Tag: love | Page 2

The Greatest Commandment: my personal challenge to love and not condemn others

September 22, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

John Allen Mathews was a preacher when he was a young man in the 1830s. In fact, he preached the Gospel to the Osage Nation. Later, he married an Osage woman and settled on the reservation where he went so far as to build a church on his ranch and held services for all who wished to attend, Osages, mixed-bloods, whites, and blacks.

John Mathews was also a slave owner, like his father, and grandfathers for generations. In 1861 Mathews led a raid against a Union town in southeast Kansas. He was subsequently hunted down and killed by a force led by Col. James Blunt, an abolitionist, a Christian, and a doctor who had recently settled in Kansas. I have never understood what turns neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, and Christian against Christian.

I researched the lives of Mathews and Blunt and several other key players in the story for over twenty years hoping to gain insight into their thinking and discover the reason that seemingly good Christians get swept up in the currents of social and political drama. It is especially fascinating to me that there seem to be devout Christians on both sides of such issues.

I could have saved myself countless hours of research by simply waiting twenty years, for we see the same sort of political and social divide today that we read about during the Civil War.

There were millions like Mathews in the Civil War, Christians who pitted themselves against other Christians. Likewise, millions of Christians today take determinedly polarizing positions against their spiritual brothers and sisters; the similarity between 2016 and 1856 is incredibly frightening.

I find myself fighting against the currents of social and political extremism. As a conservative I wonder how anyone can call themselves a good Christian and align on the opposite side, just like I wonder how John Mathews could have been both a slaveholder and a Christian, but I refuse to let the cause of social conservatism take priority over my relationship with God.

It is difficult to temper myself, to remain rational. I unflinchingly stand for right, yet I realize it is not my place to criticize, name-call, or make an enemy of those with whom I disagree.

Here is my place, my duty as a Christian in these trying times: it is my duty to love God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. Secondly, I am to love even those I consider wrong, just as i love myself. Thirdly, I am to pray for those same folks. They seem impossible, these tasks. But they are not requests; they are commandments.

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; – Matthew 5:43-45a

They Were the Greatest

September 4, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

My parents were a part of what journalist Tom Brokaw calls “The Greatest Generation.” My dad fought with the army in South Pacific, was wounded, came home, married, and did his best to provide for a brood of five, a girl and four boys. My mom was the typical late twentieth century mother. She loved us, read us stories, stretched a dollar twenty ways and hid the leftover change in the cookie jar. When Dad died, and even before, Mom went to work to provide for the family. Their generation was the greatest because they knew the true meaning of words like love, sacrifice, and honor.

My brothers and sister and I never suffered. My brothers had bikes and skateboards. I had a trike that I peddled down the street after my sister and her boyfriend. I don’t remember my parents spoiling themselves, though. The never purchased anything on credit. They never owned a new car or fancy clothes. A photo of my parents sitting in my grandmother’s travel trailer shows Dad looking very uncomfortable. He would never own such a trailer or a nice enough car to pull it with.

We children never went without anything we really needed. Because of the sacrifice of my mom and dad, I didn’t realize until I was grown that I had grown up poor.

The Apostle Paul calls us in Romans 12:1 to be a living sacrifice to God. A traditional animal sacrifice in the first century consisted of the very finest. It was an animal without flaw, perfect, and pleasing to God. Jesus, God made flesh, presented His perfect life as a permanent and perfect sacrifice for all mankind. This being the case, then, why is it that Paul call us to present ourselves sacrificially.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

– Romans 12:1

Here, he speaks of our daily walk with Christ. Just as my parents sacrificed so much because of their love for me and my siblings, Paul tells us that our love of God should compel us to sacrifice our own selfish desires and seek the finer things that God offers us.

We should surrender ourselves daily to God. After all, God sacrificed His only begotten Son for you and me.

Fruits of the Spirit

August 26, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

I often forget that many of my readers are new Christians I use expressions with which some may not be familiar. Though the Bible has been around for the better part of two millennium, many folk have never picked it up and skimmed it. Few have read it through. Fewer still study it regularly. So, I will endeavor to use less “church talk.”
The “fruit of the spirit” is a simple list of nine qualities that a mature Christian should exhibit. By mature, I mean one who has developed a regular prayer life, regularly studies her Bible, and seeks to grow so deep in a personal relationship with God that His will become her heart’s desire.

Those nine things (“fruits”) are:

Love

Joy

Peace

Longsuffering (patience)

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-control

The Catholic church adds:

Generosity

Modesty

Chastity

We are never to judge others; that’s not why the Apostle Paul penned this list. He wrote it so that we may examine our own heart. If you are a growing Christian, you will begin seeing these attributes in your own life.

Nor are we to be “fruit inspectors.” Some who call themselves Christians justify judging and gossiping about others by quoting this verse from Matthew 7:17-20.

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Put in context with the verses preceding it, and one sees Christ referring to false prophets. If we judge the quality of anyone’s life we should begin and end with our own.

Does my life exhibit love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, generosity, modesty, and chastity?

I admit it; I’m lacking in many areas. But I’m surrendered to Christ’s will, and pray He has patience with me and helps me grow and bear good fruit. God fruit.