T
Within my experience there is a certain 'holiness' that people 'prescribe' to either love or callousness.
See, within this world you can either care about things and learn to love them deeply, or become callous to them and stop caring--or only let your heart care to such an extant (whatever that extant may be)...
I KNOW Christian love is fathomless and I am NOT just saying that Christ's love for us is fathomless, the love that He has given us for each other (both Christians and everyone) is fathomless.
But this is NOT how a majority of the people that may nominally 'qualify' themselves would experience Christian love, because they do not live in or see through it...
Trying to figure out how to say what I need to say...In order to protect your heart from hurt or evil, Christians usually do one of two things: 1-stop caring; 2-love despite the consequences.
I find that the former (1) is prefered by most people rather than the latter (2).
I hate giving abstracts so let me give an honest example from my life. I once went to a pentecostal non-denominational (meaning it had pentecostal beliefs though claiming no denom) church due to a girl named Lauren's Christian-holy love inspiring me to go...
When I first started attending the church, she was awesome--meaning she reminded me of God in sooooooo many ways. But then as time passed, I have no idea why--her heart turned against me, and she stopped caring altogether, meaning even the trace of Christian love was replaced by fake-sugar frosting...
Later, I find out what the church basically made a 'church law' that girl-guy evangilism/dialogue should not occur due to fearing the sin of dating...
The point I am trying to make is rather than believe that TRUE LOVE in JESUS can protect from sensuality/sex/et cetera...'Churches' and many people who consider themselves Christian often allow their hearts to become callous with somewhat noble purposes--to protect from sin...but what I believe is that this leads to the staleness and deadness of the law...as I have said in thread after thread.
It is as if people believe that callousness is more powerful to protect from sin than Christian love...
I cannot really remember how many people I have told that I LOVE them since I became a Christian...I believe even saying this has protected me from doing things that are wrong with different people, but it is strange how afraid Christians--CALLOUSNESS--are to say that to each other--except in a joking/superficial manner...
And yes, I have told COUNTLESS girls that I love them...and its just bewildering to me that for some reason most Christians think that a guy has to 'QUALIFY' that by saying 'in a CHRISTIAN way' whenever he says it. As in 'I love you' means I want to marry you, but 'I love you in a Christian way' means something less than " I love you with Christ's love which is fathomless." I personally refuse to qualify and let the girls deal with it as they will, if they believe 'I want to marry you' than thats what means the most to them and they cannot see the deeper meaning, so the first meaning is the closest they can come to understanding what I mean--so the misunderstanding in a way helps, and doesn't allow me or them to interprit what I said as I love them in a shallow Christian--society-accepted way.
I find this same 'enigma' at churches as well.
Churches can either be open, free, deep and loving with each other/ or they can be callous, rigid, 'walled-in', superficial and shallow to each other.
At the church I have attended for about a year and a half, I took a friend to the 'young adults' Bible Study after church...after the Bible study, he made some clear perceptions that I also have had at the study...The people do not really welcome you that much, they are fairly independent (meaning they are not that friendly seeming to each other), and he said 'it felt like high school'....I was shocked at the truth that he so clearly painted...as I too had had thoughts that perhaps I should force people to hug me in this group as I need love, and they're so stubbornly callous that it makes me sick--I have not yet made people hug me in this group, but I have been before in 'Christian' groups that do not hug, and am pretty sure if I continue to go the tendency will BREAK-OUT and I will MAKE THEM HUG ME IF IT KILLS THEM OR ME because if I am not loved there, I know not why I come...
You will NOT become like your ENEMY just because you LOVE them. You will not become like a sinner just because you show them Christian love in the truest way possible. So, do not fear showing people love, as even if you die for love--that is a noble thing, reflecting the cross of Christ...but what Christian would die for callousness? It seems most that consider themselves Christians daily do...in order to protect the heart from the thrust of the spear of the sinner, but at the cost of strangling LOVE.
Christian love is what protects and delivers us...like that song--'you will know they are Christian by their love, by their love'...but callousness will not save you for or from anything but death. 'Better is open rebuke than hidden love.'
God bless, and remain in His love.
tony
ps. If you do not believe that Christian love can keep you from sin, than NOTHING else will help!!!
