Who's Side Are You On?

I usually don't like to watch the news, but I do browse through news articles here and there. With all the headlines that range from exceedingly depressing to "really, why is that important," I think the stories that get me the most fired up are those that deal with Christianity in some shape or form. Besides my heart breaking for those who would rather hate me because of what some other so-called "Christian" did, the subject that gets to me the most are the "self righteous fools."

I just have to ask, "who's side are you on?" Where in any scripture do you find a free pass to hate, curse, be angry, be bitter, be resentful, be judgmental, or any other character that couldn't be more opposite of God? I'm serious, show me the scripture!

It saddens me for many reasons. I desire to always be Christlike, but when I'm in conversation with someone new and tell them, "I'm a believer," it's like telling a group of Jews I'm a Nazi. That is so ridiculous, and for the majority of the time, that look comes from people who came across "Christians" in their past, and well, unfortunately that's their only description of them. I can't blame the person for their look, but man what a hindrance.

It also saddens me that with everything I will teach my son, its not a worry for him to go out into the world and be exposed to sin (he can find sin in his own parents) but that he'll be exposed to Christians that have no relationship with God. In name only do they walk among us, there's no relationship as everything they say and do is too contrary to Jesus.

So again, I challenge Christians, who's side are you on? The devil's or Christ's? We all will forever struggle with sin as it can't be completely removed from us. If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal savior though, we acknowledge our crime of sin and that He paid the ultimate penalty in order for us to not be punished with eternal separation from God. We will still struggle though, we will still feel every regular human emotion possible, but without that relationship with God, we can't live in His ways. We will fail without Him.

We will hurt others that are broken.
We will oppress the poor.
We will judge the sinner for things we're just as capable of doing.
We will never forgive that family member or ex-spouse.
We will never mature or move forward.
We will never make disciples.
We will never save a life.

If, we continue on with no real relationship with God.

Having that relationship will open us up to being more like Him, to keep His commandments, to objectively read His word, and we'll know how to love that neighbor as we love ourselves.

We can stand up for God, without acting like a society of uncontrollable emotions. To stand up for God though requires a relationship with him and reading of the scriptures in a way that reveals knowledge to us. Scripture and the armor of God are two different things. If we don't understand scripture, we can't put it on as part of our armor. However, scripture alone is not a weapon that you can slap people up and down with especially if you misunderstood something. There's tough love, but you can't love someone, believer or non-believer, if you don't give yourself in a relationship with Jesus.

I want to be on the side of righteousness without being righteous. I'm still the broken hearted, abused, oppressed, poor, and unwanted, who accepted my free gift to ultimately share it with others. I'm no more special or not special than that. I'm the woman at the well, I'm also the blind man, we are they who Jesus chose to die for! Choose your side.