Love one another (Part 3)

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful ;  and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. " 

Hebrews 10:23-25 (NAS)

Through life we continue to build up walls. We guard our hearts, but we also shut people out. We learn to rely on ourselves partly because that is what society teaches us, but also because we have built up so much distrust in others. Perhaps the most distressing is the divide and distrust that is between Christians. I hear many say "I believe in God, but I don't believe in organized religion." This is so disheartening...because Jesus sure believed in coming together as a Body of Believers. And while we all have scars that we have carried from our childhood bullies or the mean girls in the locker room, the scars that have been caused by the Church are the hardest to bury.

Within the Body, we hurt each other because of differences in theology or because of pride. It is not unusual to see churches divide. And while it is okay to have different interpretations, we are too busy calling foul, calling someone a heretic, and damning everyone to Hell to truly love one another. No wonder so many people walk away from the church. Shouldn't church be a place of encouragement and love? Shouldn't we embrace each other as brothers and sisters AND sinners?

Love one another, love one another, love one another. Depending on which translation you read of the Bible, the word love is used at least 300 times (and usually closer to 600 in most translations).  Of course, loving someone doesn't mean that you just shrug off sin. We are supposed to help each other when we are living in sin...by loving.  We need each other. That is one of the main reasons why church is so important:

 "Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up."

 Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NAS)

It doesn't have to do with attendance records. It is because we desperately need each other. Society is wrong. This why so many of us suffer with loneliness: we believe the lie that we can make it on our own. Sure you can physically survive. But, spiritually, God has given us each other as brothers and sisters because He knew that more could be done for His glory this way.

I have walked in those shoes of disdain. My heart turned cold and I had a huge distaste for "organized" religion. If a Sunday was missed, I felt like someone was keeping an eye on me. This was more of me being rebellious than anything else, but it was also because I felt more love and acceptance from non believers than those who called themselves Christians. I always felt this pressure from Christians to constantly be "better" and "improving". I would always leave church feeling like a failure. I'd see other women grow in their walk and I felt left behind because I wasn't where they were spiritually. I felt like I needed to clean myself up before I could even be in their presence. It seems in the midst of it all, grace was all forgotten. And if I felt this being a "good girl", can you imagine how others feel who have some serious visible sin? How rejected they must feel! They must feel like they are walking around with a scarlet letter.

And this breaks my heart. Because they should feel loved. It doesn't mean that we ignore their sin; it means we lift them up and encourage them when they are being spiritually shaken. Those with deeply rooted sin are the ones who need us the most.

My prayer today is that the Lord will use us to love those who need it most but who we feel deserve it the least; that by the power of the Spirit we will be able to believe the best of others instead of jumping to negative conclusions...seeing them as hopeless; and that we will SEE people's hurts and encourage them in their pain and trials...that we can show them the hope in knowing Christ.

 Love someone who needs it today. We so desperately need each other.