Correction

Matthew 22:36-39

Question:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Correct answer: "Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself."

Question:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Wrong answer: "Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind when you are playing church. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself, as long as they look like you, act like you, believe like you, smell like you, and separate their colors from the whites when they do laundry."


Which answer is the church beginning to scream out? Definitely the wrong one. God commanded us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. All the time. That does not mean that we go to church on Sundays and fake it. The building that church is held in was meant to be a gathering place for people to come together and worship God. Not a place where people come to show others how well they worship God. Lately I haven't been going to the church building every time the doors are open. Am I going to Hell because of that? No. Am I backsliding because of that? No. I've gotten more out of Francis Chan on YouTube than I get out of a church that is full of religious people playing the church game.

And as for loving our neighbor as ourselves? Psh. Only if it's convenient apparently! I'm sorry, I didn't realize that after God said to love our neighbor as ourselves, He personally contacted you and let you in on the little secret that He actually meant only the people who were up to your standards. Oh wait, He didn't do that - because that wasn't His purpose in telling us to love our neighbors. Who are our neighbors? Everyone we come in contact with. The drunks of the world. The loners of the world. The people who smell bad. The people who smell good. The rich, the poor, the angry, the happy, the small, the big, the young, the old, the crazy, the shy, the content, and the wishful. We are to love each and every person as we love ourself. God did not give us standards to go by with that. His only standard was that they be our neighbor, and in His eyes everyone meets that criteria.

It's time for the church, the body of Christ, the people who are supposedly following Jesus, to start acting like it. That doesn't mean go play church. That doesn't mean point out other people's flaws and sins. That doesn't mean act religious and boast in the fact that you can quote the entire Bible word for word. That means to love. Love God. Love Him always, no matter where you are. And love your neighbor. Don't dictate who your neighbors are. Don't shun those who aren't "good enough" for you. Chances are, if you think you're above them; they're far above you.

Humbled

Have you ever heard anyone ever say "I'm so strong in my faith. I know nothing will ever make me stumble!" I mean, that's a great attitude... or, so I thought. I used to think like that. No matter what, I would always be a light for God; always an encouragement. And it's not that I'm not anymore, but God has definitely humbled me over the past 3 months.
As I said before, God removed me from my Christian bubble. And a series of random events definitely showed me that I still needed my good Christian influences in my life. Things change, and that's great. But I was bad at coping with the change. I got involved with a few friends that I should not have been involved in. Was I doing anything wrong? No. But I wasn't doing anything right either. I stopped praying. I stopped reading my Bible. I stopped caring. School, work, my family, "friends," and other responsibilities left no room for any of that. Ridiculous excuse, I know. But let's be real. I was completely broken. Nothing made sense. People let me down. I didn't have time to breathe.
Recently, things have changed. I do not surround myself with bad influences. If you have nothing but rude words to say to me, I say kind ones back - but you no longer have a significant place in my life. My outlook is much different now because of the trials I've gone through lately. I am thankful for every mistake I made. I am thankful for how broken I became. I am thankful for every true friend that has not condemned me, but has stuck by me no matter what.

So if your outlook is "I'm so strong in my faith, nothing can change that" - watch out. You will be humbled and it will be difficult. You're never too strong to be broken.

A Series of Fortunate Events

So here are some things I've learned first-hand the past couple of months:

Sometimes God allows us to hurt so that we can grow. Sometimes God allows us to hurt others so that we can grow. People can do a complete 180 in 5 seconds flat. People will lie to you, a lot. Girls that thrive on drama travel in packs. Boys aren't worth it (referring to that drama) and neither are girls. Horses love you no matter what. Sometimes the people you feel most connected with will be the people who constantly let you down. Families will always be families, no matter how strong the bond is. People who are basically strangers can be best friends at heart. Great Value toaster pastries do not taste like pop-tarts. It takes almost losing someone to realize how much they meant to you in the first place. When friends change, it almost always causes you to do the same. God will always be whispering in your ear. Old friends can become new friends. Opposites really do attract. Boys that work at grocery stores will treat you like the items they bag. After the 4th chance, it's time to stop. It is possible to be jaded. The earth is magnetic. When you have no friends left, you'll always have me. When I have no friends left, I'll always have God.

Exposing the Myths

Myth #1: Everyone will like you.

The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. This seems very easy to comprehend... but to what extent are we willing to fulfill these commandments? I think sometimes we too easily get them confused. Some situations that we will encounter as Christians will lead us to be disliked by many. Many times we're going to have to follow God first and foremost, and let everything else fall into place. Yes, we have to love our neighbors and treat them as we would want to be treated, but let us not forget that God comes first. His will over ours, His will over theirs, His will over everyone's. There are plenty of examples of people in the Bible that weren't liked by others because of things they did for God. One good example? JESUS. So many could not stand Him. But He did not stop. He did the will of His father, and He tried His best to make everyone see His wonderful intentions. Sometimes this didn't work out, but I believe in the end Jesus came to terms with the fact that "everyone will not like you."


Myth #2: You have to make everyone happy.

