The other night we had a family over from the church. They are a godly, loving family who are an integral part of the church. But, for people who have been in the church forever, grace eludes them.
Here is what I mean.
They wanted to talk about how to deal with sin in the youth group (ie a few years ago, there were a couple pregnancies among the girls in the group). The problem, as they saw it, is that if you show grace to people, it will cause others to sin because you are somehow soft on sin.
Before you become a Christian, it is ok. We can easily accept you. God will forgive your sin. But don’t you dare sin after you become a Christian–there is little grace for you.
Why do we think that the God who sent His Son to die for us while we were still sinners, but now that we know His love, He would abandon us?
I don’t get it. I thought God really loved us.
I would bet that kids were sleeping together or not sleeping as the case may be before the kids got pregnant. I think that teaching obedience out of love and respect would make more sense than coming down on them after the fact. I think teen pregnancy has lot more to do with hormones than sin. I know premarital sex is a sin but so is swearing, drunkeness, gluttony and many more, it just does not produce a baby ok drunkeness mught have some to do with it sometimes but still Jesus used grace and love much more often than the whip.
I think sometimes Christians think that the rebirth somehow makes you or “should” make you immune to the real biggies….you know, you should never desire another cigarette, never want another beer, never lust and never want to listen to rock n’ roll. It becomes a list of OK sins; gossip, gluttony, little white lies. And, those are OK.
There was a time, it was during the pre-Gideon years when I still didn’t know what a tragedy was, that one of our friends’ daughter became pregnant. I remember so foolishly telling Mike, “I’d just be so upset if one of the girls became pregnant.” He looked at me and said, “There are things way worse than that, Babe.” How very true. And, while I hope my kids won’t do many of the things I did, they may. If they do, I hope the church will still love and support them in whatever way they need. I know I will.
Most of my friends do not know that I was married briefly as a teenager. I would be shunned and they would consider all my children to be bastards because Mike is my 2nd husband. I’m looking into a new set of friends.
Jesus would not see your children as bastards. Jesus would not shun you.
He loves you.
I think that is why He went to the cross.
Thank you,
I’ve lived with so much shame, not put on me by Jesus, but put on me by Christians. They did not walk in my shoes, but I know that Jesus knows me, he knows where I’ve been and where I’m going. I’m just starting to know that He does love me. It’s a slow start….but, I’m getting there to the realization that no matter what my past, HE HAS FOREVER wiped out my debt. Thank you for putting it into print that my children are not bastards….I’m forever done with that. Thank you for putting into print that Jesus would not shun me. For so long, I thought he would.
Jesus loves you.
You belong to him.
He loves me.
I belong to him.
I love you. You are my sister.
It’s that simple-too bad not everybody gets it.