Love

Lately I've been focusing on how the world perceives myself as a Christian. Driving from church ironically enough, I listened to a very interesting fact, and thanks to the wonders of the Internet I was easily able to test if it was true or not. The fact was simply a Google search on Christians, all you would do was type in "why are Christians so. . ." then go down the alphabet to see what the world has been searching the most. Every letter of the alphabet but "K" was a negative thing about Christians in some way or fashion. Here is a list of the top searches for each letter of the alphabet at the time of writing this.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A- Arrogant

B- Boring

C- Crazy

D- Divided

E- Easily Offended

F- Fake

G- Gullible 

H- Homophobic

I- Ignorant

J- Judgmental

K- Kind

L- Lame

M- Mean to Atheists

N- Narrow Minded

O- Obsessed with Homosexuality

P- Pushy

Q- N/A

R- Rude

S- Stubborn

T- Unlike their Christ

U- Unchristian

V- Video/Violent

W- Weird

X- Xo?

Y- Ignorant Yahoo

Z- N/A
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All this proves to me is that we (I) are screwing up everything about being a Christian big time. Really I feel that the reason for this is because of the "fake" result, and I say this part with even myself in mind. A lot of us ARE fakes! So saying that it made me think what is the most Christ-like attribute I could think of, and I think the largest part of being a Christian is the the ability and desire to love unconditionally, and the reasoning for this is found in 1 Corinthians 13. Even more specifically in verse 13 (I urge you to read the whole chapter here's a link! 1 Corinthians 13)

      And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. ~1 Corinthians 13:13

So what was the point of the list of bad things about Christians? Because I feel that over half of them can be solved with just love. So by first asking myself in an overview of my day, I thought, "How did I show someone love today?" "Was I acting as anything on that list?" I will admit I said no and yes respectively to both of those questions today. I feel the reason it is so hard to "Love on someone" is the fact that love is much more than just saying "Love you" or "I love you." It's an action much like worship we have to LIVE out love. Is it hard? YES! Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! So I ask this question with the full intention to take the first step. Will you love someone today? Will you change the mind of people why think Christians are Arrogant, Judgmental, Rude, Ignorant, Mean, Ect. . ? And without sounding arrogant or to proud I WILL strive to love. Will you?

With that being said here is a great reiteration on what love is. In a more comical way.

I think we are bad at our jobs.

So this week has been Missions Emphasis Week down here at LU. I don't believe that my calling is missions however, I do think that it is a very important thing. Though thanks to this week it has given me a chance to think about more than just my little bubble of friends and acquaintances that I meet here, I am simply talking about the whole world. 

        There are an estimated 7 Billion people on this world whether that includes an estimate for people unable to take a census I do not know however that is still A LOT of people. According to the  U.S. Center for World Mission only 33% of the world claims to be christian. That is only 1/3 of the worlds population!! That means roughly 2/3 of the world could be going to hell. but wait how many people do we know that claim to be "Christian" but we know full well it's just an act and not a true walk with God. If I had to make my own estimate it would be that only 2/5 of Christians are truly a God fearing saved people. Now the point of all these numbers and estimates is not me saying that every person alive HAS to be a missionary because, as I said earlier, I know that it's most likely not my calling and not where I am supposed to be, I love these people and think that them doing their jobs takes an amazing amount of faith, determination, and a ton of patience. But I think that we are seriously failing as Christians. How many times do we go out with our friends but forget to tell them the best news we have ever heard? Now this doesn't mean that we need to go out beating them over the head with our bibles, but there really is no excuse for doing nothing. Being here at LU I a lot of different people some fakers, some rebels, some confused, some lost, some hurting, and some strong. But how many times do I actually approach these people? They might think I'm weird, they might make fun of me, they might hate me, they might ignore me. These are all the thoughts that run through my head as fast as possible trying to deter me from reaching out. I'm afraid, but what am I to be afraid of? Am I not on the side on the one who created the earth, made everything on this planet, the one who makes all of Hell shake at just the speaking of his name? WHAT HAVE I TO BE AFRAID OF? I forget, they may mock me, ignore me, hate me, harm me, but I am to tell them I am to love them. I don't want to sound perfect at all in this in-fact I believe I am probably the worst person at this, so I this is more for me than anyone. In conclusion I just want to share a verse that I believe many of us have read and know about.

Is My Faith Strong Enough?

Matthew 17:20 

 20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”