Post Number 100!

I guess this might be considered some sort of small achievement, I don't know to be honest with you, but I did want this post to be special. I thought about what I could blog about and what might be appropriate all week. So here I am on an early Saturday morning in front of my computer screen blogging. Is this post going to be negative, positive, inspirational or introspective? I just really wanted God to speak to my heart and then to be able to share something earth shattering or riveting.

That statement leads me to this. I do believe that God speaks to our hearts all of the time. Sometimes we choose to listen to that still small voice and sometimes we don't. But if you are truly seeking Him, He will answer every time. Over the past few days I have observed some things that really have troubled me inside. The things that I have observed I have laughed at before and made fun of because to be quite honest with you, in my opinion these things I am talking about are quite pathetic and sad and do deserved to be laughed at and made fun of. The things that I am talking about are church signs or marquis that churches use as "tools" to get people to visit their congregation.

Like I said I normally just get a kick out of their crazy little messages and laugh it off and go on my way but this time, over the past several days they just have been troubling me. Not because messages like, "Misfits Welcome Inside" or "Denominationally Wounded? Come Inside For First Aid" (or any other myriad of signs I have seen before) make me mad but because of their arrogant, cavalier attitude toward the very people that the signs are trying to reach.

The one sign that just cut me to the core was "Misfits Welcome Inside". I thought to myself that if I were a person that knew nothing about God or His church and I saw that sign, that I would be crazy mad. If you truly think about what this church was saying it would even make saved people mad. This church basically labeled everyone that passes their sign as misfits. Where is the love, compassion, concern for others even beyond being saved or not. How can a church be so blatantly arrogant in their self proclamation that they are better than everyone else? Then I wondered if this church actually thought that they were reaching out to the un-saved and if they actually thought this would be compelling for the person that does not know God to walk into their church? Then I realized that I was sad for this church that their perception on what they were doing to reach the lost was so skewed by traditionalism that they were no longer reaching out but only reaching in to proclaim how screwed up everyone in the world was and they were not.

All of that to say this. God, over the past few years has really changed my heart and my perspective on reaching people who do not know the Lord. What I say, they way I act, my body language, the clothes I wear and most of all, my attitude are tools in reaching out to people that might not know God. I know traditionalists harp on being set apart and being holy as a representation of being a Christian. Let me say this, I believe in being holy if that means that I must love others with care and concern for their everyday situation in addition to their spiritual condition. Holiness is a condition of the heart not a condition of appearance. It does not matter if I wear jeans with holes or if I am in a trendy shirt, clothes do not make a person holy. A love for our Jesus and reliance upon his free gift of grace is what makes a person holy. If set apart means to love others so that they can see Jesus in my life not just on my life then I am all for that. The life I live is a testimony to the un-saved. I don't need to look different and talk in big "churchy" words and act all arrogant and mad at the world for people to know I am a Christian. If that is what I am then I am no different than the Pharisees of Jesus' day who were described as "White Washed Tombs". Jesus was all God and all man, a common (a carpenter not a priest) man, who wore common (regular robes not priestly garments) clothes, who told common (parables not the "book of the law") stories, who spoke about how God lived inside (the heart not the man-made temple) a person and Jesus was different. How was He different? He was motivated by LOVE for lost and hurting people. Love for people not a love for self. Do I live my life out of love for others or just myself? It all comes down to one word, LOVE. They will know us by our LOVE. "Misfits Welcome Inside" come on people! Where is the love? They will know us by our LOVE. They will know us by our LOVE. They will know us by our LOVE. They will know us by our LOVE!

Love truly wins!

Happy 100th! :-)