See, within this world you can either care about things and learn to love them deeply, or become callous to them and stop caring--or only let your heart care to such an extant (whatever that extant may be)...
I KNOW Christian love is fathomless and I am NOT just saying that Christ's love for us is fathomless, the love that He has given us for each other (both Christians and everyone) is fathomless.
But this is NOT how a majority of the people that may nominally 'qualify' themselves would experience Christian love, because they do not live in or see through it...
Trying to figure out how to say what I need to say...In order to protect your heart from hurt or evil, Christians usually do one of two things: 1-stop caring; 2-love despite the consequences.
I find that the former (1) is prefered by most people rather than the latter (2).
I hate giving abstracts so let me give an honest example from my life. I once went to a pentecostal non-denominational (meaning it had pentecostal beliefs though claiming no denom) church due to a girl named Lauren's Christian-holy love inspiring me to go...
When I first started attending the church, she was awesome--meaning she reminded me of God in sooooooo many ways. But then as time passed, I have no idea why--her heart turned against me, and she stopped caring altogether, meaning even the trace of Christian love was replaced by fake-sugar frosting...
Later, I find out what the church basically made a 'church law' that girl-guy evangilism/dialogue should not occur due to fearing the sin of dating...
The point I am trying to make is rather than believe that TRUE LOVE in JESUS can protect from sensuality/sex/et cetera...'Churches' and many people who consider themselves Christian often allow their hearts to become callous with somewhat noble purposes--to protect from sin...but what I believe is that this leads to the staleness and deadness of the law...as I have said in thread after thread.
It is as if people believe that callousness is more powerful to protect from sin than Christian love...
I cannot really remember how many people I have told that I LOVE them since I became a Christian...I believe even saying this has protected me from doing things that are wrong with different people, but it is strange how afraid Christians--CALLOUSNESS--are to say that to each other--except in a joking/superficial manner...
And yes, I have told COUNTLESS girls that I love them...and its just bewildering to me that for some reason most Christians think that a guy has to 'QUALIFY' that by saying 'in a CHRISTIAN way' whenever he says it. As in 'I love you' means I want to marry you, but 'I love you in a Christian way' means something less than " I love you with Christ's love which is fathomless." I personally refuse to qualify and let the girls deal with it as they will, if they believe 'I want to marry you' than thats what means the most to them and they cannot see the deeper meaning, so the first meaning is the closest they can come to understanding what I mean--so the misunderstanding in a way helps, and doesn't allow me or them to interprit what I said as I love them in a shallow Christian--society-accepted way.
I find this same 'enigma' at churches as well.
Churches can either be open, free, deep and loving with each other/ or they can be callous, rigid, 'walled-in', superficial and shallow to each other.
At the church I have attended for about a year and a half, I took a friend to the 'young adults' Bible Study after church...after the Bible study, he made some clear perceptions that I also have had at the study...The people do not really welcome you that much, they are fairly independent (meaning they are not that friendly seeming to each other), and he said 'it felt like high school'....I was shocked at the truth that he so clearly painted...as I too had had thoughts that perhaps I should force people to hug me in this group as I need love, and they're so stubbornly callous that it makes me sick--I have not yet made people hug me in this group, but I have been before in 'Christian' groups that do not hug, and am pretty sure if I continue to go the tendency will BREAK-OUT and I will MAKE THEM HUG ME IF IT KILLS THEM OR ME because if I am not loved there, I know not why I come...
You will NOT become like your ENEMY just because you LOVE them. You will not become like a sinner just because you show them Christian love in the truest way possible. So, do not fear showing people love, as even if you die for love--that is a noble thing, reflecting the cross of Christ...but what Christian would die for callousness? It seems most that consider themselves Christians daily do...in order to protect the heart from the thrust of the spear of the sinner, but at the cost of strangling LOVE.
Christian love is what protects and delivers us...like that song--'you will know they are Christian by their love, by their love'...but callousness will not save you for or from anything but death. 'Better is open rebuke than hidden love.'
God bless, and remain in His love.
tony
ps. If you do not believe that Christian love can keep you from sin, than NOTHING else will help!!!
