Fire

In the forests there are tall towers constructed to be hundreds of feet tall. The wind causes them to sway just a little but if you can climb them, the view is amazing. You can see for miles. 

Imagine being on the Eiffel tower or the Empire State building and ripping open a feather pillow, shaking all the feathers out. Of course a few would fall at your feet, but the wind would blow most of the feathers far and wide.  Even if you tried, even if your very life depended on it, you could not recapture all of those feathers. Most would travel to places unseen, unknown. 

Now imagine that all of those feathers, were fire. 

Proverbs 16:27-28

27 Scoundrels create trouble;

their words are a destructive blaze.

28 A troublemaker plants seeds of strife;

gossip separates the best of friends.

Gossip will burn through life like a wildfire, untamed, uncontrollable.  Who can re-gather fire? It can never be re-gathered, it can never be taken back, just like you can never get back the spill of gossip. You could work tirelessly to undo gossip, you could spend hours, days, weeks, even years trying to battle... and it is like a single man trying to put out a forest fire.  

James 3:5-6…5So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!6And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

I am pretty sure everyone has experienced gossip coming back to them about themselves. When that happens, it is always tempting to correct the gossip, to identify the originator and to put them in their place.

But if I try to run it down I will never find rest or peace, it would be just as impossible as chasing down feathers dropped from the tower spire.  It would be just as dangerous as a person who tried to fight a forest fire with a garden hose.

   I have grappled with this and realized that...

...when I  accept God's estimation of me, 
I stop worrying about what people say about me.

When I know I have been the topic of gossip, I often pray that God will recapture all those feathers for me, that he will extinguish the fires that have been set around me.

There is no way that I will ever be able to address it, no way that I could  convince others of the untruthfulness of the words spoken against me or my family. And in trying to undo the tangle of someone else's web - I too would strike a match and light dry kindling - I too would be guilty - I too would cause harm.

Psalm 62:5-6 NLT

Let all that I am wait quietly before God,

    for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.

Goodnight,

Amanda

Should we expect Non-Christians to be Moral?

Blogged with permission of Israel Wayne,  Author and Conference Speaker and Director of Family Renewal, LLC. He is also the Site Editor for www.ChristianWorldview.net. 

I have been hearing a lot lately, “We shouldn’t expect non-Christians to live like Christians. They don’t know God, so they sin. That’s what sinners do. Stop expecting them to be moral.”
Or even, “God’s laws apply to Christians, but they don’t apply to non-Christians.”

Is this thinking Biblical? Should we refuse to mention to non-Christians that they are sinners and that they are violating God’s moral law?

Paul says that God didn’t give His moral law for good people, but for the people who are sinning.

“We know that the law is good when used correctly. For the law was not intended for people who do what is right. It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.” (1 Timothy 1:8-10, NLT)

Should we tell our non-Christian friends that they are sinning? Paul certainly did to the unbelieving Greeks in his day:

“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31, NLT)

A lady I know posted online the other day that we shouldn’t tell people they are sinners, instead, we should just tell them about Jesus. Really? Tell them what about Jesus? What is significant about Jesus? That He loves people? Heck, Barney the Dinosaur loves people! That’s not life-changing news.

Jesus is only significant if He is the remedy to the sin that separates us from God (His claim). You can’t skip over the cross on your way to acceptance by God.

“We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. (Romans 3:22-25, NLT)

Galatians 3:24 says that God’s moral law is what He uses to bring us to Christ. Until we know God’s moral law, and that we have broken it, we cannot seen our need for a Savior. Don’t skip the confrontational parts of the Gospel in your eagerness to just love everybody into the Kingdom. God is holy, and He will not allow sin to abide in His presence. We owed a debt we could not pay, Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, so we could be reconciled to God.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NTL)

Before you can give the good news, you have to give the bad news. God doesn’t give people a free pass on sin just because they aren’t Christians, and neither should we. God doesn’t merely require all people to be good, He commands us to be Holy. That can only happen through the life-giving power of Jesus.

Finally, we understand that it is ONLY through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit of God, living inside of us, that we can be transformed and finally overcome the grip of sin in our lives and live the life that pleases God.

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4, NLT)

So lovingly confront unbelievers with their sin, otherwise, they can never be saved from their sin.