Where did grace go?

I’ve been reading blogs and just observing the world around me and it honestly is driving me nuts. See i’m the type of person that really feels stuff, empathy on steroids type of person. I love God and I take His word very seriously,(every word).

See my problem is, everything seems to be going down hill. I don’t get it at all. I get really mad when I go on websites and read harsh criticism from Christians to other Christians. What happened to loving our neighbours? What happened to being our brothers keepers? What happened to grace?

It’s really exhausting reading a blog by a christian who’s harshly breaking a fellow christian down for whatever sin. Even more painful is cursing someone out when they have openly confessed and repented for said the sin. The bible clearly says to forgive. So when exactly did it become okay to be self righteous and act like we don’t sin? When did we take God’s place in terms of judging others? We make it seem normal to make people jump through hoops to earn forgiveness when forgiveness is freely given by God to anyone who repents.

It really breaks my heart that we find it so hard to be gracious. there’s a very big difference between correcting someone and making them feel worthless. It’s very easy to miss the mark (clearly) and we need to be cautious when going to someone who has wronged us, the church or whatever else the sin is. Be careful not to make ourselves gods, for there can only be one God and He is not us. 

The bible says in Matthew 18:15-17 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

It’s important to give people a chance, an opportunity to change. Correct each other with love and not with the intention of embarrassing each other or making ourselves look purer or better. None of is good, if it wasn’t for Jesus dying we would all have perished. Yet we seem to forget and put our own selfish pride and needs before building each other. We are the church, the body of Christ. If we break each other in the end we actually are breaking ourselves. Very stupid if you ask me, like punching yourself in the face because your nose snorted on someone. Where does that get you? Everything works together. So either build or break.(i figure a dumb thing, deserves a dumb example)

Romans 14:1-12

¹ Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ² One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

 ⁵ One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. ⁶ Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹ For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

 ¹⁰ You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ¹¹ It is written:

   “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, 
‘every knee will bow before me; 
   every tongue will acknowledge God.’”

 ¹² So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

In the end, we are all accountable to God. His free grace is not to be earned. Neither is His love.

What’s your sin?

If there’s one bible verse that constantly challenges me it’s…

“James 5:26
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

We are expected not only to repent our sins to God but to each other.. WHOAH!

We all have personal struggles that we share with no one right? I can’t be the only one? I have things that I have shared, and said I’ve struggled with, even here on my blog. Others though I prayed about and they went away. Some still haunt me. The thing is we are not supposed to be fighting by ourselves. We are a family. One body.

Sadly, with everyone keeping their little problems to themselves, new Christians come and assume we are perfect and sometimes may even give up, because they thought sharing their imperfections with a bunch of holy members of the church was an impossible.

I follow this organization called p4cm(passion for Christ movement), they mostly reach out through poetry and I’m a huge fan of poetry. Anyway, in their store they had an EX range of tee’s. Ex- masturbator, ex-porn addict, ex-doubter, ex-hypocrite e.t.c. You buy the one that applies to you and wear it proudly, because you have been saved and redeemed by Christ.

I absolutely love that idea to be open and tell people that no one is perfect but God still loves us.

To confess that which we kept hidden. To be free. It’s a great concept, but what I’m saying isn’t that we should all wear a t-shirt with our past sins or the sins we are still struggling with but to be able to admit that we are sinners and we have been redeemed. To be able to talk to each  other honestly and openly without fear of condemnation. To be a family that loves each other and is there for one another. Because this world is hard enough without us(Christians), condemning each other. We get enough of that from the world. We should embrace each other with love and grace. We should console and pray for each other. We should lead each other.

We are called to be a family. That is the only way anyone can actually be able to come to us and say hey, I’ve been struggling with sex addiction can you help me”

 

 

Me? I used too watch porn(a lot)..  Am I tempted to once in a while? yes. But, I am proud to say I don’t watch anymore.

I used to drink, a lot.. I don’t drink anymore.

I have a lot of flaws and imperfections I can’t list them all now, but God is strong in my weakness. I may one day slip and do something but, I choose to focus on God and His undying love for me. and that gets me through everyday.

God loves you, He hates your sin. If you trust in Him, he will always come through.

 

So tell me, what is your sin?