I'm sitting here at my desk feeling quite perturbed with...life.
I was on facebook earlier and found myself reading a long dialog between some of the kids in Youth Group. They are all the same age and have all grown up in church. I wish I could say that their dialog was cute and humorous, and maybe it was to the average outsider, but it grieved my heart. They were nit-picking at one another. All clamoring to be heard and to be justified. It reeked of immaturity and I could probably pass it off as that. But as their Youth Leader I desire to call them to a higher standard, to raise the bar. I refuse to look at their behavior and chalk it up as a result of their age. Anyone can be tricked into the same sort of dialog and nit-picking behavior. I'll raise my hand in admittance to the fact that I too can be deceived and I too can fall into the same immature behaviors that I'm seeing depicted in the kids in the Youth Group.
We judge and find fault in one another so hastily. It's easy to do since we are imperfect people. But I think that is what we must remember, we are ALL flawed, we are ALL imperfect and we are ALL weak, so if we tend to point our fingers at others then we are hypocrites.
Romans 14 has been on my heart for like the past two weeks. I haven't been able to grasp the full meaning in my ESV version so I checked it out in the Message which made it alot more clear! I pretty much included the whole chapter, but it's all so good!!
"Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.
10-12So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I'd say it leaves you looking pretty silly—or worse. Eventually, we're all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren't going to improve your position there one bit. Read it for yourself in Scripture:
"As I live and breathe," God says,
"every knee will bow before me;
Every tongue will tell the honest truth
that I and only I am God."
So tend to your knitting. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God.
13-14Forget about deciding what's right for each other. Here's what you need to be concerned about: that you don't get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I'm convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it.
17-18God's kingdom isn't a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness' sake. It's what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you'll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you. 19-21So let's agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don't drag them down by finding fault. You're certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God's work among you, are you? I said it before and I'll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don't eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love.
22-23Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. You're fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you're not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you're out of line. If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong.
If the kids in my Youth Group and if I were to truly take this scripture to heart I think we would experience a level of unity that we have never experienced before! I have seen the power and beauty that radiates from a group of people who are unified. It's a glorious thing and I SOO desire that in my life!
I have been asking God to teach me how to love better. Alot of this is so that I can love Israel better, but as God has instructed me and has opened my eyes to different things, its not just affecting my relationship with Israel. It's affecting how I look and treat everyone around me! Praise God!
With the day and age that we are in we should not waste our time trying to find fault in each other. We should put all our energy into loving each other and doing good for one another. We must regard one-another as more important than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). We must put on love (Colossians 3:14). When I put on my shoes to go running, I don't just put my shoes on and then remain seated, I put them on so that I can RUN. So when we put on love, then we must take action. We must be patient with each other, we must be kind, we must be generous!
Sigh. This is what I'm learning and what I hope to grow in.
