Love Is, Am I? (Follow-Up to 'Right Or Relevant')

Hey, Y'all,

Today's RST comes to us from my friend Corissa (thanks, Ninja!) and is a follow-up to the last one [emphases mine].

During the Labour Day weekend I was participating in a 50th annual event where thousands upon thousands of people walked the 5 mile expanse of bridge between upper and lower Michigan. After finishing the bridge walk, I was idling in a crowded car park along the main streets of a boutique town near the bridge and saw a huge banner across the trunk of a parked Camry that read, "ALL SINNERS WILL BE PUNISHED," and in tiny micro print: Psalms something.

See, now, that made me want to scream out, "Satan LOVES 'Christians' like you!!!"

And honestly, I think it's true. I don't think these people really understand the calling of the Great Commission. Being called to be servants of God is a calling with a pre-requisite of humility, piousness, pitifulness (in the fact that we are groveling sub-level in comparison to the glory of God), and love. Because God calls us to be servants to do His good work, and not "ambassadors" [in the hoity-toity sense] or "administrators," people need to realise that when we are doing [His] work, we have to approach others from a lower-than-they attitude, which means we do not point fingers or pre-judge, [but we do] acknowledge our own piteous nature, which, without God could not be purged and purified.

I don't think these people really understood that their message was neither right in the eyes of God, nor relevant in the way that it needs to be so that it truly reaches people instead of disgusting them...

Thanks, C--love your emphasis on humility and servanthood, a lower-than-you posture (as contrasted with self-satisfied pride, fingerpointing, and a holier-than-thou attitude). The former was after all Christ's lifelong object lesson--modeled perhaps most literally in the upper room--was it not? We allege that we are followers of God, even take His name (clearly in vain at times), but how well do we actually follow Him when we consider that God is Love, and Love is patient, and kind, and not proud nor rude nor self-seeking (check out 1 Corinthians 13 to get a feel for the actual measuring stick).

How much better of a testimony could we give, how much more likely would people be to listen to what God has done for us (which BTW is fundamentally the only Gospel we can talk about with any authority), if that was our posture?

You've been prayed for today...