sharing the truth in love

how did jesus do it?

he told stories that made points about heaven, and let people draw thier own conclusions.

he had a small group (120) that he encouraged to follow him around, learning how he lived, and an even smaller (12) that he went out of his way to teach deeper meanings to, and a very (3) small group whom he shared his deepest secrets with.

he forgave, and healed, and loved.

we have 1 story where he flipped some tables over — but we see almost no condemnation of individuals in that story.

the group of people who incurred most of his “wrath” were the religious leaders of the day who were holding the people hostage to rules that god doesn’t care about.

he walked around from town to town, encouraging people to simply love god, and teaching them, through stories and illustrations, how much god loves them, and what a person who lives in the kingdom might behave like.

for me, this is instructive.

i try to encourage my friends when they say things that are True, and i try to tell stories that make points about god and his kingdom.

i share what god’s doing in my life, saying what i have found to be exciting or helpful.

i know i didn’t get “saved” because of people condemning “bad behavior”, but the holy sprit has, over the years that i’ve been learning from it/him/her slowly been weeding bad habits out of my life.

you’ll never find me asking friends “not to cuss in front of me”, or telling them “you really shouldn’t smoke pot, dood”, or “you’re gay? did you know you were going to hell?” other such things.

i simply don’t think that will get them into the kingdom that i love living in.

instead, i try simply to get people to fall in love with god, and i figure once they do that, he can help them overcome any sin issues they have — so i simply don’t bother condemning or debating such things.