The proof of our friendship with Christ is demonstrated by our loving one another in the family of faith. When it comes to human relationships there is a single commandment; That is to love one another. Not just to love, but to love as He (Jesus) loves us.
As goes my relationship with Jesus, so goes my relationship with others!
How did Jesus demonstrate His love?
First, He freely gave. Jesus did what he did for us without coercion. That's a great question to ask ourselves ...am I doing what I am doing freely?
The divine love that Jesus talks about is active goodness.
True love does not insist that everyone fits the same mold. Our relationships with those in the body of Christ should move us to being more like Him. There may be differences of opinion.
So here's how it works: "A loving community is a place where there can be difference, but one can still belong. It becomes a healing place and a converting place when its members have learned to stop trying to heal and convert."
Listen, if you believe something differently than I do, and I spend all my energy trying to get you to be where I am, I get in the way of love. But if I accept you where you are and we just say, let the Lord work it out, then love flows freely and people can share their opinions, they can share themselves. They can share who they are and what they think without worrying about being devalued or judged. Even a person who comes in who is not a believer and says, You know I don't believe this and I don't believe that. That's okay, we love you. It's all right, come on in, have a coffee with us.
See, it is not our job to convert.
It's only God's job to convert. Our job is to be the vessel of love that God does that through.
We are here in tje body of Christ because God called us and chose us to be here. Who is going to say to the Lord, you chose poorly?
As we accept and love each other especially in our differences, God can draw others to Christ through us. So how we are with each other is our 1st form of witness to a hurting world
Drill that into your mind. Our first form of witnessing, is how we are with one another.
We are seldom aware of why we go through troubles, why we go through struggles, but if we will love our way through them, then a watching world will notice and will believe. For the Lord to have his way on earth and to establish the fullness of his kingdom as he desires, He must have a church who looks like Him and is able to work with Him.
Unfortunately many in His church have been wounded and isolated—not just through the firepower of the enemy but from “friendly fire” within the church herself.
God wants to revive His church, healing and restoring her and bringing her back to her primary calling of looking like Him.
God loves you! He is longing to have a relationship with you. You are the church, the apple of His eye, He is not the church that hurt you! We are in the most critical hour of world history as light and darkness and good and evil converge with greater force than at any other time. If there were ever a time for the church to be the church it is now.
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