Saturday, September 19, 2015

Are You a Lone Ranger Christian?

I have been a part of my church family for 5 years as of next month. They are a great group of talented, loving, hugging, caring individuals. 

Now, I am equally blessed with a work church family. I apologize for the times I confuse people, but I have a work church and a church church. (It's just how I roll. LOL)

I have been at my job for a year and 3 months. Over that time, I have gotten to know some people, I already knew a few, and I am getting to know more.

What I would like to point out today is how important relationships are. God did not put us on this earth to live life alone. He created us for relationships.

I'm not even talking about dating or marriage relationships here. This is just humans loving other humans.

Some of my Zumba family
Last weekend, I attended a birthday party of a friend of mine who does Zumba with me. She had her church family, her family family and her Zumba family all around the table. (As it turns out, a good bit of our Zumba family are Christians too, so that's just icing on the cake.) She thanked us all for being there and talked about how we've affected her life. 

In John 17: 20-23 Jesus said this, "I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message. May they all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so that the world may believe You sent Me. I have given them the glory that You have given to Me. May they be one just as We are one. May they be made completely one so that the world may know You sent Me and that You have loved them just as You have loved Me."

The context of this was just after Jesus prayed for the disciples, He prayed for all believers. Jesus knew how important it was for all believers to be in relationship with each other. He wanted us to see the relationship He has with God, so we could believe that He is God's Son. 

Last week, my work church started a Bible study together. "Your Church Experiencing God Together" This one sentence that is referring to the Scripture above says this, "He knew relationship was God's eternal strategy, and He lived it out with His disciples. Life in God's family in the local church is vital to world redemption."

I have a confession... and you might disagree with me..which is cool... but I DO NOT like the people who go out on the street with a camera and microphone and ask people if they died today where would they go. I also do not care of the people with megaphones on the corners in towns screaming at people about how they are going to hell because of how they are living. 

The first part bothers me because I think, like this line says from my Bible study, we are made for relationships. If you invest in someone's life, you are more than likely going to help them turn to God and become a Christian. More than just asking them on street.

The second part bothers me, because while it could be true, those people are judging everyone who walks by them. There could be tons of Christians that are not going to hell. Then, the non Christians who hear him are turned off from Christianity because they think we are all judging, screaming, mean people. Instead of being the people God called us to be that take care of the homeless, widows, and orphans.

Relationships matter in our lives. We are called to love God, and love people. That's the motto at my church church. 

So, our relationship with God is first, then He has people in our lives to do life with.

My church church started small groups last week. I am a small group host home and leader. We will be playing board games tonight. I want to help people see that you can have good clean fun as a Christian. AND we need to put our cell phones away and actually interact with each other. This will help us build relationships with each another. 

If you are a lone ranger Christian, please stop. You need others.God wants you to have people in your life. By the way, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.

We can live RICHLY, like my friend Matt Ham says, with others in our lives.

God bless you today and always.

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