Correcting Others

Matthew 18:15

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.

Sometimes in our lives we encounter our brothers and sisters in Christ succumbing to temptation. This is never easy for us, and it may open us to a myriad of emotions. We may feel betrayed or disappointed. We also may feel angry that they would do such a thing. Sometimes embarassment may enter our thoughts. Whatever it is that we feel, we must remember that as a fellow servant of God we have a certain responsibility to our fellow bondservants.

As fellow partakers in God’s great love, our first attitude should be one of love and compassion. The last thing in the world we should desire is for them to be separated from God. Since we know that their sin will do that, we should feel an obligation to help them. That is why we need to go to them and confront them with their sin. By going to them, we are trying to help them renew their relationship with God.

When we go them, we must be vary wary of our attitude. As above, their sin may cause many emotions, but we need to make sure that we control the emotions and keep their benefit in mind first and foremost. That is why Jesus commanded them to go to them privately. By going to them privately they are loving in two ways: the first, and most important, is that their relationship with God is renewed. The second is that we have been concious of their feelings of guilt and embarassment, and have accomadated them in a loving way as God commanded us to.

My very good friend Josh writes these daily devotionals.
I just wanted to add one thing...
If you have something against your brother or sister, go to them about it. 9/10 do not know that anything is wrong between the two of you unless you bring it to their attention. Don't jepordize a wonderful christian relationship by just being mad/upset/hurt/confused at the person. Let them know how you feel about them so that they can say they are sorry and/or correct it or maybe even tell you the real story when you may have the wrong story in mind. We need eachother too much, lets not be against one another but for one another. We really are all we have in this life!
Love you all

Been married for 6 months today.

Almost 2 years since she got married. I just can't believe that!

Hope and pray that the tropical storm doesn't hit anyone too hard.

GREAT! Wow, I am so getting those sermon CD's. Anyone want any? I'll mail them to ya.

Nephew is coming to spend the weekend with us. Which means we had to clean house. A house looks SO good when clean, why is it so hard to just keep it clean all the time! LOL
So now that it is clean I must have my friends over to see it!

Sorry I didn't put this up here last week!

Gardendale church of Christ is having a gospel meeting with Kevin Clark. It is every night this week at 7 except Friday. So that leaves tonight, wednesday and thursday.
He is an astounding speaker, very encouraging. We have already had a good bit of visitors. I love being in a place where there are so many brothers and sisters in Christ. Very encouraging and uplifting and helps me to be more spiritually minded.

Different, but One
Brotherly Love July 14th, 2008
Galatians 3:28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

I have a secret. M&M’s are a little disappointing to me. Do not get me wrong. I will eat them and even enjoy them. But they are always a bit of a let down. You open a bag and you see all these different colors. And yet they all taste exactly the same. A lot of times I will take a particular color and and eat all of them. Yet if I eat them randomly, it does not change the taste even in the slightest. Of course, part of the problem is that I am only a half-way fan of M&M’s. I wish that the variety would make me enjoy some of them more. But alas, they are always the same, no matter what they look like.

As Christians, this is an apt analogy for us. It is amazing when you look at the church to see its differences. You have men and you have women. There are all nationalities and cultures throughout. You have outgoing people. You have shy people. You have leaders and you have followers. Some are naturally good at speaking while others may be great at working with their hands. Just looking at the writings of Paul, he acknowledges all the many different gifts and abilities found within the church. Yet we are also one. We are all the same in that we are all clothed in Christ. While what people may see and notice may be completely different, the core of us is still the same: Jesus living in us.

We need to acknowledge this common ground. So many times we want to focus on what separates us and makes us different. Those things are just superficial. They are just what we and others see on the outside. Since Christ should be our entire lives, this small superficial differences should make up only a few percentage points of who we are. What we have to realize is that because of our love and desire for Christ, what we have in common is incomparably greater than what my separate us. In the hardest times, when it is difficult to love one another, we must cling to that common ground. In reality, hating a true fellow bond-servant is actually hating ourselves.