A friend of mine pointed out some scripture she was reading, it sounded like it had really grabbed a hold of her heart, so I read it over tonight.
The passage was Ephesians 4, Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus and basically telling them what's up.
He starts right off the bat telling us how to act with each other, always be humble, patient and gentle, bind yourselves together with peace, overlook each others faults with love.
That struck a chord right away. I don't know about you, but if you hang around a church or a ministry long enough, you will see relationships ruined by it. If you hang around really long, it can make you question if there is a way to do ministry with people without eventually destroying your relationship with them.
Paul tells us how to do it right here. He basically says to put yourself to the side. Be gentle, humble, patient. Don't get heated with the people you are doing life with. Work with them and their faults, overlook their faults with love, because that is what Christ did with us.
Paul is the man at bringing everything back to Christ.
He tells us its simple, not easy, but simple, if we constantly focus on Christ and try to emulate Him in everything we do, we won't have relationship problems.
The only reason that doesn't work is that pride, anger, jealousy, and frustration get in the way. It is a lot easier to tear someone down and blame them for bringing down your ministry than to listen to what Paul says in the next paragraph and build up leaders.
Paul keeps referring to unity in the body, telling us that we need to speak truth in love, like Christ, and depend on each other, help each other grow, and the body will benefit.
The Bible tells us how to confront people without causing a quarrel. This half of the chapter is a guideline to me for handling how you talk to people, whether it be at work, church, or school.
Paul tells us to first be humble and gentle. Meaning don't come in arrogant and hostile, thinking your idea is the only idea, you have the best solution and everyone should agree with you. You're just going to come across as a jerk. Be humble and gentle, listen to others, take in their point of view.
He next says to overlook each others faults out of love, because that is what Christ did for us. We don't need to point out every little thing that irritates you about a person. There are times when people need to be confronted, but the Bible says to "Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binging yourselves together with peace." Eph. 4:3
That sounds to me like you shouldn't rock the boat unless you really really have to. Strive to keep the peace, and overlooking some faults with love is how we do that.
Finally, it says that we need to work together. We are dependent on each other. No one can do everything perfectly, we need each other to maximize our potential. We have to depend on the other parts of the body.
That takes a lot as well. Sometimes that means you have to step aside, out of the limelight, and let someone who is better than you perform some duty. I know that can be hard. But how are we supposed to work together so well?
Paul says we have to remember that Christ is the head of the church. He is also the head of our lives. If we can look to Him, and remember what he did for us, remember that we are brothers and sisters of Christ, we're all on the same team, it should make it a little easier for us to work together.
This way, in verse 16 it says, "As each part does its own work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love."
Remember love, guys.
If you approach people with humility and love, those tough conversations will go a lot smoother.
Deception
I was on Facebook earlier today and a guy I know posted a link to a couple videos on Youtube. They were of this crazy preacher talking about God's "drunken glory." The guy was on stage, intoxicated, and rambling nonsense about "sexual worship" and throwing in a lot of mystic terms from various religions.
He had a packed house!
What gives me a heavy heart is that next to that video were dozens of links to other crazy "preachers" and nut job "prophets." The list went on and on.
It made me think of how many people were out there following these men, falsely thinking they were seeing God through ridiculous acts and heresy, like a "healer" beat a crippled woman with a baseball bat because "the Holy Spirit said it would heal her."
The Bible speaks a lot about false prophets in books like 1 John and 2 Peter.
It's scary! They loosely tie in parts of scripture to back what they are saying and babble on about nonsense that the people in the pews accepted as fact. I had to watch one guy for over 5 minutes before I was sure he was a phony. I can see how people can believe them!
These people are good at what they do.
The Bible talks about how those who are teachers will be held to a higher standard. I believe this is because many things teachers say will be accepted as fact by the congregation. Just like a lot of the people in those chairs assumed what this man was saying was rooted in scripture or backed up somewhere, when in all reality, it was coming from his warped mind.
It is a scary thing. Everyone out there who follows Christ, or at least has some common sense must guard themselves from these people. The Bible tells us they are out for money, greed, and sexual desires.
People abusing the Word of God and the natural respect people have for it, for their own twisted desires makes me physically sick to my stomach.
It is our responsibility as the body of Christ, especially those called to teach, to follow God's will and work for His glory.
If we're not the ones out there telling people truthfully about Christ, these whack jobs will be there to lead them down a dark path.
My heart breaks for those people, I'm sorry that it takes something being thrown in my face for me to really get fired up about it. This happens everyday and I don't give it a second thought until now. We must constantly remember that there are billions of people out there that are lost, hurting, and broken.
We have the one thing that everyone needs, Jesus Christ. Yet far too often we are more concerned with what we're having for dinner, where we are going to spend our money, or what we're going to wear tomorrow. We put ourselves in a church bubble and hang out with only church people. That is great, the Bible says we need fellowship and that will lead to spiritual growth. But never forget the main reason you are here is to glorify God by spreading His message to those around you.
Jesus came to save the sinners, that's why He hung out with them.
If we don't love on those around us and try to be an example of Christ to them, then those crazy deceivers will lure them in with false hope and false teachings, which will ultimately lead to Hell.
It is our duty to know the truth, and share the truth.
