Watch this video by Francis Chan…
What is Love? (Baby, Don’t Hurt Me)
Love. I’ve seen that word thrown around a lot lately. It seems like such a refreshing word in a world that seems to have forgot what love is. This seems especially true among us younger folk. Many my age feel that they’ve been handed a world that has lost it’s way and they have this sort of mission to bring love back into the world.
It’s not really a new thing though. This same thing happened back in the 60’s with the hippie movement. It’s happened throughout the ages and it will continue to happen until Jesus comes back. There’s nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for love. I’m all for being accepting. Jesus really did go to the outcasts and He sought out the sinners. Did they stay sinners, though?
It seems today that many people have gotten so wrapped up in this
word, “love”, that they’ve distorted it. To many people calling out sin is a message of hate. They say that we should just accept people as we are and allow them into the family of God. Jesus never told people they could just keep living the way they wanted to and still go to Heaven. No, he confronted people in their sin and the people had to make a clear choice. They could either follow Jesus and allow him the pour His grace on them or they could continue in their sin and go the opposite direction.
Confrontation can absolutely be done out of love. Just because you tell someone their sinful lifestyle will send them to hell doesn’t mean you want them to go there. On the contrary, we should tell them this because we want them to turn from their life of sin and follow Jesus. Jesus makes it clear that you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24) and while he was specifically talking about money here, the principle can be applied to many things. For we have been rescued out of the kingdom of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Light! (Colossians 1:13)
Do I think the Christians can live without sinning? No. There is certainly room for grace. But the Bible clearly teaches us that while we may slip up from time to time we should definitely be walking in light and not in darkness. (1 John 1:5-10) I don’t see this as having to live by a system of rules or laws either. It is simply loving Jesus and his ways. When you love, and I mean really love, Jesus you will want to be more like him. Then there is no need for laws.
Also, I absolutely believe love should be shown to everyone regardless of their belief in God. Love is supposed to be the way the World knows us, and yes many have carried the name of Jesus and have not done a good job of loving. I would question their allegiance and yes, scripture gives me the authority to judge them on that (1 John 4:8 ) just as it gives me the authority to pass judgment on those who would call themselves believers but are engaged in a lifestyle of sin (1 Corinthians 5).
I know this isn’t a popular thing to say and that it is somewhat harsh, but the truth often is. I’m not looking for a Church (global) where everyone is comfortable with the way they live their life (including me) or that makes scripture so weak that it is never offensive. We need people to stand up and confront and we need scripture to be offensive. If scripture and the Spirit of God never offended or confronted then the Bride of Christ (the Church) would never be able to be presented pure and blameless to Christ when He comes to get Her.
So by all means let us love one another. But in doing so let us not water down scripture and become so accepting of sin that it becomes rampant in the church. Love everyone! If they desire to come to God, let them! If they do not leave their life of sin, forbid!
When we take a liberal view on love…
Every day I see the effects of a fallen world. I have often stood up for what the Bible teaches is right. Sometimes people strike back with, “we should just love everybody.” In a sense they are right, but sometimes love is taken out of context. Recently I was tagged in a note on facebook that talked about sin just being sin and how they being a homosexual is no different than someone telling a lie. I wrote this person back. I wanted to share the what I said with you, as I see this persons attitude becoming more popular in todays society. Please take the time to look up the passages that I cite.
<Person’s name>,
I am writing you a note, because replying to posts these days gets me nothing back, but animosity. Please don’t take any of this as an attack on you, because it is not. I simply want to reply to the note you tagged me in. 
I agree that we should love everyone. I hope you did not read any anger into anything I said on the Same-sex marriage thread. You can confront and give your opinion on sin without hating someone.
Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t think you will go to hell for messing up and sinning. If we have a repentant heart God is faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9) . However, there is a difference in telling a lie and living in a homosexual lifestyle (just one example) or living a “lifestyle” of any other non-repentant sin. The latter, as stated, is a lifestyle. It’s as if the person were walking in darkness, whereas if you were to mess up and sin it’s like you stumbled in and back out. Get it? You can see more about this in 1 John 1:5-10.
