Y'all, we have got to talk. I am currently praying as I write because I tend to be on the emotional side of things and get myself all worked up. That's the reason I married a pretty non-emotional guy: he keeps me sane. Or, at least he tries his very best to keep me sane.
We have got to do this Jesus thing differently. We have to. Let me begin by saying I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that I need saving because I am the messiest of messy individuals. I need grace ever single day of my life. I need love. I need mercy. I also tend to be very conservative and quite passionate about my morals and values. I will go through hell and high water to protect my beliefs and my family. What I will not do, however, is keep someone from losing their soul.
Let me give you some Scripture that I have been meditating on. I have been parked in this spot for awhile now and you will most likely see these words again in another post.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. John 4: 4-28 Bible Gateway
The woman at the well. Many Christians have heard this story. There is SO much I could say about these verses. They are loaded. Let's start from the beginning. Jews and Samaritans did NOT hang out with each other. They completely avoided one another. If you were a Jewish person traveling and came across a Samaritan town, you would go all the way around the town instead of through it just to avoid the people. The fact that she's a woman makes it all the more scandalous. I will go into more detail about this at a later time.
What I want to speak to here is that Jesus ALWAYS loved even when he didn't agree. He ALWAYS loved first. Always. He knew who this woman was before she even stepped one foot near her. He knew she was a Samaritan. Strike one. He knew she wasn't married. Strike two. He knew that not only was she not married but had been married five times before and was now living with a man who was not her husband. Strike three. Did Jesus condemn her and tell her that he could not drink from her water because she was so full of sin? Absolutely not! You guys, he asked to to drink water from HER bucket. What?!?!
Ok, so this is what I am going to say about this. We have got to love this way. He boldly went into an area that was ostracized by others. He had a conversation with a woman who should have been stoned according to the culture of the time. He asked for her water; for her to share something with him. Something that was contaminated with her sinful germs. He loved. He sat and talked with her about the promise that he is. Yes, he talked to her about the life she was leading but not before he loved. Once he showed his true identity (love) he was able to have a real conversation with her about the life she was living. AND, get this straight please, he did not condemn her or tell her how horribly wrong she was or tell her she was dirty and all those nasty names that some of us would say. He loved.
Guess what her reaction was? She ran to her town and told them about Jesus. We can easily see her as a missionary. She spoke the message of Jesus to her Samaritan town. Why? Because he LOVED her.
We are scared, my sweet Christians. We are scared that if we love we are showing the world we agree. We are scared that if we don't speak up and say something against this god-forsaken hellish world, we are not doing our Christian duty and will be scorned by God for it. Where on earth did this come from? How did we get here? (I am getting passionate. I need to settle down. Lol).
We have got to stop believing these lies. Satan has gotten a hold of us and we have all gone mad. We are believing the enemy instead of our Savior. Jesus is calling us to a love so upside down from this world that we cannot grasp it. But it is so very simple. Love others. Leave the conviction to God. Loving does not equal agreeing. For goodness sakes. Let me say it again. Love does NOT equal agreeing. Love means you open your home to the one that people walk on the other side of the street to avoid. Love is allowing your kids to see those people that scare you (yes, the ones you pretend don't scare you but do: the gay, the trans-gendered, the druggie, the homeless, the prisoner, etc) and you teach them how to love and serve these people. You show them Jesus. You love.
We have got to stop condemning and start connecting. Stop telling people how wrong they are. Trust me, they already know. We have got to drop the condemnation and pick up the sword of the Spirit connecting people to the Word of God. Start with love because that's exactly where Jesus began. He gave his life because he loved so fiercely. And yes, he gave his life to those you most despise; those you think are so very wrong.
One more thing, can we stop holding people, companies, and such that do not hold Christian values responsible for Christian things? Let God do that. That's his job. Not yours. This absolutely does not mean that we don't stand up for what is right. We do. We vote for what we believe is right and true and we stand firm on the foundations of the morals and standards Jesus taught. But, we understand that those who do not believe in Christian ways are not going to behave very Christianly. This does not make it okay and does not mean we don't have a voice. We just need to change how we handle these situations.
Let me be very clear here, I am not saying we all need to be kumbaya and free love and all that stuff that ran wild in the 60s. Hold tight to His truth. Stand up for what is right. But watch how you are doing the standing up. Jesus told this woman that she was not living right. But he loved first. He started with a conversation that, according to the society and times in which they were living, should never have occurred. He also didn't tell her how wrong she was. He spoke out loud the life she was living. That is all. And then he followed up with how her life could be much more about love and mercy if only she followed him.
The moral of the story: hold tight to the things which you know to be right and true. The Word of God. Don't be like the Pharisees and religious leaders ready to throw your stone anytime someone goes against your Christian morals and standards. It is going to happen more time than not. If you read and KNOW the Word of God you will know that he tells us this time and time again. And love. Please love. Don't be afraid to love. Don't think that because you are loving you are agreeing or excusing behavior. You aren't unless you participate in it. Jesus boldly walked with and befriended the outcasts. He lived amongst the sinners yet never sinned. Does that mean he agreed with them and enabled them to keep sinning. Absolutely not. Quite the opposite happened. They left their sin life because he loved. Period.
"Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:35
Love & Blessings,
Meg
We have got to do this Jesus thing differently. We have to. Let me begin by saying I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that I need saving because I am the messiest of messy individuals. I need grace ever single day of my life. I need love. I need mercy. I also tend to be very conservative and quite passionate about my morals and values. I will go through hell and high water to protect my beliefs and my family. What I will not do, however, is keep someone from losing their soul.
Let me give you some Scripture that I have been meditating on. I have been parked in this spot for awhile now and you will most likely see these words again in another post.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. John 4: 4-28 Bible Gateway
The woman at the well. Many Christians have heard this story. There is SO much I could say about these verses. They are loaded. Let's start from the beginning. Jews and Samaritans did NOT hang out with each other. They completely avoided one another. If you were a Jewish person traveling and came across a Samaritan town, you would go all the way around the town instead of through it just to avoid the people. The fact that she's a woman makes it all the more scandalous. I will go into more detail about this at a later time.
What I want to speak to here is that Jesus ALWAYS loved even when he didn't agree. He ALWAYS loved first. Always. He knew who this woman was before she even stepped one foot near her. He knew she was a Samaritan. Strike one. He knew she wasn't married. Strike two. He knew that not only was she not married but had been married five times before and was now living with a man who was not her husband. Strike three. Did Jesus condemn her and tell her that he could not drink from her water because she was so full of sin? Absolutely not! You guys, he asked to to drink water from HER bucket. What?!?!
Ok, so this is what I am going to say about this. We have got to love this way. He boldly went into an area that was ostracized by others. He had a conversation with a woman who should have been stoned according to the culture of the time. He asked for her water; for her to share something with him. Something that was contaminated with her sinful germs. He loved. He sat and talked with her about the promise that he is. Yes, he talked to her about the life she was leading but not before he loved. Once he showed his true identity (love) he was able to have a real conversation with her about the life she was living. AND, get this straight please, he did not condemn her or tell her how horribly wrong she was or tell her she was dirty and all those nasty names that some of us would say. He loved.
Guess what her reaction was? She ran to her town and told them about Jesus. We can easily see her as a missionary. She spoke the message of Jesus to her Samaritan town. Why? Because he LOVED her.
We are scared, my sweet Christians. We are scared that if we love we are showing the world we agree. We are scared that if we don't speak up and say something against this god-forsaken hellish world, we are not doing our Christian duty and will be scorned by God for it. Where on earth did this come from? How did we get here? (I am getting passionate. I need to settle down. Lol).
We have got to stop believing these lies. Satan has gotten a hold of us and we have all gone mad. We are believing the enemy instead of our Savior. Jesus is calling us to a love so upside down from this world that we cannot grasp it. But it is so very simple. Love others. Leave the conviction to God. Loving does not equal agreeing. For goodness sakes. Let me say it again. Love does NOT equal agreeing. Love means you open your home to the one that people walk on the other side of the street to avoid. Love is allowing your kids to see those people that scare you (yes, the ones you pretend don't scare you but do: the gay, the trans-gendered, the druggie, the homeless, the prisoner, etc) and you teach them how to love and serve these people. You show them Jesus. You love.
We have got to stop condemning and start connecting. Stop telling people how wrong they are. Trust me, they already know. We have got to drop the condemnation and pick up the sword of the Spirit connecting people to the Word of God. Start with love because that's exactly where Jesus began. He gave his life because he loved so fiercely. And yes, he gave his life to those you most despise; those you think are so very wrong.
One more thing, can we stop holding people, companies, and such that do not hold Christian values responsible for Christian things? Let God do that. That's his job. Not yours. This absolutely does not mean that we don't stand up for what is right. We do. We vote for what we believe is right and true and we stand firm on the foundations of the morals and standards Jesus taught. But, we understand that those who do not believe in Christian ways are not going to behave very Christianly. This does not make it okay and does not mean we don't have a voice. We just need to change how we handle these situations.
Let me be very clear here, I am not saying we all need to be kumbaya and free love and all that stuff that ran wild in the 60s. Hold tight to His truth. Stand up for what is right. But watch how you are doing the standing up. Jesus told this woman that she was not living right. But he loved first. He started with a conversation that, according to the society and times in which they were living, should never have occurred. He also didn't tell her how wrong she was. He spoke out loud the life she was living. That is all. And then he followed up with how her life could be much more about love and mercy if only she followed him.
The moral of the story: hold tight to the things which you know to be right and true. The Word of God. Don't be like the Pharisees and religious leaders ready to throw your stone anytime someone goes against your Christian morals and standards. It is going to happen more time than not. If you read and KNOW the Word of God you will know that he tells us this time and time again. And love. Please love. Don't be afraid to love. Don't think that because you are loving you are agreeing or excusing behavior. You aren't unless you participate in it. Jesus boldly walked with and befriended the outcasts. He lived amongst the sinners yet never sinned. Does that mean he agreed with them and enabled them to keep sinning. Absolutely not. Quite the opposite happened. They left their sin life because he loved. Period.
"Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:35
Love & Blessings,
Meg
Comments