Back to the Basics: Love

I have come back home for Christmas break- hopefully this means i can blog more. I'm probably going to go back to doing my personal devotions and blogging about it, sharing scripture that popped out at me.

These past few weeks I have been confronted by the idea of God and love. Including myself, many Christians find love to be the focus of God- God is love. However it has become clear to me that the definition of love for a lot of Christ followers has become watered down. More specifically, because God is love and because i am to strive to become like God, I must not judge; judging does not come from love. I do not know where this idea of a separation between Love and Judge came to be (i mean i have some theories but i won't get into that here).

There is a type of judging that is unhealthy and comes from a heart of malice- this is the one that people dislike and the one that many today try to stay away from (you are in the wrong with this kind of judging). However, to judge is not something that is wrong in itself. When an individual has a problem with heroin, isn't it out of love that their family and friends come to him to speak truth about his addiction? That is judgment being made and it is out of love.
If we look at the relationship between parents and their children, do not good parents put boundaries around their children and have consequences for crossing those boundaries? Do not good parents punish their children for doing wrong? And isn't all those things done out of love lest the child finds out the hard way what consequences and punishment does follow out of wrong doing. That is judgment and it is done out of love- I'd rather learn what consequences mean by my loving parents than by the state prison.

Many Christians forget that it is possible, and sometimes necessary, to judge and punish someone out of love. Of course the next question would be how do we know a punishment is coming out of love?

^"4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Unlike what we may hear at weddings, this description of love was intended for the brothers and sisters of the church. This is what love looks like to each other. And when we judge one another this is the heart that it must come from.

But how do i know that we are called to judge one another? after all Matthew 7:1 says 'Do not judge, or you too will be judged.' however if you take time to look at the context that scripture comes from, you get this:

" Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the lank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Matthew 7:1-5

The command isn't to never judge under any circumstance, but to warn the brothers that the measure that we judge each other is the measure that we God will judge us. How do we make sure that we do not judge in hypocrisy? we make sure we judge in love.

A point that i want to make clear- I do not say that judging includes people outside of the church- even in the scripture above it refers to the other person as being your brother. Again, in 1 Corinthians:

"What business is it of mine to judge those outside of the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you."

1 Corinth 5:12-13

This is where the Christians who focus on love are right. outside of the church, or outside of the family, our job is to love- Love like Christ loves. We do not condemn those that our not yet our own. However, inside the church it is a family- we are all part of God's family and we are all part of God's house. God is as holy as he is love, therefore anything that is not holy in the body must be confronted- but confronted out of love (the last scripture here is taken out of context- read all of chp. 5 to understand what Paul is speaking about). A family that truly loves one another will confront a member when they are participating in acts that are harmful to themselves (like the intervention with the heroin) and to do things that are not holy is something that affects our spiritual walk, let alone our spiritual peace, with God. Therefore, if i care for my sister or brother in christ, i will love him or her, yes, but i am responsible for judging her as well.

Therefore, as a final note; when you are being judged, if it is from a loved one, do not get defensive. Instead, trust the character of the person talking to you- wouldn't him or her have your own best interest in mind if they are confronting you? Wouldn't they say something to you if they thought it was in your own self-interest to listen? If that is the case, examine the speck in your eye because they probably have already examined the plank in their own eyes.

My pastor back at school said this in a sermon not to long ago: It is wrong to say God is Loving and Just. No, because God is love, he is also just.

I'll leave with a hymm performed by Sufjan Stevens:

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing



Lyrics:

Come Thou Fount of every blessing; Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, Mount of God's unchanging love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer; Hither by Thy help I'm come; And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be! Let that grace now like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above

Peace be with you,
Tabby <3

The Next Level

I've been just so busy these past few weeks- i started a new summer class and it literally eats up my life. However- i have still been able to do my devo's pretty frequently without having to blog about it so i'm going to say that i'm making progress^_^

At this rate, i'll be able to just blog about the random things that come in my head without having to leave a long list of verses from backed up days and whatnot's.

Nothing much to say other than i'm a page away from finishing that bible journal and i've already bought a new one that's more than ready to take it's place.

Instead of putting down ALL the verses i have written down so far (cause that's a butt load...) i'll just put up the ones i really REALLY liked.

