Jesus loves rioters
After Wednesdays‘ nights hockey game, and proceeding riot, a friend of mine posted something important for us to remember. He wrote “Jesus loves rioters too”. That reminded me of this verse,
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Timothy 1:15
As disheartening, and despicable it was to see people acting like they did, if it wasn’t for God’s grace in my life, I could be right beside them doing the same thing. But Jesus loves me, and love them just the same.
As we’ve been learning in our Bible Study, it’s not just our actions that matter (that make us righteous or sinners) it’s what’s in our hearts. And even at the best times our hearts can be a harbour for many sinful things. Praise God that He loves and forgives us nonetheless and that our hearts have been washed clean by Him! If Jesus loves rioters, then we must love them also, which does not excuse them from their crimes (I hope they face full justice for what they’ve done), but just because we view them, or anyone else, as criminal we are still indebted to show them God’s love because He loved us while we were rebels.
New things ...
I am endeavouring to write weekly "thoughts" for our church here in Cherryville. Here is my first one, and I'll try to get "caught up" as we go along here :)
Once again, thanks to everyone for helping us feel comfortable here in our new home. I hope to use this space to share some thoughts from week to week. In nothing else it might help me to be disciplined in writing :)
One word used to describe Cherryville's people is 'independent'. Independence is a valuable trait. Oftentimes it means that one is capable of taking care of themselves, that they have in mind where they want to go, and are able to see that through Sometimes, however, independence can lead us to where we don't realize that we need each other.
1 Corinthians 12 has much to say of how, as believers, we need each other. "The eye cannot say to the hand 'I have no need of you' nor again the head to the feet 'I have no need of you'. " We need each other in order to grow to be the mature Christians God intends for us to be. From the young to the old, the veteran believers to those new in the faith. We all have need of each other, teaching each other, encouraging everyone in their faith. A friend of mine used a term called 'eclectic mentoring'. The idea was that we can learn something from everyone around us. How amazing would it be if we viewed everyone as being a person we can learn something from, that they will help us to be, in a sense, more complete.
I hope one of the things our community of faith will be known for is our love for each other, and also that we treat each person as extremely valuable because they were made and loved by God, but also because we need them, and our lives would be much poorer without them.
