Sisters in Christ

"So here's the deal, I can't be myself anymore.  I am always doing something wrong. Not doing the right things, saying the right things and I even feel as if the way I mother is wrong in your eyes.  I speak....and am ignored and I move on....saddened but strong.  You speak and I am afraid to answer because of the fear of it being the wrong response.  I cannot praise you enough or in the right way you desire so I have stopped. My heart is turning cold because of this.  This is not a friendship. When do you walk away from a friendship because it is eating at your heart? Your very being? It's making you bitter and unloving not because it's never about you but because it's always about you and what you are not doing right.  When do you give up on a friendship because no matter how GREAT their life is, they absolutely cannot find the joy in it?"

John 13:34-35

"A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you,

so you must love one another.   By this everyone will know that you are

my disciples, if you love one another."

The enemy targets very specifically ... relationships.  This is not a relationship that has Christ as it's center...this is not a sisterhood or a friendship.  We are the body of Christ and although we can work without some parts of that body we work best when united.  This sisterhood in Christ should not be filled with competition, arrogance or jealousy...but filled with love for one another.  We should stand together and encourage each other, mentor, laugh and learn.  We should be able to spend a day together and learn more about each other, share our gifts to better our relationships...not think critically or judgmentally.  

"While I was yet sinning directly against Him, Christ reached out wide to me and directly took the nail and literally drained himself for me."

We are to model Christ in our relationships.  "While we yet disagree theologically, can I still be nice to you? Why do we demonize people instead of evangelize them? God loves us while we sin, God holds out his hand to the disobedient, and love is what makes God the most potent of all.  Love is the most radically subversive activism of all, and the only thing that ever changed anyone."  

Here is a lie we believe and we need to break.  "If you disagree with someone on one point  -  then you must disdain or dismiss them entirely.  And if you acknowledge or affirm someone -  then you must agree with them entirely".  This is a lie...we must break it!

Every gathering with your friend...your sister in Christ should be refreshing.  It doesn't have to contain this long theological discussion.  It IS okay to gather and craft...it IS okay to gather and bake...it IS okay to gather and just be each other...as different as we all are...love is what we need most in this sisterhood.  If we would make a commitment to stop the judgment in our heads, stop the competing, stop the jealousy when it first takes root...we could be the sisters that break the mold and make our lives about the joy-filled proclamation of knowing Him and making Him known. We could be his daughters called to be peacemakers, "the ones who know that the brokenness of humility is the secret to community and the harshness of pride is what builds walls of division. 

Lets rise as sisters in Christ...lets be a generation that lives a godly example of women of the church...

Let's be confident in our identity in Jesus Christ....because truth is...if you are bitter, if you are angry, if you are prideful, jealous or arrogant...God can't use you.  

You cannot be the gift to those sisters if you haven't unwrapped the gift and fully embraced it with Joy.  That is what this Advent season is about right? Unwrapping the gift...

What do you have to lose if you decide to stand proud with sisters in Christ as opposed to tearing them down? Because God? He had everything to lose.  Christ? He didn't have an attitude that He might die for us...he willingly chose to die for us.  That Babe in the manger that we celebrate this season "He is the Prince on the Cross who saves you with His life, so your identity is no longer wrapped up in being one of the rich ones inside the gate (Esther 4:10-17).  Your identity is wrapped up in being one of the rich ones inside of Him."

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God"