"Though I an free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible."
1 Corinthians 9:19
~Paul talking about his role as a preacher of the Word

"To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."
1 Corinthians 9:22

^"1For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. ⁶Now these things occurred as examples^a]">[a] to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did."
1 Corinthians 10:1-6

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
1 Corinthians 10:13

"'Everything is permissible'- but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible'- but not everything is constructive"
1 Corinthians 11:23

"In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God."
1 Corinth 11:11&12

"therefore my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues."
1 Corinthians 14:39

"we are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us."
2 Corinthians 5: 20a

" ⁸I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. ⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."
2 Corinthians 8:8&9

"For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men."
2 corinthians 8:21

"You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."
2 Corinthians 9:11
~'us' being Paul and his crew- one of the things Paul did as he visited different churches was fund raise so that he could spread the wealth to the churches that needed it.

Peace be with you.

Flu

I was sick in with the flu last week so that set me back a few days (but i didn't really make that much of an effort after i was a little better...)

I'm a little excited actually because i'm fairly close to finishing my first bible journal (i started it last summer). Just thinking about how much i've grown and how much God has stretched me this year is very interesting. One of these days i'm going to have to read through the whole thing and just see how it has progressed- though it's been more of a list of bible verses and random bits of writings, prayers, sermons or comments. haha, journal-ing has never been a strong point.













































did you know i took pictures? well now you do :P
(p.s. the one up top is an original ^_^)

Verses for Today and Yesterday:

Yesterday-
"you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?"
1 Corinthians 3:3

"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow"
1 Corinthians 3:6&7

"the man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor."
1 Corinthians 3:8

"¹³his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. ¹⁴If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."
1 Corinthians 3:13-15
~I LOVE this verse sooo much that i bold-ed it :P

" ⁶Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another."
1 Corinthians 4:6

Today-
"Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?"
1 Corinthians 5:6
~Paul is talking about sexual immorality in the church but this can be applied to all evil that is in the church. It doesn't take a lot to contaminate the Church, just one person doing evil can make the whole batch go rotten. The best example (pertaining to the issue Paul is speaking about) is the African American church. There is a coexistence of sexual immorality and Christianity that's more than wrong but has contaminated the batch to the point that sex before marriage becomes widely accepted. I'm not saying, and Paul's not saying, that the Church's job is to throw out anyone who doesn't fit into the perfect cookie cutter christian, he's saying that if a person of the church decides that they are quite content living in their sin and are unwilling to change, for the sake of the Church, he must be treated as an outsider. Of course, putting that in the context of the church today seems terrible but back in those times there was a lot of protection that came with joining a church. However the church did right to love outsiders of the faith as well. The throwing out is almost a rebuke that the Church makes to the individual for the individual's sake as well as for the congregation's sake. God's house can't afford to let sin creep into the building, the individual cannot afford to live in Sin when God freely gives us his forgiveness to wash that away.

"What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside, 'expel the wicked man from among you'"
1 Corinthians 5:12
~an example of the relationship the the Church and 'outsiders.' we don't Judge people outside because that's not our place but we judge the people in our own Church; not to create distrust or disunity, but out of love. We want to keep each other on the right path.

"¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
1 Corinthians 6:18-20


That's it for today,
Peace be with You.

Help me to Stand

I run to you, I seek your face
but without understanding.
because I'm following you hard
I'm a target in Satan's eyes.

Lord how long has he had a finger in my soul?
How long have I been bound in these heavy chains?

I run for you but I'm constricted
I search for you but I'm choking inside
I've been unhappy for so long I'm used to the pain
-but just barely

I'm weak
I'm tired
why don't i feel like anyone's there?
how many years have i felt this lonely?

It's funny how he knows my weakness long before I do.
It's scary that he understands my insecurities before me.

But Lord, you know me
not just my weakness but my strengths.
my heart, my mind
you know all about me
and you know how to help me overcome

Lord Jesus set me free
Break me from the bondage I was too blind to see
I want to live in victory
I want to see your supremacy

Let your majesty wash over me like a flood
So that I may rise again praising you
Hosanna In the Highest
You are able the make me Stand

"He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things- and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are. So that no one may boast before him."
1 Corinthians 1:28-29

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."
1 Corinthians 2:4-5