makes them feel better than everyone else. Filling some void they have from somewhere. So opposite of the whole message of Christianity which I believe is inclusion and acceptance and love.
Hear! Hear! Amen.
You have to act Christian to be able to call yourself that - if what is meant by Christian to be Christ like - too many have no understanding.
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