Showing posts with label christ-like. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christ-like. Show all posts

Friday, January 22, 2016

The Snowstorm


Luke 8:23 “But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.”

The impending storm has the media all up in arms causing people to panic using words like historic, devastating, menacing and catastrophic. While the media likes to blow things out of proportion I personally, having lived on the east coast for 37 years of my life, can add simple words to tell the truth of the matter like immobilizing, standstill and simply put, a snowstorm.

My mother tells me they have already closed schools for the day (Friday) and the storm isn’t going to hit until tonight! They are calling for one inch of snow today, 8-12 this evening with high winds, and tomorrow an additional 10-14 inches! While this storm will put traffic at a standstill and immobilize the millions that are crammed into Maryland it is also going to affect millions of others from the surrounding states. While a lot of people are joking saying:
“It’s a snowstorm deal with it.”
“So much for Global Warming!”
“I guess Climate Change was a farce.” And the ever popular,
“You haven’t seen a snowstorm until you lived in ______!” put any northern state in the blank.

What will be on the rise during this storm I can assure you, will be ignorance, speed demons, hurried people, car wrecks, selfish antics and greed.

What I’d like to SEE during this storm and will happen but on rare occasions is compassion, concern and consideration. Trust me, I’ve lived through quite a few of these colossal blizzards in my lifetime. 

The people in the North will make fun of the people in the South for their inability to handle ice and snow as if they deal with that stuff all the time. I lived in Texas a few years and no, they can’t handle snow and ice only because they’re lucky (or not) to see the stuff maybe once in ten years! Where the people in the North have had to deal with storms of massive proportions yearly.

When Steven bought his Ford Explorer years ago in Texas, it wasn’t a four-wheel drive but when we got to Nebraska and had to buy a new truck it is all they sold, 4 wheel drives. When asked WHY the difference, the seller simply put, ‘they don’t need 4 wheel drives in the south.’

As our self-centered ME generation plows ahead all that they can think to do is make fun of people? Seriously? Every storm is different but rest assured there WILL be casualties, there will be homes, houses and cars destroyed, backs will be injured, elderly will be left powerless and the homeless will suffocate and die. And all you can do is poke fun? Maybe you’re also proud of the person you’ve become?

It seems like an all to often knee jerk reaction making fun of the less fortunate but it is getting really old this day and age, in my book. I remember more times than once taking eight hours to shovel out a car and its parking spot only to move the car and someone else jump into your hard work. I remember bailing out three, four, ten neighbors at a time so they could see the outside world in the midst of a two foot snow barrier and yes I remember taking the elderly food during these rough storms! 

But today? People will shoot you for a parking spot, elderly will be left to die, neighbors will build walls of discontent to have everything THEIR way. That’s just the way the world is these days.

Eight inches of snow in Nashville Tennessee? While all of you Climate Change scoffers sit there and laugh please be aware of the drastic changes going on around you that you can SEE if only you had eyes to see. Climate Change by definition states: a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.

Now I have not done any scientific research on Climate Change but I am not so stupid that I can’t SEE visually what is going on around me! Let me just say, the week of December 25th, Baltimore saw temps in the seventies and had people jogging around the Inner Harbor in shorts and tank tops and note that this current blizzard is the FIRST snowstorm of their winter season!

Hurricanes raging in the Atlantic in January, snow in Texas, El Paso no less, tornadoes in many places that’s not normal for JANUARY, Fracking causing earthquakes in Oklahoma and yet you still laugh?

We the people are destroying the earth and all you can do is sit and frantically post silly BS on facebook and twitter? I sit in awe of your selfish ego. Compassion is more than just reading and reposting what you can on the internet. Loving God is more than just spouting a few words of praise. Being Christ-like is more than just being nice to a person. It SHOULD be a way of life and for some it IS a way of life. 

My prayers go out to the people in the midst of the storms. My prayer is for them to look at the world and slow down. The world, hopefully, will still be here next week so what is the hurry to grab bread, milk and toilet paper? Remember, to love one another as you love yourself! If you can’t love someone you’ve never met, you have very little love for yourself. 

Mark 12:31 “And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

Tuesday, December 03, 2013

What is a Christian

John 3: 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

To me a Christian is someone who strives to be Christ like. Not to be perfect LIKE Christ was but to be Christ like in every word, in every action, in every breath of air. Anyone can say they believe in Christ but that does not make you a Christian, it makes you a believer.

Anyone can sling scripture around like it’s today’s top news, anyone can say the words I’m praying for you, but to be like Christ, you have to LIVE the scripture that you’re spewing. You have to get on bended knee when someone needs prayer. You can’t just claim to be a Christian because you believe you’re a Christian.

Did you know a Christian can spot a Christian from where they stand? How? By their actions. Christians have a light inside them that is emitted in everything they do. You won’t see a Christian spewing hate for any other human being because Scripture tells us to love our enemy. Do you hate the world? Pray for it! Do you hate the state of affairs? Pray for it. Do you hate, hate, hate? Pray for understanding. God does not dwell in the land of hatred. The things or people we might dislike would never be a public showing of hatred for a person, instead we will sit in prayer on bended knee asking God to show us where and how we can change that anger and ill will into understanding.

Being a Christian is hard work. It isn’t a statement you make to make others think you’re a walker of the Word. You cannot just say, “I’m a Christian” and think for one moment other Christians are going to SEE you as a Christian. They see you spewing hate, they’re going to assume you’re a believer, NOT a Christian.

When I see a believer pretending to be a Christian, it offends me, my faith and all I hold dear to my heart. I won’t finger point or judge but I begin praying for that lost soul. They need the understanding of the term Christian before they tout that they ARE a Christian.

The believers remind me very much of Atheist trying to strongly promote their beliefs but take no actions to what they are saying. Atheist profess there is no God, they spew without knowing if there is any proof. The believer believes in God but that’s as far as it goes. Their actions do not show them to be Christians, they are shown to be a believer.

I grew up in a Catholic household; again just a name to define us in some way. We never attended church; we never prayed as a family, we were Catholic in name only. At the age of fourteen I converted to Christianity. I became a born again Christian meaning I was now serving the Lord in all I did. Through being born again I was now seeing and feeling with new eyes.

1 Peter 1: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

When you become born again, you see God in an entirely different light. He places on your heart the truth, the law, the beauty in living life as a Christian. You now see the world through Christ’s eyes. Hatred for others not like you slowly becomes non-existent. You become the very energy of love that God passes through you and you then share it with the world.

Do Christians hate the Jewish for not believing in Christ? Do we hate Atheists? Do we hate Muslims? In a resounding bellowing echo, Christians around the world say, NO!
Do we like that the Muslims are killing Christians? No, but having the love of God and seeing through Christ’s eyes, we see the plan God has laid out. We SEE that this is His doing. The Muslims are bringing CHRISTIANS to HIM!

Atheists don’t see through God’s eyes, that is why no amount of proof will cause them to see Him. Christians don’t need proof because God is a living fountain of truth inside them. They see as He sees.

WWJD? Ask yourself this right before you start to spew hate. What would Jesus do? Would He hate this, would He hate that? Again, the answer is Jesus knows no hate. He is the embodiment of love and if you turn that hatred you feel into love you will slowly begin to know and understand just what Jesus would do.

To be born again, you will be renewed in Christ. You will then become what a true Christian is, Christ-like, a person who walks in the Spirit.

Gal. 5: 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
[17] For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
[18] But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
[19] Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
[20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
[22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
[23] Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
[24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
[25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.