Last weekend, I went to a conference on creation. It was supposed to focus on teaching a literal 6 day creation of the world, as taught in the Bible. I was excited to learn new evidence that I can use to not only support my own faith, but to help me defend my beliefs with others that may have questions.
I was very disappointed to see that the speaker spent so much of his time denouncing certain groups of people and practices that had nothing to do with the topic, all in the name of Christianity. I was upset, ashamed, and embarrassed. He even went as far as to group Seventh Day Adventists in with those whom he believed did not believe in Jesus and would burn in hell. Obviously, he has never met a Seventh Day Adventist, nor did he have an accurate understanding of hell. In any case, his mean-spirited statements completely took away from any good information that he may have had to share.
This made me think about my own actions. The Bible admonishes us to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). I wonder how often my actions focus on the "truth" as I see it, leaving out the more important part, love. No one will listen to the "truth" if they don't at first feel the love and trust what I have to say. We won't believe Jesus until we understand first that he loves us. The love must prevail before the truth can be heard.
I must always be willing to show truth through love. I must act in love, in order to share truth.
I always here, as an argument to this, that the Bible also teaches that Jesus' word is a stumbling block to others, that the truth must offend, and other such things. It is true that God's word is a challenge to us. The straight and narrow road is usually not the easy way, and it does cause us to stumble over ourselves, but none of this says that WE need to be stumbling blocks or that WE need to be offensive to support God's word. God is love. WE need to act and speak in love.
This is what I am thinking about on the day that everyone is thinking about love.
I was very disappointed to see that the speaker spent so much of his time denouncing certain groups of people and practices that had nothing to do with the topic, all in the name of Christianity. I was upset, ashamed, and embarrassed. He even went as far as to group Seventh Day Adventists in with those whom he believed did not believe in Jesus and would burn in hell. Obviously, he has never met a Seventh Day Adventist, nor did he have an accurate understanding of hell. In any case, his mean-spirited statements completely took away from any good information that he may have had to share.
This made me think about my own actions. The Bible admonishes us to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). I wonder how often my actions focus on the "truth" as I see it, leaving out the more important part, love. No one will listen to the "truth" if they don't at first feel the love and trust what I have to say. We won't believe Jesus until we understand first that he loves us. The love must prevail before the truth can be heard.
I must always be willing to show truth through love. I must act in love, in order to share truth.
I always here, as an argument to this, that the Bible also teaches that Jesus' word is a stumbling block to others, that the truth must offend, and other such things. It is true that God's word is a challenge to us. The straight and narrow road is usually not the easy way, and it does cause us to stumble over ourselves, but none of this says that WE need to be stumbling blocks or that WE need to be offensive to support God's word. God is love. WE need to act and speak in love.
This is what I am thinking about on the day that everyone is thinking about love.
