How do you answer those who say that people of faith, particularly Christians, are judgmental?
Some say that love has no agenda, I believe that love is the agenda (John 13:35). And I am going to love you. I am going to love you so hard and so fast you can’t stand it. I’m going to love you so long and so deep that you’ll begin to wonder why. I am going to love you until you fall down on your knees and ask, “Who is the God that you serve?”
Then I will tell you the secret of my great love. A love poured down that I simply can’t contain, at times, bursting from the seams of my being. Sometimes that God-instilled love will require me to share—in those intimate conversations only after I’ve won your heart and trust—that which you already know: your self-destructive behavior is killing you. When you ask, “How do I stop?” I will only have one answer.
I know no other.
So, yes, you can call me judgmental. I’ve judged, without apology, that you’ve rarely—if ever—experienced this kind of love, this foundation of spiritual transformation.
Thoughts?
www.margaretfeinberg.com
Monday, February 05, 2007
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5 comments:
Doesn't it seem like some people are making a major effort to convince you NOT to love them?
I love people because I love God. God is amazing! The more I know about God, the more I love Him.
But he keeps pointing me back to people who people who have wronged me... people who are just wrong, period... and then He says, If you love me, love them.
I'll admit that I don't always feel it, but I must always do it. And funny, but the loving feelings sometimes follow.
I like your post.
Tough question to answer because it is so often true.
Perhaps it is obvious, but it seems to me that the way to not be or come off judgemental is to be motivated by God's love for me. If I can live out of that I can hopefully show something attractive to others, and hopefully truly love others.
Beautifully put! It makes me want to spend so much more time in stillness and silence that will allow me to experience that kind of transforming love of God. It's SOOOO hard to be counter cultural and slow down enough to actually be with Him, to rest, to be still and experience what I know Him to be. I recently picked up Foster's book on the Freedom of Simplicity and it's speaking to that part of my soul that is weary with work and the performance trap. I wouldn't be able to answer that question very well right now...I need to be loved that way by God more than I feel I can love someone else in that way.
I think you've put it as well as it can be put. Love IS the agenda is definitely a phrase I can stand behind.
I'm not sure everyone understands grand scheme of loving people no matter what.
Every biblical principle is rooted in love.
This reminds me of a story about Corrie Ten Boom, which I guess is more about forgiveness, but to forgive I guess you need love. Anyway the story is that a few years after leaving the concentration camp, and she was speaking at a church in Germany, after the service a man came up to her and said that he had found her talk about forgiving people or something helpful. She recognised the man as one of the guards who had laughed at them while they were entering one of the camps. The man held out his hand for her to shake his hand and because she remembered she felt repulsed and so she prayed for God to help her. She couldn't feel any forgiveness towards him so she forced herself to shake his hand and when she did she felt a wave of forgiveness rush over her.
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