After thinking about my friendships I started to realize some things about diversity.  Having different ideologies and viewpoints about things can be very enlightening and can even be unifying if approached the right way.  People hold a variety of views about any given topic but when the proper dialogue is established a lot of good can be achieved by this very diversity.

Diversity, more often than not, is used by our enemy to divide us.  It doesn’t have to and shouldn’t.  God created mankind to be different and unique from each other.  Ultimately I believe we can come to a lot of the same conclusions and that there is only one Truth, but there are almost as many ways to arrive at that Truth as there are people.  Jesus is that Truth in case anyone thought I might be headed down a Universalist path.

Jesus said that “It is impossible but that offences will come…” [Luke 17:1]  The word used for offenses in some versions of the Bible is translated as temptations for sin, causes for trouble, trials and temptations, stumbling blocks and others, but they all are trying to tell us the same thing.  The Greek word used here is skandalon and means all of the above plus it could be translated as a snare or a trap.  The enemy just loves to trap us, snare us, and cause us to fall from being offended.  Arguing about and from our differences is a key way he divides us.  And Jesus said in was inevitable.

I believe if we could learn to give the other side a chance, or a hearing, we would not be so easily ensnared by offense.  As I travel further and further down the narrow path I am finding it easier and easier to slough off the inevitable offenses that come. 

Why does a differing viewpoint scare us so much?  Could it be that we are not that sure of our own beliefs?  Do our arguments stem from our fear of being wrong?

As I said in my last post, I am thankful for the friendships God has given me.  But it is fascinating to me that the most rewarding come from those I have the most disagreements with.  But when we can talk and discuss things, and keep on loving each other while disagreeing, we can grow.  Our growth might be in a direction that takes us out of some wrong belief on our part or it might be more fully into a conviction that the discussion actually confirms. 

Whatever direction we end up taking we can become even closer to each other when we are not just trying to make everyone look like ourselves.  I don’t know about you but I don’t know if I could get along with another me.  

The body of Christ is made up of many distinct parts and people.  No two of us are alike and yet we can work, love and fight the enemy together because we are different.  Each of us has a role and a mission.  It is unique and God wants to use you where you are and in a way that can only be accomplished by you, with the gifts that you have been given.  If I attempt to make you into me I am actually trying to defeat Gods plan. 

Our uniqueness brings into existence the diversity needed to accomplish the mission God has for us.  That diversity allows for the unity necessary to create the body of Christ.  He is the head of that body and if we allow, is the one who directs all the diverse parts.

Celebrate your uniqueness and let God use it to unify and direct us instead of allowing the enemy to continue the deception that we should all be the same.  My left arm and hand cannot be used by me for the same things as my right.  But I would not want to lose them or walk around with two right arms. 

Let’s just learn to be who God wants us to be and find a way to be unified in love instead of separated by our differences.

Love you all

Tags: Belief, Body of Christ, Discussion, diversity, Enemy, Friendship, God, Love, skandalon, snare, temptations, Truth, Universalist

Happy Thanksgiving.  A couple of days ago I asked you what you were thankful for.  We all have a multitude of things and people we are thankful and grateful for and depending on where we are in this life; what age, social status, employment situation, family dynamics, etc.; the things we are thankful for will change as time goes by. 

I am thankful to my God for saving me, for loving me when I was unlovable, for trusting me enough to put other souls eternity in my hands, for comforting and providing for me, for His instruction and guidance, and for the peace He has placed inside me that I truly do not understand.

I am thankful for my wife.  She probably does not know it at times but, she is the one who keeps me going.  What I do here, if not a part of my mission from God, is for her.  I want and need some things for myself but a lot of these things are for us.  I love sharing this time with her, this time in this short part of our eternal existence.  She does keep me going and she is more important to me than I could ever say. 

I am thankful that my kids are all still alive.  That’s all I will say about that right now.

I am thankful for my twelve beautiful grandkids.  They are all whole, smart, amazing and so very different from each other. They make me smile, and laugh, and want to be young.  I want to help make this world a better place for them because they have so much time ahead of them.  I miss a few of them tremendously because I do not get to see them very often.

