Skip to main content

Bleed the Same

"Only love can drive out all the darkness
What are we fighting for?
We were made to carry one another
We were made for more"-"Bleed the Same"~Mandisa

Late last week, I was on Twitter, and I noticed quite a few posts about the school shooting that occurred on Valentine's Day. Most of the posts called for people to pray for the victims and their families, but others took a more combative tone on the issue. One of the ones that was particularly disturbing to me came from someone who is not only a good friend of mine, but also a Christian role model. This person insinuated that Republicans are a bunch of hypocrites because they call for immigration reform following terrorist attacks but don't want the shooting to be politicized because the families of the victims need to be left alone to grieve. Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a series of divisive tweets I have seen recently from this person, and they are by no means the only one doing this.

In the lead up to the 2016 election, the fighting between Republicans and Democrats reached a crescendo, and the results have not cooled it even well over a year later, and unfortunately, many of those engaging in these divisive battles are Christians. Division and destruction are the devil's game, and it is sad to see so many of my brothers and sisters in Christ aiding him in the fight. Like the song above says, we were made for more than this fighting and perpetuating the darkness that is slowly settling over this country. We were all created by God, and we all bleed the same red blood, so this division is doing us no good at all, and easily could destroy this country.

Our country is hurting and needs Jesus now more than ever, and it is up to us as Christians to help make Him well known in our great land. We don't want our country to succumb to the dire prediction made by Casting Crowns over a decade ago in their song "While You Were Sleeping" when they asked the question, "America, will we go down in history as a nation with no room for its King?" However, this dismal future continues to look more and more likely as Christianity is pushed out of public places and Christians fail to live up to their God-given assignment to be holy.

So how can we fix this? By filtering everything we say or post through the screen of Philippians 4:8 before we say or post it. The verse states, "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Another scripture to consider is Ephesians 4:29, " Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear." When we let these two scriptures guide us in our words to others, we treat others as beloved children of God. We can fix this broken nation, but only by showing others the love of Christ, and allowing His love to drive out the darkness surrounding us.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Changed and Transformed

I am currently starting the fourth week of an online Bible study based on the book Living So That: Making Faith-Filled Choices in the Midst of a Messy Life  by Wendy Blight. I was drawn to the study because of the title. When I first saw it, I thought, Living so that what? Where's the rest of the title?  I now realize that the title was referring to those verses in the Bible that have the words so that  in them. The book has five chapters, each split into five parts and having a memory verse tied to the topic of that chapter. In the study, we are doing one chapter a week, and can split up the five readings for the week however we want to. I choose to read them on weekdays right after breakfast so that  I start each work day with some time spent in God's Word. Chapter One is "Jesus Came So That," and the memory verse is John 3:16. I figured, I know that verse in two languages. I got this.  I didn't figure I would have any trouble with that week because I alread

2016 Year in Review

2016 was a bit of a roller coaster year for me, with glorious highs interspersed with terrifying lows. Fortunately, there were more highs than lows. Here in no particular order are the highs and lows of the past year. HIGHS: Spending time with Jojo: Jojo is my cousin Jessica's 18-month-old daughter, and due to scheduling conflicts, I didn't get a chance to see her at Thanksgiving or Christmas last year. However this year, I got to spend a great deal of time with her at both holidays, as well as during her dad's birthday party in September. Since she was older at the time I got to know her, I was able to build a better and more lasting relationship with her that will only grow as she gets older. My summer job: This summer, I was the chauffeur/activity supervisor for Ally and Kira, two of my friend Katherine's granddaughters. Throughout the course of the summer, I took them to camps, to the pool, to the park, and to church activities. They taught me how to use

Update

 Admittedly, it's been a while since my last post. The truth is, the last few months have been a bit busy. I got married in June, and most of the last few months have been taken up with wedding prep, and I've spent most of the time this last month laying down a good foundation for my marriage. I was surprised at how long it had been since my last post when I logged in to write this one. Five months is a long time between posts, especially when I was writing about once a month before that.  I've been thinking a bit about how to change my approach to writing this blog. I love writing long pieces where I dive deep into a specific spiritual issue, but as the last year has shown when that's my only focus, life can easily get in the way, and I don't end up posting to the blog at all. I'm not going to give up writing them all together, but I'm going to add in some shorter posts as well. I plan to write at least once a week, and most of the new posts will be reflect