He had a packed house!
What gives me a heavy heart is that next to that video were dozens of links to other crazy "preachers" and nut job "prophets." The list went on and on.
It made me think of how many people were out there following these men, falsely thinking they were seeing God through ridiculous acts and heresy, like a "healer" beat a crippled woman with a baseball bat because "the Holy Spirit said it would heal her."
The Bible speaks a lot about false prophets in books like 1 John and 2 Peter.
It's scary! They loosely tie in parts of scripture to back what they are saying and babble on about nonsense that the people in the pews accepted as fact. I had to watch one guy for over 5 minutes before I was sure he was a phony. I can see how people can believe them!
These people are good at what they do.
The Bible talks about how those who are teachers will be held to a higher standard. I believe this is because many things teachers say will be accepted as fact by the congregation. Just like a lot of the people in those chairs assumed what this man was saying was rooted in scripture or backed up somewhere, when in all reality, it was coming from his warped mind.
It is a scary thing. Everyone out there who follows Christ, or at least has some common sense must guard themselves from these people. The Bible tells us they are out for money, greed, and sexual desires.
People abusing the Word of God and the natural respect people have for it, for their own twisted desires makes me physically sick to my stomach.
It is our responsibility as the body of Christ, especially those called to teach, to follow God's will and work for His glory.
If we're not the ones out there telling people truthfully about Christ, these whack jobs will be there to lead them down a dark path.
My heart breaks for those people, I'm sorry that it takes something being thrown in my face for me to really get fired up about it. This happens everyday and I don't give it a second thought until now. We must constantly remember that there are billions of people out there that are lost, hurting, and broken.
We have the one thing that everyone needs, Jesus Christ. Yet far too often we are more concerned with what we're having for dinner, where we are going to spend our money, or what we're going to wear tomorrow. We put ourselves in a church bubble and hang out with only church people. That is great, the Bible says we need fellowship and that will lead to spiritual growth. But never forget the main reason you are here is to glorify God by spreading His message to those around you.
Jesus came to save the sinners, that's why He hung out with them.
If we don't love on those around us and try to be an example of Christ to them, then those crazy deceivers will lure them in with false hope and false teachings, which will ultimately lead to Hell.
It is our duty to know the truth, and share the truth.
Separation
Today is one of those days where I feel like my prayers are hitting the ceiling. Like I can't get through to God. My mind won't focus, I have to fight distractions and discouragement. There is no major crisis or disaster I am dealing with, something just isn't right.
I think days like this are caused by disobedience. When I finally realize that something is wrong, something is different, hopefully it gets through to me that something needs to be fixed.
Times like this, I'm forced to think back through the last day or two. I have to check my actions, my pride, and my motives. I'm not sure if this is how it works in your life, but this is how it goes in mine.
My disobedience is sin. The ironic thing is God is just giving me what I thought I wanted. When we sin, we are declaring our independence from God. Most times "independence" is seen as a good thing, in this case it is not. We are saying we don't need to depend on God. I got it, I'm good, thanks for the help, I'll take it from here God. It is a dumb move, but when we sin that is what we do. God loves us and wants us to have our best life, we disagree, we think we know what's best, we declare it with sin, and are basically saying we know better than God.
So I think these nights when I feel distant from God are a result of previous sin. God is saying you wanted to be out on your own, here is a little taste. I know He would never let me go, the Bible says He never loses one of His flock.
Sin gets into our hearts, it hardens our hearts from God. In Philippians, Paul says we should have tender hearts like Christ. Sin does the opposite. It hardens our hearts, pulls us from God, makes us more defensive to His message and His call. That is why it is so hard for people far from God to come to Him.
So what do we do? We have to give it all up to Him. Repent, confess, apologize, whatever you want to call it. We have to go back to Christ. Make things right, ask for His boundless grace, and as Paul says, REJOICE when He forgives us!
I think days like this are caused by disobedience. When I finally realize that something is wrong, something is different, hopefully it gets through to me that something needs to be fixed.
Times like this, I'm forced to think back through the last day or two. I have to check my actions, my pride, and my motives. I'm not sure if this is how it works in your life, but this is how it goes in mine.
My disobedience is sin. The ironic thing is God is just giving me what I thought I wanted. When we sin, we are declaring our independence from God. Most times "independence" is seen as a good thing, in this case it is not. We are saying we don't need to depend on God. I got it, I'm good, thanks for the help, I'll take it from here God. It is a dumb move, but when we sin that is what we do. God loves us and wants us to have our best life, we disagree, we think we know what's best, we declare it with sin, and are basically saying we know better than God.
So I think these nights when I feel distant from God are a result of previous sin. God is saying you wanted to be out on your own, here is a little taste. I know He would never let me go, the Bible says He never loses one of His flock.
Sin gets into our hearts, it hardens our hearts from God. In Philippians, Paul says we should have tender hearts like Christ. Sin does the opposite. It hardens our hearts, pulls us from God, makes us more defensive to His message and His call. That is why it is so hard for people far from God to come to Him.
So what do we do? We have to give it all up to Him. Repent, confess, apologize, whatever you want to call it. We have to go back to Christ. Make things right, ask for His boundless grace, and as Paul says, REJOICE when He forgives us!
