God so loved that He…..gave????

I find it contradictory that the church has become the most selfish of people. The Bible gives us examples of generousity and bases principles of getting on giving, and even shows us that God so loved us that he gave His one most precious gift, His Son. We have been so blessed, but what do we do? We hoard what we have as if it’s owed to us. Matbe we should pray that God remove all of our blessings to teach us how to truly give.

To tell it like it is

War, or fighting of any kind, is never a welcomed event, only at times a necessitiy. Whether you agree with nations going to war or not, whenever violence occurs, innocent lives with be taken in lieu of some of the corrupt. I don’t like that any more than anyone else, but it’s the reality of what happens. I agree in people being able to choose and to believe what they wish. I don’t have to agree with them, nor them with me. We’re both equally free to believe what we will and to agree or disagree to any degree. The difference between the U.S. and all communist run countries is that dictators shove a philiosophy down a whole countries throat, like most hate filled people. There’s a difference in expressing a belief and forcing it on someone else. When you voice, don’t force. That’s the difference in freedom and communisim.

Someone’s going to benefit

I’ve been helping a friend out. My friend has a friend who is on dialisis and uses the tabs off of soda cans to get some time on the machine. I’ve been stopping along the way here and there to get those tabs from cans or to stop and pick them up if i see them in a parking lot. Some questions have come up about this and I’ve even been asking myself about this. I’ve thought back that the best reason I can come up with is that someone’s going to benefit from me doing this. I don’t know where the person is in their walk with God, but i thought what better way to show them love by helping them out. If they don’t know God, perhaps this will show them a glimpse of Him, and if they do know Him, what beeter way to encourage them, but either way, I thought it was a good way to witness to others on why I’m doing what I’m doing and to show love to everyone some love that’s involved. You just never know.

Acceptance and tolerance are two totaly different things

We hear the word tolerance thrown around alot, seemingly by those who have the most to benefit from. Why must we tolerate? Everyone wants to be accepted, this much is true, but acceptance and tolerance are two entirely different things. Acceptance is where I take you for who you are, and as you are, with the things you may not necessarily be able to change, flaws and all. Tolerance is where I don’t try to help change the things in you that can be changed. I can accept a Muslim for following Allah, for who he is, but when beliefs collide, I don’t accept his beliefs to avoid a conflict. In an age of tolerance, why is it so hard to accept the good with the bad? I know what I believe and who I follow. It’s everyone else’s choice to do the same. We all are free to listen to what we hear or not. The ultimate choice is to do what’s right, and there is no law against doing right or no law that can stop one from truly doing what he feels he must.

You know the truth from the outside

I live in the South, and sometimes I wonder how in the world we became part of the Bible Belt. It seems the Nation as a whole has been on a downhill spiral for some time now, but I sometimes feel the Church has become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. I was in a service this past Sunday night where the pastor was trying to get the fire going once again. He had made a comment that someone who had once been part of the congregation joined because of the boldness and fire that the church had. Needless to say, the person is no longer a member of that church, and I don’t know if leaving was the right thing to do, but the point of the message was to rekindle the flame. The passage used was in Acts where Stephen was stoned to death and the question in the service was asked,’would we be found guility enough of living a life worthy of the calling to be stoned as Stephen?’ My question is, Does the people around us see more of us in our lives or more of the One whom we are living for?