WELCOME EACH OTHER SOMETIMES PEOPLE dont make it easy to welcome them. They can be bad tempered, selfish, critical, irritating, dismissive, aggressive & pompous. Sometimes you want to give them a piece of your mind; give them what they deserve-anything but acceptance. The command, welcome each other, is inconvenient. And Paul had stopped there we might dodge to directive by saying he obviously meant good, reasonable, acceptable people. Alas, he goes on, Just as Christ has welcomed you into Gods glory. Were you good, reasonable & acceptable? No, but He welcomed you-flaws & all-and He still does! You say, Somebody has to straighten these people out & require them to act right! You mean like Jesus required before He welcomed you? Roman Christians had difficulty welcoming their less experienced brothers, and Paul connected them: Now as for a person whose trust is weak, welcome him-but not to get into arguments over opinions. ....because God has accepted him. (Romans 14:1,3c) Straightening people out isnt our department, accepting them is. God calls us to welcomed-up, u spiritual, carnal, obnoxious, doctrinally misled, just plain wrong people. You dont have to approve of, like, or agree with them, but accepting them isnt optional. Theres no elite, privileged, insider class. We occupy level ground because of two realities: OUR SIN AND THE CROSS! Jews & Gentiles despised each other, even after Salvation. Each wanted the other to change & become like them. But Paul took the axe to the root of that tree: But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of Christs blood. For he himself is our shalom - he has made us both one and has broken down the wall of hostility which divided us by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the law, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in Union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom ( peace), and in order to reconcile to God both in a single body of being executed on a stake as a criminal and thus in himself killing that enmity. (Ephesians 2:14-16) Christ has destroyed the barriers people build between themselves. Our job is to accept people-and let God adjust them. Christ has knocked down the barriers & has united all believers in one family. His cross should be the focus of our UNITY. The Holy Spirit helps us look beyond the barriers to the unity we are called to enjoy. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FRIEND & FAMILY & FB BROTHER & SISTER, LET WE FACE IT 2015 WITH NEW ATTITUDE & LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS JESUS LOVE YOU & ME, SHALOM 💖💖💖
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 11:29:19 +0000
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