sun or shade...rain or roof...four words searing into my soul...am I the scorching desert sun burning you or the shade protecting you? am I the cold rain soaking you or the roof sheltering you? am I for you or against you? am I building you up or tearing you down? profound questions begging to be answered...especially in these days of division and disunity...
it matters not what the issues are, even when the issues are as complex and the ramifications as far-reaching as they are today...the issue at hand...the one tugging at my heart is how we are treating one another...and I will be the first to admit that certain viewpoints and words have drawn out in me some responses (even if only in thought) that are anything but Jesus-like...I have had to take a step back and ground myself in what I know to be true...that issues aside, Jesus commands us to love each other...you might say,"well that is the exact issue!" and you are right...the conversations have been about how do we love the least of these, whether the least be an unborn child or an already born child or adult in desperate need...
yet for this moment I am thinking about how we as Jesus lovers are treating one another..."This is My commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." Jesus, in John 15:12-13
loving each other certainly doesn't mean we must agree on all things...rather it is in how we disagree...I believe the Father's heart weeps when we attack those who think differently from us...and has not social media provided the perfect platform for this? so easy to sit behind a screen criticizing or belittling or judging one another...oh how the enemy loves the disunity and outright anger resulting!
and I have not always loved well...I have been the sun scorching and the rain soaking those who love Jesus just as I do yet have an opinion different from mine...and for that I am sorry...not that I must be sorry for my opinion just as you need not be sorry for your opinion, for we both believe very passionately in that which we believe...it is in our mutual reaction to one another's opinions where we must be careful, for a world is watching...
"I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me." Jesus, in John 17:22-23
This is so difficult because different circumstances require different types of love. Sometimes it is a yes and other times it is a no. Hand out or handup? This is why we must always look to the Word for faith and discernment on how He loves.
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