What About Them?

Discipleship
Charlotte, age 2
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.28.18-20.NKJV

Once we are saved, we being to learn and understand God’s Word to us, and as He heals us, and continues to reside and grow us more and more into His image, we become less concerned about us, and more concerned about others…

The heart of God rises up in us to ‘go ye therefore, and make disciples.’

The desires come and are ready to be born to go and tell the good news of the Man who ‘takes away the sin of the world.’

The problem is, is that people are messed up, just like I am.

They have oozing, bleeding wounded souls that smear all over us when they are hurt just like I do to them, if I am not tending to the soul with Jesus.

We have to learn to see the battle for what it is, it’s always against the enemy, not the people.

These writings are what God used to show me how to see other believers, how to see them the way He sees them, always remembering we can never know a heart’s motive, and we cannot see the hurt in the soul like God can.

So we forgive seventy times seven, we patiently endure with them all, loving them just like God loves me, despite the deepest darkest corners of my heart.

We can never give up on people.

We can never write them off as a lost cause because God is not doing that to you.

Leave the big things to the Father, and you do the loving in person so maybe, just maybe they can taste and see Him, in you.

Church verses Religion

(Church Talk Disclaimer)

Church
Pretty Place Chapel, Cleveland SC 2023

The Bible has a lot to say about going to church, and the importance of the church.

My words to you are to GO TO CHURCH.

Go to likeminded believers who will sharpen you, grow you, confront you in love, be there for you, hold you up in times where you’re weak, care for you and take you into a church family.

Open yourself up to people, get to know them, and let yourself be known by them.

I cannot promise a life of no more hurt, but I can promise your obedience is greater than your sacrifice in this area.

It may not look like it always has, church.

A very important measuring tool I go by when making decisions with the Lord in a church is this: am I falling more in love with the person of Jesus, and more in love with God’s written word by this leader’s teachings?

Am I being taught how to be a disciple?

Taught to walk out my salvation?

Taught about how to relation with Jesus?

If the emphasis is on ‘get in here and serve,’ join a small group where nothing godly happens, and attend every single event we have so that you have zero time to spend with Jesus yourself… I’d say caution.

Relationship with Jesus is number one. Always.

Here’s what God’s Word says about it:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/114/eph.5.25-27.NKJV
“And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/114/col.1.18.NKJV
“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭12‬-‭27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/114/1co.12.12-27.NKJV
Religion
Tate, age 8

The Bible also has a lot to say, especially Jesus, about being religious, whitewashed tombs. The word of God confronts those of us that appear righteous on the outside without the real power of His presence within… we look the part, but we have rottenness in our hearts…

I hate religion.

I hate rules and regulations without relationship.

I have to literally restrain my fingers, my voice and my temper when discussing, writing or talking about religion…

I’ll just let this passage do the talking…

“Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭1‬-‭12‬, ‭23‬-‭36‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.23.1-12.NKJV

A little leaven, leaveneth the whole entire lump… and all it takes is just a little.

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