Blog Change

I am tired of this old look. I am going to come up with a new design and implement it soon. Actually, it will be incorporating a concept from other pages I have been working on.

When 1W-13L is actually good

I am a Miami Dolphins fan. And while this has been a tough season... scratch that. While this has been a pathetic season, I am happy that the only team to go undefeated and win the SuperBowl did not set a new record and have a winless season. I was hoping for a 30-28 win over the Patriots; but I at least got the 28 right. LOL!

GO DOLPHINS!

The Jesus Test

A couple of weeks ago, I was blessed with a beautiful email that showed many of the portraits of Christ that I was accustomed to seeing as I grew up. They showed many of the different accounts in the Bible. It was very nice. It was very nice until I got to the end of the email. That's when a beautiful email turned crappy! Now, this post is to help Christians who have dealt with this in the past. At the end of an email that reminded me of the love my Saviour has for me was a reminder as to how we Christians can really screw things up. This is what it read:

Jesus Test
This is an easy test, you score 100 or zero. It's your choice.
If you aren't ashamed to do this, please follow the directions.
Jesus said, 'if you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father.'
Not ashamed Pass this on . . . only if you mean it.
Yes, I do Love God.
He is my source of existence and Savior.
He keeps me functioning each and everyday.
Without Him, I will be nothing.
Without Him, I am nothing but with Him I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. Phil 4:13
This is the simplest test . . If you Love God, and are not ashamed of all the marvelous things he has done for you. Send this to ten people .

Now, I initially was mad, but then ashamed. I was ashamed because at the earlier stages of my faith as a Christian; I would not have seen anything wrong with inserting a clause like this in an email. So, what was my response? I am glad you asked:

We really need to inspect ourselves when we put clauses like this in an email. I know earlier in my faith; I would have seen nothing wrong with this. Forward this response back to the people who sent this to you and hopefully it will get to the originator of this email. Let’s honestly, survey our walk and devotion to Christ and ask ourselves the following:

• How many unbelievers did we forward this email to?
  1. Of that list, how many were unbelievers that specifically filed grievances against us in the workplace because of our ‘Christian faith’?
     • Of that list, how many were justified because we did not extend the same grace and mercy God extends to us every day?
  2. Of that same list, how many lives were ruined because we failed to `live` the Gospel before we `earned the right to share the Gospel`?
  3. Of these lists, how many jobs have we lost because we chose to forward these emails to atheists, CEOs, HR departments, non-Christians, etc.?
  
  
• How many neighbors do we actively listen to? Actively, witness to? Actively love on, so that they would want to know the Christ we love and serve? (Notice the order? We listen to them first.)
• How many family members have accepted Christ on the basis of the walk they have seen in us. (Granted, many will reject Christ regardless)?

There are many more questions that could be asked, but I hope we will all see the direction I was going with this. We should not go into a litany of all the things we actively do. The purpose is not to justify ourselves, Christ will do so. The purpose is see if we have truly shown the love of Christ without sending any emails. The quest here is to see if we can we truly confess that we:

• Have honored Christ in our workplace (more than screensavers and emails)?
• Have honored Christ in our communities (before our neighbors and fellow church members whom we ‘serve’ with)?
• Have honored Christ in our homes (before our spouses, children and kin)?

That is where the true love comes from. The Scripture says “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”. Email forwarding is not a commandment, it is a man-made construction that assumes the authority of the Holy Spirit. I still want to receive many of these encouraging emails because they do just that “encourage”. And some rightfully admonish. However, in the end; we may lose more Christians who are actively serving and loving Christ because we insensitively added a `clause` that our flesh added more than our spirit.

At the end, I added my email for those who would take issue with what I said. If, you have a concern; comment and we'll go from there. If you find this line of questioning useful; by all means use it.

Sorry, I have been out

About to break 86K words and have been really busy. I have had many things to write about as well. Merry Christmas (it's never too late and remember that there are twelve days! LOL!)