Also, please don’t take any of my comments as shoving Jesus down someones throat. I was tagged in a note and gave my opinion about the note and when someone countered. I defended my opinion. I showed now hate and I think debate is healthy as long as it doesn’t turn into hate, which it never did on my part.
I think as a child of God (Christian) you are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is what makes me different than Sally Sue. Am I better than Sally Sue? Only in that I have the light of Jesus inside of me. I can still earnestly desire for Sally Sue to have that light. I am different than her though and my fruits ought to show that (Matthew 7:15-23).
Next, I will say that sometimes love calls for confrontation. Jesus was all about love, but examining the scriptures will show that that love was not the kind of hippie love many attach to him today. Some people paint Jesus as this man who says just be the way you are and I will love you anyway. Jesus is very stern with people and often used scripture to correct or rebuke. When sinners came to him he forgave them, but would say, “go and sin no more.” Did they sin again? Surely. Did they live in the lifestyle of sin they had before? No. Jesus confronted. Paul tells us that we should do this too (2 Timothy 3:10-16).
Lastly, I will say that believing this way will not make you popular. Jesus say we should rejoice in that, though (Luke 6:22,23).
I hope you take all this in love as that is how I am typing it. I don’t mean to insinuate that you think differently. I guess I just more or less wanted to clarify my position on the subject at hand.
God Bless,
Aaron Abbott
Truth Hurts
As the band, The Fray, put it: “Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
Video Blog!!!!
Tell me what you want me to do video blogs about! This is fun!
Living the words of Jesus
Jesus had a lot to say about helping the poor and doing things for the least of these. He even said that when you do things or don’t do things for the least of these it’s like doing or not doing things for Him. Do we really live like we believe that? I know I usually don’t. Lately God has really been working in my heart about how I spend my time and money. After watching a World Vision video recently I sponsored a child. His name is Elian Elias. It felt good to be doing something like that but I still didn’t feel like I was doing enough. Time went on.
I was happy a couple of months ago to discover that a man I love to hear preach was coming out with a book. His sermons are always challenging so I knew his book would be a good read. And it was. I have been challenged by Francis Chan (book mentioned in post below) to live as someone who is passionately in love with Jesus. This often means living very differently that what we would consider normal. Now I’m sponsoring a kid and have hard ideas for living life a new way running through my head and chiseling away at my heart.
God works in mysterious ways and often not all at once. This change in my life is still just in my head and I have yet to start fully living it out, though I would like to think I have changed a lot because of it already. Yesterday, though, I was minding my own business in the Christian book section at Barnes & Noble when a young woman asked me if I had heard of a certain book and knew where it was. I told her I hadn’t heard of it, but I eventually helped her find it. I expected her to go on her merry way. This didn’t happen, however, as we ended up talking for over an hour. Turns out I had seen her before, though never met her, at WBC when she was there to take pictures of a lady that had spoke in a chapel this past year. It wasn’t long before I realized this girl was different that what I was used to. She lives off of a minimal amount of money doing freelance writing and picture-taking. She gives a lot of her money away and doesn’t even have a home of her own. She’s not what you would call a homeless person, though. She does always have a place to stay and she does have an income. She gives a lot of it away though. Recently she traveled around the world in 80 days with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). She was able to experience what this world is really like. With a passion for a hurting world, she talked to me about several injustices that are happening around the globe that she is trying to help stop. I truly feel that this was a meeting planned out by God and I am excited to now call this girl a friend. I feel I can learn a lot from her. She recommended a book to me and I have already read four chapters in one day. It’s a challenging read. It makes me want to get out of this country and do something (I know, though, that God’s plan for me is to be here for now and continue my education). The name of the book is The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Read it!
