SHOWDOWN AT THE CORRAL THAT ISN'T OKAY

The great ache continues across our land. Churches are brewing with potential disturbance. I hear from men and women of great distance throughout each week regarding perplexing issues. These are serious moments.

1. We are tested to see how deeply we love. Before you take it that implied drop your sword, it didn't. We must think of four levels our love must apply: (1) God, (2), the difficult members, (3) the lost whom we must reach, and (4) people who have yet to be born but our labor will leave a legacy on this earth they will encounter. We tend to be short-sighted and work only with numbers 1 and 2 in mind.

2. We must realize this verifies we are body. When have you looked at your own body and said, I don't like this. I've got to adjust I've got to get a haircut. I must lose weight. The same principle goes on all the time within the body of Christ. Adjustments are perpetually needed as long as the body is a living organism. Some members, though, insist we wear the same hair style in this century we wore in the last. Such is neither wise nor is it biblical.

3. How do you know when to stand and when to bend? The answer is always found in another question; Is this debate for me to win or for others to find life? If its for me, I'll survive with this hairdo. However, if this change is for the lost we are trying to reach or the teens we are trying to keep, then the challenge may usher a different conclusion.

4. Here's a factor. Just as Peter, sometimes a member can innocently and unknowingly play the devil's advocate in a literal sense. Jesus came that the church might have abundant life. Satan is set on stealing that Life....John 10:10. All leaders must weigh the various matters before them by giving answer to the Life factor within the body of Christ. Some things need to be swiftly labeled as Satan's for he is stealing from the flock.

Finally, God has given us a test pattern for how to know which is of Satan and which of the Spirit. Read Galatians 5:19-22. If opposition comes from huffing and red-in-the-face threatening, this is not the fruit of the Spirit. However, if concern is advocated with a mixture of patience and kindness....there you have it. I believe a person can have a right idea; but if his spirit is of the wrong spirit, he offers rotted seed.