As I mentioned last week, I would like to share my own personal thoughts (not based on any denomination) on Snippets from the Word. I am so glad that Darlene added it to the Enzine :razz:…Today I would like to share with you some thoughts on Saturday’s reading ~ 1 Thessalonians 5…
“But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
~ 1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 (ESV)
It is a dog-eat-dog world out there. It is so hard to stay focused on the race He has set before us ~ to be the light. Have you noticed that the attack on Christians gets more fierce? I read a bumper sticker the other day that read: “I like your God, but I don’t like His Christians”. Ouch! Why do you think that is? Is it because we don’t stand as one? Is it because we fight amongst each other? Even have lawsuits against each other? I know it is true for ‘my’ own denomination. The lawsuits I mean…So sad!!!
Brothers and sisters in faith, remember that we belong to the light and not to the darkness. Attacking each other is what the devil wants us to do. He wants to put a wedge between followers of the Truth. We all sin; we all fall short of the Glory of God, but through His blood we are cleansed. We stand righteous before Him. Don’t grieve His Spirit fighting against each other but encourage each other in the walk…
Lord, let Your light be evident to all who come in contact with me. Let my words be few, but my actions talk about Your righteous. In Jesus’ precious name I pray. Amen
Great words more need to live by! We do get caught up in our own petty squabbles and forget our goals. I have had lots of that in the past few months. Time for me to focus more on God and lots less on other things! Happy Sunday my friend!
Amen, Iris. It is okay to discuss differences but I can never understand why things can get nasty b/w two Christians. I am actually planning to do a post soon on James 3 and the tongue.
One thought about the bumpersticker you mentioned as I have heard this phrase before. Personally, I think that when unbelievers attack Christians as not being good witnesses, I think it is a ploy. Granted, there are some bad apples that make us all look bad, but I think the comment is a tactic of Satan’s to make us sweeten our message to the point that it loses the truth.
Because even if we speak the truth in love, the truth is often hard to swallow for an unbeliever. But if we stop speaking the truth so as not to offend, then I think everyone loses. A water-downed gospel is really no gospel at all. We should expect some persecution.
Anyway, not sure if that makes sense, but just my thoughts.
A-MEN!!!
If we take offense with one another, we make the enemy’s job so much easier. As a matter of fact, we’re making things so easy of late, he hardly has to do a thing – we’re imploding from within.
So, the flip side of us, as believers, not becoming offended with each other, is also that we are considerate of each other as in Ephesians chapter 4. There are many of us who enjoy the whole rebuke thing, but don’t want to do so with a heart of love, nor with an eye towards the restoration of our brothers – we just want to tear them down to feed our own pridefulness.
I tell ya, don’t give the enemy too much credit – the church is crumbling from within. No wonder there are bumper stickers…
Fruitful Spirit said it well. And I’ll just add that whenever we are so busy focusing our attention on everything and everyone and our stuff and our this and our that, we can not possibly be focused on Christ…
If I saw that bumper sticker I would immediately think it is because a lot of times people think Christians are too judgmental…Which I won’t deny, it was the one thing keeping me from converting for a long time.
Thanks for your prayers and sympathy and thanks too for your happy greetings. I’ll be back by Wednesday for the Wordless Wednesday.
My sister-in-law was finally put to rest. Cremation took place yesterday. It was a very painful moment for all of us as she was loved by the family. However, when one loves someone, she/he must also learn how to let go.
I would also like to thank you for the happy greetings for my new grandson.
I’ll be back Wednesday for the Wordless Wednesday. As of now, my head seems to be floating on air. I can’t seem to find my brains anywhere yet.
Wonderful encouragement! I just read this quote at “Here and Now” — “”Underlying all judgment is the assumption that people know what they should do and are choosing not to do it.” Isn’t that great? I pray we are gracious toward others, especially toward our fellow Christian brothers and sisters.
I guess I concur with many of the comments so far–graciousness towards one another is a lovely reflection of Christ in us :). When anyone…ANYONE…says a word of rebuke to me (believer, unbeliever, whomever!) and speak it with LOVE I can take it. It might be painful, I might not agree, but if I KNOW they have genuine concern, conviction, and my best interest at heart, I can handle it. Sometimes the Lord can use that harshness to effect NECESSARY change in me. He’s led me to the conviction in recent years to understand there’s MY side of the story, there’s YOUR side of the story, and the truth lies somewhere in between. So I seek Him, I seek that TRUTH, not the garbage that we bring into relationships and circumstance.
This post reminded me that often Christians “shoot their wounded”, and we all have woundings to some degree. My hope, my prayer, is that reminders like this give us cause to be more generous and more loving to one another.
i think Christians are to blame on how the world is treating us, They did not like Jesus for different reasons and they are not liking most of us for different reasons, and some Christians hide behind that verse. Christ stood for the truth he preached love, he helped people and most importantly he gave his life for us. But Christians nowadays have gone back being like the Pharisees and the Seduces, setting standards that are even hard for them to beat, they preach water but drink wine. We should love one another by actions not words.
1 John 3:16-19 (New International Version)
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: