- So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
I like cucumbers, he likes pickles and won’t eat cucumbers. He hates tomatoes but likes ketchup, I like both. At first I disliked intimate worship but because of his love for it I also began to enjoy it. Do you see the picture I am painting? We has humans have many dislikes and likes and when we marry someone or merge into someones life we have to learn how to work out our differences. Even if someone does not understand the concepts behind the likes or dislike (take the tomato/ketchup issue) we have to learn that each person is different.
This also applies to Christian life. We all have grown up in different church settings. We have learned may different ways of worship. We learned ways of praying. We read different versions of the Bible. Each of us interpret how to love God in the way we were raised and no one has the right to force anything on anyone else as far as how to believe in God or have faith. We as a body of Christ need to learn how to weave our differences together to make a whole church. No matter if one is Catholic or Methodist, we should be able to come together in unity to serve as Christ did.
Even in the midst of disagreement, we are children of God. No matter what we put down as our church affiliate at the hospital before surgery, we are still going to pray to the same God in heaven. We are still seek the same God to heal our wounds. We all search for acceptance from God in our own way and we do not have the right to stand in judgement of another’s belief system. We need to come to the understanding that we can not change people, only Jesus can and the only way we are going to influence others into seeing Jesus for who He is, is by our own actions and lifestyles.
So, to bring this to a point, I like revival. I like the feeling of God working on my heart every time I set foot in the church. I like the conviction He brings to my heart when I begin to step out of His plan for me. I love the free worship. I love the freedom I have to worship God right where I am in that very moment of time and no one will judge me for it. I love Jesus and to me this is where I feel the closest to Him. Revival may not be for everyone, but Jesus is.
Are you standing in judgement of someone else’s belief system? Is it hard for you to stand side by side with someone from a different religious background than you? If so, I urge you to let it go and seek God for the grace to love like Jesus does. We are called to love one another as Jesus did and this means religion does not matter, it is the heart that does. Any heart that Jesus resides in is looking for the same unity in the body. I know I struggled at times with the same things and I finally learned to come to the understanding that only God can change hearts and minds, my only task is to love them right where they are.
Step Upon the Golden Road with Me! 