What does it mean to love? Love wants the best for someone and God gave us His Son. Once you receive this truth, you don't want to go back to life a usual. You change, but maybe not as quickly as others think you should. This can cause problems in the family of believers.
Differences of opinion should never cause division in the church family. Each of us is held accountable to Christ not to others. Our differences should be handled with love, not gossip. Differences can be a great source of learning if handled correctly. Jesus is a blanket of grace, and He wraps Himself around us and says "Go and sin no more." We should grow to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit at any given moment, and becoming stronger in our faith and walk with God. We are entitled to our opinion, but it should never go against God's word.
I know I am not just preaching to myself here. I hope this helps any other sister or brother in your walk with Jesus. God doesn't stop us from having fun. He just wants us to be very sensitive to His leading at any given moment, because you never know who it might affect at that given time for His glory. Maybe He doesn't want you to watch that movie tonight, or sit and listen to the conversation that is going on at that moment. Maybe he doesn't want you going out tonight for your safety. Maybe He doesn't want you to have that glass or two of wine tonight. He expects us to be obedient at any given moment, not to not have fun. If we go against this prompting of the Holy Spirit, or don't seek Him in prayer, than we are wrong. Ephesians 4: 30 "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" Ignorance of any prompting of the Holy Spirit can cause us harm, and any other person God puts in our path at that time.
Just as Christ loves the church and gave Himself up for us, we should love each other in the family of believers. When people on the outside see that we can't even get along, they don't want to enter in. Satan has NO POWER over God, and loves to cause this division. This is where he loves to come in and be the great deceiver that he is. He will tear apart families, especially the family of believers. He can't out power God, so he gets to us by causing the family to fight and disagree over stupid things like... having a glass or 2 of wine...having a tattoo...having a piercing....having a gay friend....being seen in the bar downtown and so on.... I urge you to read Romans 14. There will always be things we disagree about because they may be unclear to us in God's word. But I want to stress that some areas are very clear and forbidden in scripture. These are the areas that the family of believers should agree upon and not argue with one another. We are to be the salt and light of the world. Shine the light in dark areas. Use salt and not a meat tenderizer. God never changes and either does His word, whether we like it or not.
Once I went from religion to a relationship with Jesus, I wanted to take His story to everyone I met. I knew I would never be the same. When He took my hand and led the way, something happened deep inside of me. Because of this personal experience with Him, I can't go back to life as usual. I don't even want to.
It is such a great love for Him, that I want to be and do all that pleases Him. That is the only way I could show Him how grateful I am for His sacrifice for me, and taking all my sins to the cross. I don't want to take this precious grace for granted.
I am not, and never will claim to be perfect, but I was created to be "conformed to the image of His Son." He set the example of what He wants to see in us.
I strive to work on any areas of my thought life, and my actions, that the Lord shows me in my life that need to be worked out. Sometimes it seems like I will never stop learning new things I do wrong. But that's o.k, because it just keeps me closer to His side, and I always feel like a child at 54.
Satan is a deceiver. My prayer is that God gives us the grace to stop arguing with each other over matters that are not worth arguing about and take God very seriously about what He makes very clear in His word to us. I pray it weights heavy on our hearts, and by His strength we will repent and turn from it. Or refrain from what it is unclear to us and we are praying for understanding. I pray we come into agreement with His word and by the grace from God above, He will build and strengthen the church and love.
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Kim
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