Because I Love You....

Oh my stars! Y'all done made me get out the blog for the first time in nearly a year. The world has gone mad and I'm about to tell you all you  need to know on how I feel about the whole thing.

I'm about to get real serious. I'm about to address believers and non-believers alike. I'm going to address both groups separately but in the same post. Hang on, it's a rather uncomfortable ride. But, I've been tearful and sad for over a week now watching all of you and love you enough to share my thoughts.

Believers, for my own reasons I feel like it's important that I address you first. Here goes...

I have never in my life been so sad and disappointed by the nastiness coming from some of you. When you are vulgar and hateful in expressing your opinion to non-believers (While quoting the bible even!) you completely take away any point you are trying to make. You've just alienated someone who doesn't believe. You've just set in stone their feeling that they never want to be a believer, that they never want to be like us. You've just confirmed to them that those who follow Yeshua (Jesus) are hateful bigots.

When you post a Facebook rant about how terribly sinful it is to be homosexual, then spend the next hour posting pictures of half naked men/women in sexual poses and how you can't wait to see Magic Mike, you've just destroyed your testimony. When you are involved in a sexual relationship out of wedlock, when your friends know that you lied to your job the last time you called in, when your facebook feed is filled with pictures of your drunk escapades or profanity laced rants, you destroy your testimony. When non-believers see this they find you laughable, not someone that would encourage them to follow the L-rd. They see a  hypocrite, a liar, a double standard.

You see, non-believers have an advantage. They don't have the faith that G-d is watching their every move so they don't feel like they have to hide the fact that they're sinful. Meanwhile, we believers are busier than cats covering poop trying to hide our own shame so we can lie about who we are to the world and sit in our self-made judgement seats.

 Now, how can I say something about being judgmental while being judgy myself? Because I've been guilty too. I'm calling myself out right along with you. I'm taking the beam out of my own eye so I can talk to you about the speck in yours. I've sinned this way quite recently in a large group setting. I'm coming to you in love to warn you of the dangers of what I see happening. I'm warning you that when judgement comes, you will be judged for the words you spoke in your life you will be judged with the same measuring stick you applied to others. You see, sin is sin. No sin is worse than another. Murderer, liar, hypocrite.... in fact, insert whatever sin you can think of right here in this little blank __________________ . It's all the same to the L-rd. Measuring sin is a thought of man. So, truly, the only thing that is different among sins are the consequences that humans apply to them. If you're going to use the L-rd to justify your beliefs, then please make sure you are trying ALL of His word to YOUR life and not just to the lives of others.

I have many non-believers in my life...family, friends, etc. They've all told me the things I just told you. If, in our words and deeds, we cause someone to turn away from the L-rd, we've sinned. As a believer, YOU are the only view some of them will ever have of the L-rd. Remember that in all that you do, in all that you speak.

Picture this...Take every single drop of blood spilled by Yeshua. Now, take each drop and apply it individually to every person who ever has and ever will live. Everyone gets their very own drop of blood to cover their sin. Now, think of every single person that didn't, or won't, use their drop of blood because of something you, or another believer, said or did. How much of Yeshua's blood was shed in vain? Let that sink in for a minute.

Non-believers, just know these few points...

I know a few of you like to take some scriptures you've heard here and there, or maybe even go looking for them, and use them as an attack on believers thinking they are picking and choosing (and some of them are). However, here is what you don't understand -- the bible isn't a book about a bunch of saints. It's about a bunch of sinners and how even in the filth of their human-ness the L-rd still reached for them out of love. That as despicable and awful as they could be He still desired for them to be something more and had great plans for them.

There are other things I could share -- like why folks aren't killed for sin now days, about the differences in laws given to the Israelites and laws given to gentiles, man laws vs. G-d laws, things that are cultural references only, but I think all of that is probably more than you'd like to absorb at the moment and I don't want to distract from the point I'm trying to make here.

Not all believers are the terrible people you may think we are. And not all non-believers are the terrible people we think they are. As with any group, there are always a few who mess things up for the many. Please remember how angry you feel when believers stereo-type you and don't stereo-type us in return.

When I scroll through Facebook and see your hurts and disappointments, I feel them too and pray for you. When I see your joys I rejoice for you. Whether you share my faith or not I love you, I will be kind to you, I will admit my imperfections and try to make them right. In no way can I ever claim to be perfect because of my faith, it is because of my imperfections that I need my faith. It is because of my brokenness and humanness (or humanMess as I like to say) that I need my faith.

You see, the nastiness of some believers is not a believer problem....It's a HUMAN problem. It's pride, it's vanity, it's our inability as humans to see ourselves the way others see us and make corrections. It's because we are human, not because we believe.