What's love got to do with it?
I just got out of chapel a few minutes ago. The sermon was about love, "the mark" of a Christian. It was a good sermon overall, the basis being relief for hurricane Katrina.
With the barrage of verses that were thrown at us, this stood out.
"If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." I John 4:20,21
With all the verses read, I did the normal nodding and saying "Amen" occasionally. And, yes, it was a good sermon. Yet, the reason that this particular verse stood out to me was because I instantly thought of the person who "needed to hear it." How often do we "Christians" act this way? We hear a sermon, and instead of letting it build who we are, we think of all the other Christians or people in general who aren't as holy as we are. "Man, so-and-so really needed to hear this sermon today, too bad she isn't here." Or "Oh, that is exactly what I have been saying to whats-his-name over there, I hope he isn't sleeping through chapel again."
I am so thoroughly wretched sometimes. Why am I so quick to point the finger? On my way home from the service, I started to think of a nice way to approach the topic with the aforementioned. I started thinking through the possible rebuttals, and was hit in the face with my own hypocrisy. I have so much to learn about love. I have so much to learn about loving my own mother. I can't imagine that I would ever turn her away, but I have wondered why there aren't more states between us. The number of planks in my own eye. . . . Not to forget that this was the whole point of the sermon! Joe B talked about coming to Asbury as a non-believer, and how it wasn't the people who prayed outside of his door for his salvation or the people who got in his face about how much he needed God, that brought him to Christ. It was the people who just constantly loved him where he was at, and for who he was, that made him want to know more about Jesus. Oh, to be more like Jesus.
The only other thing I can that sticks out to me about chapel today was one from a list of love statements.
Love make us vulnerable.
With the barrage of verses that were thrown at us, this stood out.
"If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." I John 4:20,21
With all the verses read, I did the normal nodding and saying "Amen" occasionally. And, yes, it was a good sermon. Yet, the reason that this particular verse stood out to me was because I instantly thought of the person who "needed to hear it." How often do we "Christians" act this way? We hear a sermon, and instead of letting it build who we are, we think of all the other Christians or people in general who aren't as holy as we are. "Man, so-and-so really needed to hear this sermon today, too bad she isn't here." Or "Oh, that is exactly what I have been saying to whats-his-name over there, I hope he isn't sleeping through chapel again."
I am so thoroughly wretched sometimes. Why am I so quick to point the finger? On my way home from the service, I started to think of a nice way to approach the topic with the aforementioned. I started thinking through the possible rebuttals, and was hit in the face with my own hypocrisy. I have so much to learn about love. I have so much to learn about loving my own mother. I can't imagine that I would ever turn her away, but I have wondered why there aren't more states between us. The number of planks in my own eye. . . . Not to forget that this was the whole point of the sermon! Joe B talked about coming to Asbury as a non-believer, and how it wasn't the people who prayed outside of his door for his salvation or the people who got in his face about how much he needed God, that brought him to Christ. It was the people who just constantly loved him where he was at, and for who he was, that made him want to know more about Jesus. Oh, to be more like Jesus.
The only other thing I can that sticks out to me about chapel today was one from a list of love statements.
Love make us vulnerable.