Rich Mullins

"Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you've done it to me. And this is what I've come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they're just wrong. They're not bad, they're just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken..."
--Taken from www.wikipedia.org


I've lots to say about this quote, but am choosing to go another direction than I thought I would this morning. As I was typing this quote out, the sentence "They're not bad, they're just wrong." really stood out for me. I have had some pretty serious disagreements the past few weeks with some people, and constantly felt prodded by God to make sure I don't treat them as enemies. I realized how many times I pray against other Christians that I simply disagree with, and that's just wrong. Fellow believers that we disagree with on non-essentials should never be treated as an enemy! How foolish I've been all these years. While I may disagree with someone, we are all still on the same team (those of us that profess Christ as our Lord and strive to live like Him every day). The Bible says that the world will know us by our LOVE for each other, not by our bickering back and forth. Open, honest, respectful dialogue is good and beneficial. Degrading, hateful arguments........not so much. I need to be better about how I express frustration with people, good people who may just think a little differently on some topics.

"They're not bad, they're just wrong."

Definitely not a P.C. statement. But I love the perspective.

So, how many of us actually love like Jesus loved? How many of us even try? Why is that do you think? Is it because of fear, because it will cost you something?

NEWSFLASH!!!!

Giving your life over to Christ does cost you something! I recently came across a quote that says "To be SAVED costs us nothing. To be a DISCIPLE costs us everything." When you become a Christian, your life is no longer your own (we hear this all the time). What that means is, we now strive to do what Christ did. We strive to follow the guidelines God has clearly marked out for us in Scripture. WHY? Not because God is a jerk, but because He knows the best way to live this life that He created.

Why do we second guess God so much? We can't follow him and live life by our own selfish ways. The ironic thing is, that if we follow God with our entire lives, the life we get in return will so far surpass anything we could achieve on our own power.

Let's love like Jesus loved today. Let's live like Jesus lived!