I am thankful that I have a job and a house and food and a bed and all the necessities of life.  I am so blessed that I do not have to wonder where I will sleep or if I will eat today.  This nation may not be as great as it once was or as good, but it is still one of the greatest places to live in the world. 

I am thankful for my stuff.  My books, movies, computers, tools, furniture, and all the other little things that fill a life and a house and make it a home.  I find that even with the slow times in my work I have plenty to do and take up my time.  This blog for instance.

I, too, am thankful for chipotle.  And for barbecue and Cajun spices.  For marinara and teriyaki.  Food is wonderful and we live in a place and a time where we have an abundance of taste sensations that surpass any other time in history.  Thanks Heath for pointing this out because we really should not overlook even the seemingly mundane. 

One of the main things I am thankful for is friendship. 

Most of my life I loved myself more than anyone.  In fact I really didn’t love or like much of anybody and I never had more than one friend at a time.  Even then they were not friends as I know them now.  They were acquaintances that I kept around for those rare times when I got tired of myself.  Most of the time, I was perfectly happy with being alone.

All of that changed when I entered the Kingdom.  I started down a path of love and caring for others that has fundamentally changed me.  I crave and covet time and conversation with others.  I enjoy and learn from this conversation and all fellowship with my friends.  At one time I did not care about being a part of a group and now, it seems, I long for others to be around; to share in this wonderful testimony of God’s goodness. 

What is a friend?  The dictionary at Dictionary .com says this;

A friend is a lover, literally. The relationship between Latin am?cus “friend” and am? “I love” is clear, as is the relationship between Greek philos “friend” and phile? “I love.” In English, though, we have to go back a millennium before we see the verb related to friend. At that time, fr?ond, the Old English word for “friend,” was simply the present participle of the verb fr?on, “to love.”

Friendship is simply love.  And God’s love for me has just had to spill over and out and has allowed me to find true value in having friends. I am thankful for all of the friends I have found through Christ. 

There was the friend that was there daily for a while, allowing me to bounce thoughts and ideas off of him as I began the journey down this new path.  He never judged, but guided me back when I was in danger of straying.  He prayed for me and helped me.  He has moved on in this life but I know he is still my friend and I love him.

There are the many, many friends that have welcomed me into their church and their lives.  They ask about my welfare, encourage and challenge me in my walk with Christ, genuinely care and love me.  We discuss the things of God and the agenda for advancing the Kingdom.  We talk to each other, pray for each other, and look out for each other.  I did not use to see casual acquaintances as friends but now I do.  We are all even more than just friends, we are family.

Then there is the one that I would say is my best friend.  We are alike and also very different.  He challenges me in my thinking and ideology as I do his.  He sees things one way and I see them the other and sometimes there is even some pain.  I have hurt him and even though he doesn’t know it, he has hurt me.  But if there was no pain then there would be no love.  The very definition of real love has to have room for some pain. 

I have and never will intentionally hurt any of my friends and I know my best friend will never do that to me.  But we can only grow when we have cause and reason to see another side to things.  Real friends are not yes men.  A real friend will challenge you, frustrate you, and still be there for you.  That is something I never really understood in the past.  I believed a true friend would have to be like me, think the way I do, and have the exact same core values.

That is just not so.  The most rewarding friendship I have ever had is actually from the one that is exactly the opposite in most of these things.  But we seem to both be working towards a center.  And if Christ was anything, I believe He was the center, of that narrow path.

I will continue to say, write and teach the things that I believe to be the Truth.  But I expect all my friends to help keep me on that narrow path that leads to an eternity with my Savior.  None of these things are to hurt or cause pain but I know that sometimes they might.  To all my friends, thank you for being my friend and not letting our differences destroy our friendship.

I thank God for friends and I

Love you all

Tags: Christ, Church, Conversation, Eternity, Fellowship, friend, Friendship, God, Kingdom, Love, relationship, Testimony, Thanks, Thanksgiving