The Letter part 2
We are God's love letter to the world. That's what I'm trying to say in this Rant series. Our lives are a letter read by all men. Everybody is watching you. Judging you. Especially if they know you're a Christian. People hold Christians to a higher standard. "You're not supposed to do that." "Isn't he a Christian?" As if professing your faith in Jesus is supposed to make you automatically fit into their idea of what a Christian should be. Let me say this, though, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Like I said: We are God's LOVE letter to the world. That's what people ought to be reading in us, because that's what we ought to be displaying to them. And, to be perfectly frank and honest, I'd rather have people say, "Tom's a nice guy," than "Tom's a Christian." Because one of those things is universally "judged" in a positive light... and the other one is being a Christian. People see Christians as hypocrites. People who do things they're not supposed to do. People who judge others, and do so harshly. It shouldn't be that way. But the church as a whole has been on a sin hunt for so long--more concerned with this absurd idea of hell as a everlasting punishment of torment rather than the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of the love that Jesus came for us to have--that that's all people see with "church folk" anymore. Religious types. Hitting them over the head with Scripture and then kicking them when they're down. And calling it love. "Tough love" maybe, but still dressing it up as trying to help people. Condemnation does not help people. Ever. It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. Seeing a more excellent way is the only way to give up what you're doing. You have to have a better alternative to choose. Otherwise, why wouldn't you just keep barreling along, doing what you've been doing? Let me say it like this: If you want something different, you have to do something different (unless you're building something, which takes time). So you have to see something different. You have to be able to believe that there IS something different. The most disillusioned I ever get is when I hear things like, "I'm already going to hell, so why does it matter?" Unreal. We've built a system of belief that destroys people. Sends them, hopeless, down the so-called highway to hell. That's what the church, for the most part, has for people. Kind of the opposite of how we're supposed to be identified. People will know you by your love. If you love people, you are clearly and obviously representing the God who is love. That just makes sense, right? He wrote His Word (which is Jesus, which is love) in our heart. So that what's inside might come out. He wrote a love letter to us when He laid His life down for us (and as us) on the cross. God's letter to us is, "I love you." That's what we can now deliver to each other. "God loves me. I can love Him back by loving you." It's that simple. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Showing people who God is by loving them. God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. That's what this life is for. It's a life of love. Receiving and releasing the love of God. BEING the letter that He wrote to the world!