Within Reach!

"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault when the two of you are alone. If he listens to you, you have regained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others with you, so that at the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be established. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen to the church, treat him like a Gentile or a tax collector." -- Matthew 18:15-17

These are good rules. Hey, there will always be conflict. The question is, how do you resolve it?

Here's what I was taught:

1. Go to the person yourself.
2. If that doesn't fix it, bring a friend and go to the person.
3. If that doesn't fix it, bring it to the church
4. If that doesn't fix it, run away.

What that means is that if you have a problem or issue with someone, you don't need to go tell the world--first approach that person directly and discretely. They may not even know that they have offended you and would want to seek reconciliation. If that does not work, then bring a friend who can help explain the situation and the grievances to the other person. Do this behind closed doors so that the world does not know.

If the first two steps do not work, it is our obligation as Christains to bring it to the church elders and seek advice. How severe is the incident? Have we gone overboard? An impartial judge can do wonders.

If that does not work, then and only then do you have the right to "cast them out" and go on with your life.

A wise man once taught me a new insight to the story of Moses and the burning bush.

Moses had to slow down and observe the bush for some time before he could have recognized that God was burning the bush and yet it was not being consumed.

Think about it... think about a bush burning. How long would it burn before you would notice that it should start to burn up? At least a couple of minutes.

Moses did not pass by a burning bush and think "Heck, that bush isn't being consumed." He had to observe it for a period of time.

That is like our lives--we must slow down if we hope to hear the voice of God.

No, there is no such commandment. Yet Gossip is certainly not a good thing for sure! Proverbs tells us that "A gossip goes around revealing secrets" and later says "Where there is no wood the fire goes out, so where there is no gossip the strife ceases."

Gossip is never successful at keeping a secret. Sure, we like the "rush" of feeling important when we share a secret. Can we learn to have a better feeling when we keep a secret?

Remember, this is not telling someone who needs to know--this is pure gossip that we're talking about. Has there ever been one good thing come from gossip?

Gossip always eventually gets back--to recipients who are placed in compromising and sometimes painful situations because of it. Remember that wisdom comes from being silent.

Y'know, I am a resident of the state of Kansas. In two days, we are having a referrendum vote on adding a marriage amendment to the state constitution, that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.

For the record, I'm in favor of it and will vote for it. But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about not being a "gay-basher" -- and I wish I could come up with another phrase, but I cannot.

I precisely do not know how to best minister to those who live in a homosexual lifestyle. In fact, I'm not even sure I know how to get even close to best. But given the opportunity, I want to reach to everyone--so I guess I'll minister in a way that is not perfect, or even really close to perfect.

Ever heard the phrase "love the sinner and hate the sin?" Gay people hate that. It sounds like we, the "evangelicals" are "talking down to them." Because, by and large, we are.

Now I'm not saying that we should approve of the homosexual lifestyle. Just remember this: there's a lot of things that all of us have in our lifestyle that God doesn't necessarily like, yet He accepts us anyway.

Nancy Ortberg told me once that people tend to create in their minds the "A-Level Sins that are really bad" and the "B-Level Sins that aren't so bad" -- and guess what: we think the "A-Sins" are really bad and those are the ones that we don't do and the "B-Sins" that are bad but not really as bad are the ones that we do.

God doesn't classify "A and B sins" -- if we miss the mark, if we are not following his word, then that's sin.

Also, "looking down on someone" has a backfire effect: if we don't accept someone where they are then they won't accept us as we are.

So I hope and pray that we can all truly accept people where they are and perhaps in return then they could truly accept us where we are. Let us promote our beliefs of Christianity and have respect for others where they are.