March 4: GOD MAKES PEOPLE, AND PEOPLE MAKE ISSUES, BUT PEOPLE AREN'T ISSUES.

Affirmation: I love who I am & who I am becoming. I am willing to change & grow.

Appreciate who you are…God has never looked at you and been disappointed. He loves you. He knows who you are.~~~~~~~

Ponder:  Focus on memorizing this verse again today. Post it in your home, office, car to prompt yourself to keep pondering and learning it.

Psalm 18:2

 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 

~~~~~

Reading for Today

Walk in Grace. Live in Love. by Bob Goff

March 4

GOD MAKES PEOPLE, AND PEOPLE MAKE ISSUES, BUT PEOPLE AREN'T ISSUES. 

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 

EPHESIANS 4:2-3 

I've traveled to enough churches and conferences to hear plenty of Christian leaders refer to the "issues" their churches are facing. Sometimes they're real issues, like if a church lost their building in a fire and can't host two thousand people on Sundays. Or they don't have enough places to store all the food they want to give away. Those are issues. 

But more often than not, issues mean that people who make us uncomfortable are coming to our churches and we don't know what to do about it. They're distracted by who they love or how they live or what they think or what they've done. We start thinking that the people are the issue because they are the ones telling us about the way we should vote or act or which gender gets to take the pulpit. Those aren't issues we're discussing; they're people. 

Remember this: God makes people, people make issues, but people aren't issues. The person with an "issue" of [fill in the blank] who wants to lead the church in worship ... that person isn't an issue. He or she is a person who probably loves Jesus more than I do and wants to use his or her gifts to serve the church. If you want to know more about what these people are thinking, just ask. Will it be uncomfortable? Sure. Will you be misunderstood? Maybe. Do it anyway. 

Is there scripture that speaks to the topics you're thinking about? Terrific. Go figure that out for yourself You're not the sheriff and they're not the enemy. You're two screwed-up people who desperately need Jesus. 

These "issues" we talk about are only masquerading as people. Do yourself and the rest of us a favor and separate the two rather than merging the person and the issue into one. Does that mean everyone will agree with each other? Of course not, but that's the not the point. Don't separate the truth of the scriptures from the issue of the day, but do separate the person from the issue. It'll take some humility and even more guts, but if we do, we'll learn a lot about love, and we'll welcome people who have perhaps felt far away from God. 

Who's making you uncomfortable these days? Why?