While I can’t get out and be where the hurting and needy are right now there is still a lot I can do to help. There’s a lot you can do too! Today I bought two pairs of shoes. I bought each pair from a different website. One of them gives a pair of shoes to someone who needs them for every pair you buy and the other gives the proceeds to help Iraqi children get the surgery they need done. Here are the websites:
http://tomsshoes.com
http://buyshoessavelives.com
Watch this:
There are a lot of other organizations that you can help. In fact, there are too many to name. There are also lots of ways to raise money to help. We’ll be talking about this on Wednesday nights soon.
What are you waiting for? Get out there and live out what Jesus meant for us to do. Be his hand and feet.
-AAA
Crap Rap
I love music. I usually always have a song in my head. There are over 3,000 songs in my iTunes music library. I also love God. I don’t feel, though, that because of my love for God that I can only listen to Christian music. I love secular music. I often go back and forth between listening to Christian and secular music and if I was going to be honest I would say I listen to secular music slightly more often than Christian.
Now let me be clear. There is some awful secular music out there that I refuse to listen to. It comes in all types of genres (rock, pop, rap, etc.). That doesn’t make any of the genres bad. It’s the lyrics of the songs that give them their worth.
Probably the most popular of the genres today is rap. To be honest this genre was my favorite for the longest time. I love the beat. It’s fun. It makes me want to move, and who doesn’t like to move? In it’s beginnings it was poetic, but it has lost much of this quality today. When it started in the 80’s rap was mostly a clean genre. There were a few songs that sang about perverted things, but most of it was just telling a story in a fun way.
Now I can’t hardly listen to radio stations like 101.9 KISS FM because every other song is about “making love.” What’s the problem with that you ask? Well first of all me and the rest of you in the youth group are not married and should not have our minds on “making love”. Secondly many of these songs are a lot more perverse than many are willing to admit. Today we have artists like fergie, T-Pain, and many more singing songs about things that would even make married people blush.
We should be very careful what we listen to. It has a large effect on our hearts, and honestly can cause a rift in our relationship with God.
Two book recommendations…
I thought I’d take a little bit of time to make a couple of book recommendations since summer is upon us. The first is one I’m currently reading myself and the second is one I read a month or so ago.
The first book is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book is straight from Francis’ heart. Lately Francis has been questioning the way we do things in the American Church. Many of us do things because we feel obligated. We feel like we will disappoint God if we don’t and we end up doing what we feel is just enough to please him. Francis reminds us again of what God’s love is like for us and how we should respond to it. As he says, “When you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes evertything.” So pick up this book at amazon.com or head on over to one of the bookstores in Jonesboro and pick it up. If you do let me know what you think.
The Shack is by William Young. I’ve never been into fiction, but I loved this book! In it you will find the story of a man who lost his daughter in an awful tragedy. His relationship with God suffers and when he goes back to the place where he lost his daughter he meets God (the whole trinity) in a strange form. This book gives an awesome image of the relationship with the trinity, our relationship with God and on how forgiveness should work. Read it!
Church Picnic
Who else is excited about this? I know I am!
We will definitely be playing kickball! You can count on that.
The Pugnacious Ninjas use Facebook to take over the world
Mark Zuckerberg has an evil plan to take over the world and I know it. He has cleverly created a social networking site that has quickly taken over mySpace as the number one site on the internet. It has over 70 million users worldwide! They have now added a chat feature that will no doubt make facebook more addicting that it already is. This will result in several students dropping out of school due to failing all of their classes because they were up all night and day on facebook. This will leave Mark Zucerberg and his team at Facebook as the only educated young people left in the world. Soon all of the users of facebook will become blind and develop Carpal Tunnel because of all the time they spend on facebook. Soon the Facebook team will take over the world!
But not so fast… the pugnacious ninjas have caught on to this scheme. While Zuckerberg and company take care of everyone else this ninja duo limit their time on the internet and practice their nunchuck and sword fighting skills (pugnacious does mean combatant in nature after all). Just when Facebook thinks it has taken over the world they will rush into their headquarters and do some serious karate chops.
And this my friends, is how the Pugnacious Ninjas will someday take over the world.
