Proverbs 18:20,21 A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Recently, I was scrolling through Instagram and noticed a picture of a church billboard. This is what it said: God loves you unless you have tattoos. Then you’re going straight to hell!
During one church service, a member said, “What are we gonna do about those homosexuals?”
Do you see a problem here? I do. Do you see the Father’s great love in these comments? I don’t.
Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 15:18,19 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
I looked up “defile” in both the dictionary and the Strong’s and came up with : make filthy or dirty; make disgusting in any way; destroy the purity or cleanness of; corrupt; pollute; make or consider profane, etc.
As representatives of our Bridegroom, we can pollute other’s view of Him by what we say.
False witness…….that really stands out to me as well. If we are saying and projecting anything but love to the lost or anyone for that matter, then we are being false witnesses of the Father’s great love.
If we are mean and accusatory, no wonder people see God the Lord as mean and holding lightening bolts in His hand to kill them or hurt them.
Chances are that sinners know what they are doing and don’t need us to point it out to them. When we project anything other than the Father’s love, we are polluting their view of who He is.
We are to represent Him to those who don’t know Him.
When I left my husband for another man and turned my back on the Lord, guess who was instrumental in me turning back to the Lord? Yes, my husband. He never pointed out what I was doing wrong. He was kind and was continually pointing me to the One who loves me despite my failures.
That is how you “win” others to Christ! Show them who He is by you.
Yes, I wrote on the Instagram page that the billboard was a lie and told them the truth; that God loves them and He looks on the heart not the outward appearance. What do we do with those homosexuals? We love them with all the Father’s great love in us. Ask Him to see their heart and minister to them in that place. Love them!
1 John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Believing on the Lord and knowing Him are different. Please read my post titled “Know Him”.
Father, may the abundance of our hearts be You. Help us to see others with Your eyes and love them through us. Amen.
