BERNARD SHUFORD

Don Wilton teaches that it’s a mark of a Christian to want to be around other Christian people.  To enjoy fellowship with other believers.  This is one of his five “points” regarding “totally secure” in your relationship with Christ.  

In a big sense, I agree.  My understanding of the Bible agrees that one of the ways the world knows we are “of Christ” is that we love each other.  (It is, however, often entirely too easy to redefine “love” to fit our preferred mentality rather than let it be what the Bible intends…)  I don’t support the type of Christianity that says “I’ll just stay home on the front porch and worship God while all the hypocrites go to church.”  

However, I am saddened by the fact that so many really take this to an extreme and ONLY associate with Christians.  

We have a great message to give to the world.  

And they are NOT going to come to church to hear it if we don’t befriend them, love them, help them, and genuinely care about them.

As a matter of fact, I would say we’re not trying very hard at all to really win folks to Christ if we don’t do those things.  

And, if we love Christians only because it makes holy living easier, aren’t we still missing something?  

We’ve become insular.  Even among a lot of “evangelical” Christians, we would rather fuss amongst ourselves about how evil the world is instead of being salt and light to them.  

The greatest Christians of all are those who can love and live like Christ in the middle of the world that doesn’t love Christ without falling into sin.  

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Based on what Christ said about hating a man in our heart being as bad as murder, and things like that, I think our motives are really important.  In one respect, just as important as our actions.  In some situations, maybe MORE important than our actions.

Frustratingly, though, this realization results in a crippling over-analysis for me.

Most of the time, my motives are probably wrong.  I know that.  I don’t like it.

But sometimes, my motives are right.

Which do YOU think is most important, DOING the right thing, or having the right motive?

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I’d love to write a blog post. It’s quiet, the kids are asleep, the wife has her hair up in a towel, and I could rattle off something quite spectacular.

Except that the seed thought, the core of blogging, is dead. I can think of NOTHING worth blogging about. I’m sleepy, I’m tired, and I’m sleepy.

So, the silence will have to do.

Thanks for dropping by!

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I guess I’ll take the “Likes” system off the blog, to prevent jamming up the system.

Either nobody likes the stuff, which is discouraging news, or the idea of clicking a button to tell me that you like my stuff just hasn’t caught on.

Definitely don’t want to waste speed and network resources on a useless feature.

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So, what’s your favorite song of ALL time?  Religious, secular, country, rap, pop – I don’t care.  One song.  Your absolute favorite.

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