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2015-07-03 - How to Respond
I have thought a lot about how to respond to many things that have recently
been creating a firestorm on social media. As one e-card on Facebook put it,
"My Facebook feed looks like a battle broke out between the Confederate Army
and a Skittles factory.” Confederate flags, racism, gay marriages - and
that’s just this week’s hot button topics. There will be different ones in
the months ahead, just as there were different ones before these, but the
questions that I ask of myself on each of these are “Do I say anything?” and
“How?”
Finally after some careful thought I simply wrote:
“Rather than shouting
what we’re against, let’s show Who we are for. Jesus Christ, lover of my
soul, is still King & Savior. Nothing’s changed.”
But even after satisfying
the initial urge to respond I still wondered how to respond to the
Christians who were turning their images into celebratory rainbows, the
Christians who were going to war over it, the homosexuals with a definite
interest in it, and the atheist who just wanted to stir the pot and thinks
morals are completely relative. So how should I respond as I Christian? I
know these are questions that many of the youth in my care may be asking
themselves, so I’ve been thinking a lot of what to say to them. That is when
a passage came to me, about Jesus growing up.
John 1:14-17 (NKJV)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I
said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”
16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
17 For the
law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Jesus was “full of grace and truth”. As his
followers, so should we. We are
to live out the gospel, and the gospel is grace and truth.
Colossians 1:3-6 (NKJV)
3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your
love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in
heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,
6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing
forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the
grace of God in truth;
The truth is that we are all sinners - the liars, the murderers, the
thieves, the adulterers, the addicts to sex and drugs, the murderers, the
gluttons, and yes … the homosexuals. The truth is that sin separates us from
God, whether it’s a little white lie, or a 50-person killing spree. Sin is
sin, and it separates us from God. The truth is also that we cannot do
anything, to clean ourselves up.
But truth is only half the story, for by grace, God loves us in our sins
enough that he sent Jesus to cleanse us of sin, so we could be in communion
with him. I do not understand how the blood of an innocent man takes away
the penalty from me, but by faith I know that it does. By grace, God allows
us to turn from sins and turn to him. By grace, he freely offers the gift of
eternal life with him in Heaven.
And that is the truth and grace of the gospel. So how do we live it out?
First, we cannot lie and say sin is not sin. Sin must be recognized, but we
should let the Holy Spirit do the convicting, and not us. Say what needs to
be said, and then leave the rest up to God. But say it with grace and with
love. I Corinthians 13:1 puts it this way,
"Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal.” (NKJV) Without love, our words are like a big old cowbell,
gonging in your ear, and it quickly gets annoying. How are your words
sounding?
Second, live truthfully. Do not live a life of unrepented sin, and then
point out the sins in others. Jesus told the men accusing the woman of
adultery, that anyone without sin should cast the first stone. Elsewhere, he
cautioned that we are to take care of the log in our own eye, before trying
to remove the speck from someone else’s. How is your life looking?
Third, always show grace. Don’t belittle others, or mock them. Know when to
wisely walk away graciously from an argument, even if you know you are
right. Jesus said it this way, "Don’t cast your pearls
before swine." Love
people in whatever state they are in. Awhile back, I heard a preacher say
something that has stuck with me. I think he was using it one way, but I
apply it to how I try to discuss sin and other things with people. It’s okay
to not be okay; it’s not okay to stay that way. How do you show grace?
As sold out Christians rather than sell-outs that are on fire for God who is
a consuming fire in our lives how are we to respond? How does fire respond?
First, fire burns and incinerates. It burns the thing on fire and the things
around it; fire hurts. It does hurt sometimes to share the truth. Christians
will be persecuted for their stand but the convicted sinners will also have
their conscience seared by the Holy Spirit when we let him work through us.
Remember though that our words are just a noisy cowbell or clanging cymbal
if not done with love so tread carefully. There should be no bashing, name
calling, or kicking and screaming.
Second, fire also brightens and illuminates. Not only does fire illuminate
the sinful things that hide in the dark corners but also it shows itself
above all beyond showing what we stand against. Items far away from fire may
be somewhat exposed by the fire but most clearly the fire reveals itself to
all the darkness. We should show the Christ that burns brightly within us
more than the sin that surrounds us.
A few days ago, Heath Walton, a friend of mine and fellow youth pastor,
wrote:
“Let the drums of the gospel resound so deafeningly over the field of
battle, that it strikes the Enemy with the fearful truth, that no matter how
violently devastating their onslaught may be--they will never prevail. Let
the Earth hear this wonderful report – Christ wins."
Beat the drums with the sticks of truth and grace.
IHFHBOH
Adam
acdum@hotmail.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org
All scripture references from KJV (King James Version) unless otherwise noted
CFD | July 2015
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