Wrong again! This can come from the first myth of everyone liking you. Sometimes God will put things in your path that will cause others to hurt. This is a part of life. I'm not saying it's God's will for people to hurt, but it is God's will for people to grow and to learn. In every situation we go through, in every trial, we are being taught. But it is up to us to find out the lesson God has for us. Through tough times and hard struggles, we will have to hurt people. We will have to let people down. Maybe the lesson there isn't for us, but for them. Who are we to shut a door that God has opened? Maybe something we cannot even fathom is about to happen in another person's life. And it goes the other way as well. Everyone does not have to make you happy. If you see it one way, you must see it the other. God will put situations in other peoples' lives to teach us something. We will hurt. But we will grow. I know it's easier to think that our purpose on this earth is to please those around us and make sure they're happy.


The fact of the matter is, our purpose here is to worship and love our God. Let us not forget to place HIM first in every situation, and nothing of self. Hurt will come. Some people will hate you, others will love you. You will cause smiles and you will cause trials. But through it all, keep your eyes on God and His perfect plan will result.

The Problem With Perfection

Do you know someone who backslides about every 3 months? They live in sin and thrive off of the things of the world - then they have an encounter with God and go back to the straight and narrow. About 3 months pass by, maybe even less, and you notice they're back to their old ways. Have you ever wondered why this is such an issue? Well here's my theory:
Yes, we are supposed to strive for perfection. Yes, we are supposed to be like Jesus, follow His example, and try our best to live each day of our lives for Him. But sometimes we can get so caught up in all of the emotions that we aren't living for Jesus anymore, we're just trying to be perfect. We want to do good for God, but at the same time we know others are watching and if they even see the slightest hint of us falling, then they'll turn on us. We set ourselves up for failure. I know I've done it in the past, and maybe some of you have as well. After the encounter with God you feel so close to Him. You read your Bible every day, you go to church every time the doors open, you read the latest Christian literature, you have deep conversations about God with random people, and you surround yourself with great Christian friends. And then you get burnt out. You want to try something else... so let's say you go to a party. You used to struggle with drinking, but you've put that in your past. Someone hands you a beer. You drink it. You're gone. The rest is history. The weeks following this you do not read your Bible, you do not pray, you do not discuss God. You are embarassed. You have failed. You are not perfect.
I think that a way Christians can deal with this vicious cycle is by understanding that perfection actually isn't an option. Striving for it? YES! Do strive to be like our savior! But, if you were meant to be perfect... what'd Jesus die for? The moment we start demanding perfection and obsessing in every area of our lives is the moment we replace the savior. And that my friends, is a dangerous move. So instead of staying in the rut - instead of setting ourselves up for failure - how about we just live one day at a time? Let's live for God, not for the idea of perfection. I think more meaningful relationships with our Lord would result.

I don't want to be a Christian.

When I first became a Christian, and even a month ago, I didn't understand why people said "I don't want to be a Christian because Christians are hypocrites." I was like, "Wah!? I'm not a hypocrite!" And I didn't see any of my friends being "hypocrites" or whatever these heathens were calling us! But lately, it's become more than obvious how hypocritical we can be. Even things as seemingly small as white lies can cause a person to see a Christian as nothing more than a self-righteous pagan. Trust is a huge part of a relationship, and when that trust is broken, what else is there? How can you tell someone one minute a lie and the next say you'll pray for them? No wonder lost souls don't want to be what we call "Christians." They're no different. What happened to this "change" we were supposed to see when we became new creatures in Christ? What happened to the truth and the love and the compassion that comes from knowing Jesus and persuing a relationship with Him? It sickens me to think that the lost people of the world are suffering because of a mishapen image of what it means to be a Christ follower. People think the problem with Christians is that we aren't telling enough people about Christ. I think the problem is that we don't truly know Christ ourselves.

This is random and blunt like many of my posts have been lately. Take it like you want.

I ain't Jesus.

This past weekend was Judgment House at my church Emmanuel Baptist. So pastor Gary thought it would be nice if one of the guys from the JH team, Jeff Huey, got to preach on Sunday morning. Jeff spoke about spiritual warfare and how it impacts Christians and non-Christians, but one seemingly random story he told meant more to me than the entire message combined.

Jeff: "One day a guy asked me to take a job preaching down at a church in Alabama. I told him I'd love to cause I really wanted a job in a church. Then he said that he'd love to have me on the team for at least 5 years, and he wanted to know if I'd agree to that. I told him no because I ain't Jesus and Jesus is the only one who knows what God wants. God could call me into one area of ministry one day and then want me somewhere else the next. We need to stop planning out lives and just listen to where God wants us to go."

YES! AH, I'm so glad someone put it into words for me... and I'm so glad I can relate to someone. There's been an issue of commitment in some of the areas of ministry I was once involved in. Some people have asked me, "Well, how can you just stop leading in that area when you committed to it?" Well... I stopped because that's what I felt God wanted. And it would have been wrong of me to tell God "No, actually... I committed to this.. so I'm going to ignore what You're telling me and do what I think is right." I mean, God wanted me there for a reason and for a season. Who am I to tell Him that He's doing something wrong?

And that story didn't only impact me in that area - I've realized that we have to do that in general with our lives. Sure, it's nice to have a plan. But we cannot ever 100% commit to something (except I guess marriage) because God could have something different for us. And when our plans change and we get to where God wants us, others shouldn't have anything but good things to say to and about us. After all, we're seeking God's will... not ours.