Keep a Tight Reign
“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” James 1:26.
Sometime ago this story came to mind it’s called the eleven o clock prayer. When I read it I was reminded of the above verse in James. It reads,
The Eleven O Clock Parable
It’s eleven o clock. Inside the court house a judge is about to make his ruling. A community, a nation, waits.
Will the new law be legal?
Outside the court house men and women with placards chant.
On one side of the street stand a group of gay men and women. All in favour of the new law.
On the other side of the street separated by a line of police stand radical evangelicals, denouncing the new law.
One man among them screams angrily . “HOMOSEXUALS ARE GOING TO HELL!!!”
Approached by the media he says it again, “homosexuals are going to Hell.”
From my office window I watch asking myself the question, ‘is this man an Christian?”
Wasn’t it Christ who told us not only to love our neighbour but our enemy also?
Wasn’t it Christ who told us not to judge, lest we be judged likewise?
Wasn’t it Christ who said go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation?
Is this man showing love?
Is this man judging another?
Can this man be effective in reaching the whole world for Christ of which a percentage are homosexual?
Is this man even a Christian?
A question keeps rolling through my mind for which I know the answer, “Can we truly know what is in someone else’s head?
Do we really know why a person is like they are?”
For a moment I stare down at the crowd. All the time asking myself who is on the way to Hell this day, and how can I reach them for my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
Turning away from my window I kneel down and pray, “Lord guide me this day. Let me make the right decision on this law.”
Those calling themselves Christians in the above story to my mind will never win a gay man or woman to Christ. Their confrontational style is more likely to turn people away from Christ both in they LGBT community and outside.
Such a confrontational attitude is wrong plain and simple. It has no place in Christianity. Jesus and his apostles were not confrontational despite living in a secular Roman society that had many things their faith did not agree with.
While it is true Jesus and the apostles spoke against the religious leaders of their day. They were Jews speaking against Jewish leaders who were not correctly presenting the word of God.
The apostle Paul wrote something everyone who claims to be a Christian needs to think carefully about when he said,
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:12,13.
The great American evangelist Billy Graham said,
Jesus said,
“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” James 1:26.
Sometime ago this story came to mind it’s called the eleven o clock prayer. When I read it I was reminded of the above verse in James. It reads,
The Eleven O Clock Parable
It’s eleven o clock. Inside the court house a judge is about to make his ruling. A community, a nation, waits.
Will the new law be legal?
Outside the court house men and women with placards chant.
On one side of the street stand a group of gay men and women. All in favour of the new law.
On the other side of the street separated by a line of police stand radical evangelicals, denouncing the new law.
One man among them screams angrily . “HOMOSEXUALS ARE GOING TO HELL!!!”
Approached by the media he says it again, “homosexuals are going to Hell.”
From my office window I watch asking myself the question, ‘is this man an Christian?”
Wasn’t it Christ who told us not only to love our neighbour but our enemy also?
Wasn’t it Christ who told us not to judge, lest we be judged likewise?
Wasn’t it Christ who said go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation?
Is this man showing love?
Is this man judging another?
Can this man be effective in reaching the whole world for Christ of which a percentage are homosexual?
Is this man even a Christian?
A question keeps rolling through my mind for which I know the answer, “Can we truly know what is in someone else’s head?
Do we really know why a person is like they are?”
For a moment I stare down at the crowd. All the time asking myself who is on the way to Hell this day, and how can I reach them for my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
Turning away from my window I kneel down and pray, “Lord guide me this day. Let me make the right decision on this law.”
Those calling themselves Christians in the above story to my mind will never win a gay man or woman to Christ. Their confrontational style is more likely to turn people away from Christ both in they LGBT community and outside.
Such a confrontational attitude is wrong plain and simple. It has no place in Christianity. Jesus and his apostles were not confrontational despite living in a secular Roman society that had many things their faith did not agree with.
While it is true Jesus and the apostles spoke against the religious leaders of their day. They were Jews speaking against Jewish leaders who were not correctly presenting the word of God.
The apostle Paul wrote something everyone who claims to be a Christian needs to think carefully about when he said,
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:12,13.
The great American evangelist Billy Graham said,
“It is the Holy Spirits Job to Convict,
God’s job to judge
and my job to love,
Billy Graham
Jesus said,
“So in everything, do to others
what you would have them do to you,
for this sums up the Law and the Prophets”
Matthew 7:12.
Please think about it.
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