Loving Acceptance vs. Calling People to Change

As I write this post I realize that I am not good with words so I hope and pray that I expressed what I was trying to say in this post. I would like to hear your responses on both the artice posted and my thoughts and other questions or comments you have on this issue.
My thoughts in this post will be based off a Matt's February 27th post which references this article found on the SoulForce site. (SoulForce is an organization that will be coming to ACU to discuss ACU's policy against homosexual behavior) I commend Matt for bringing up this issue on his post for discussion as it is a question and struggle that I often deal with and think about.
The question that I have to this article is how do Christians lovingly accept those who are in these situations without igniting the problem because of this acceptance. In the article, Lewis Smedes states, "Finally, in the middle 1950's, the church did reverse its policy of exclusion and began embracing divorced and remarried couples into its family circle." I do believe that this was the right thing to do and I am glad that it was done. However, and this is just my observation, this seems to be about the same time that divorce rates began to dramatically increase in the United States. (The statistics I briefly looked at seemed to support this) Therefore, there seems to be a correlation between the acceptance and the number of people who accept that as a choice. How do we as Christians maintain a balance in which we lovingly accept the people yet stand firmly against the behaviors and hold people accountable?
How do we hold accountable the unwed mother who is having her second or third child? Or the unwed couple that is living together? Or the homosexuals? Or someone who spends all their money on luxuries and doesnt help the poor? Or the drug user or alcoholic? Or the divorced couples who have been in numerous marriages? This question is hard for me on many levels. First of all, there is lots of sin in my life so what right do I even have to confront others about the sin in their life. However, we as Christians are supposed to help each other and encourage one another. The question I have is how do we go about that?
Jesus was good at telling people how it is, but how do we do that? His attitude towards the Pharisees, who also were very religious and trying to do God's will, did not resemble loving acceptance. It just seems to me like we can become accepting of everyone without really calling them to change their lives. And that leads to it just happening all the more. It seems to me like we as Christians accept everyone, as we should, but we overlook a major part in that we have to call people to be better. For example, we dont confront people about how they spend their money and so we have a materialistic nation who doesnt do a good job at helping the poor. So basically, I wonder how to integrate loving acceptance and accountability, encouragement, etc. How do we tell people, "I love you, Go and sin no more."
Somehow I think that we need to convey more that the sin is wrong. We seem to talk about God's love and grace more than his justice. If we figure out how to convey that the sin is wrong along with acceptance maybe we will have more people who come to church and try to work through their marital problems. Maybe we will have more homosexuals who go through the counseling and get through their struggles. Maybe we will have wealthy people change thier lifestyles or people who decide to quit sleeping around. But if we have a church that accepts people but does not call people to change, this will never happen. Maybe the church before the 1950's was doing something right, just like the church now is doing something right as well. It seems to me that there needs to be a balance that we have not figured out how to do.

A Tribute to Michael Burris

Michael Buuurrriiiiiiisss!!!!!! A few years back I had a roomate named Michael Burris. A very memorable roomate to say the least. His memories bring back the smell of tuna, the picture of the giant fish he used to sleep with, and a red velvet backpack. But this blog is about a profound statement that he made one time. He once made the comment, "Sometimes I just want to go to sleep and never wake up."
Oh how true this statement can sometimes be. In my opinion, sleep is one of the blessings in life and is one of my favorite things to do. When you fall asleep, you have no worries at all. You are in a state of peace and rest no matter what yesterday was like or tomorrow will be like. After a long, hard day you can always look forward to when you get to go home and lay your head on your pillow and go to sleep. So wouldnt it be nice to just go to sleep and never wake up. Everyone has had the experience in which you just do not want to get out of bed. You lay there wishing you just had another thirty minutes to enjoy the bliss and happiness that comes with sleep.
And you can also make the connection with death. Oh how glorious that day will be when we finally do go to sleep and never wake up. We will then advance into a place where the peace and rest and happiness never end. Oh how I long to go to Heaven where the hardships of life will be forgotten. Even in the midst of a long, hard life we have the hope of going home to a place where we find "sleep".
So thank you Michael Burris for this deep insight into life. Tomorrow, everyone where sweats to school or work in memory of my old roommate.

Dancing With God

Does anybody else really love to dance? I love dancing whether it is dancing with Kasey (which is my favorite), freestyle dancing (which I look pretty ridiculous doing), dancing along with people on t.v. (I'm really good at that), doing the hula, celebration dances, and the list goes on. On Thursday Mike Cope posted a really neat blog that included the thoughts of Kerri Lane as she meditated on the word "dance". Click here to read the post for February 23rd. I thought this post was great for many reasons. I think her words explain most of it. When we let God lead our lives it goes so much more smoothly and produces a wonderful feeling. But as she states, this takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness. Sometimes it hard for me to know how to let God lead. Just what exactly does that mean? How does that look? I love the song, "He Leadeth Me" which was in the old song book called Songs of the Church. Acapella did a version of that song and my mom played it for me after my dad passed away. It has meant a lot to me over the years as I try to let God lead my life. Kasey has taught me a lot about viewing life as a dance and relationships as a dance in which God is our instructor. He is the one who teaches us how to dance. When we learn from God how to do things and how to live, things will go more smoothly and we fulfill our purpose on the dance floor. Last night, I got to go to Oplin for Kara Wolfe's Birthday party. Happy Birthday Kara Wolfe!!! This is the second time I have got to go with Kasey to Oplin to dance. There is something about just being with her and holding her that makes things seems wonderful. With God it is the same way. I think he enjoys when we want to dance with Him and we let Him wrap his arms around us. And for me, I have hope and assurance in his arms knowing that all things will be okay. So I hope you dance...and let Him lead.

The Beginning

Okay, so I have given in to the blogging urge. I will see how this goes. I have enjoyed reading other people's site and thoughts so I hope other people will like reading from mine. In this site, I will write about my wonderings and thoughts that run through my head and also about my life in general. The question in my head right now is, "Why am I so blessed?" How come I was born into such a great life when others have it so hard? I have a middle school group of inner city boys who I love to death. But their lives are so much different from mine. Some are growing up with out fathers, mothers, or both. The neighborhoods and situations they come from make it so hard. One recently got in trouble for stabbing someone with a pencil and has been caught with weed. They struggle with school which may be because they are not expected to do as well. How do they escape the kind of life that they are in? Why is it that I was born into a great family, was blessed with the greatest girlfriend in the whole world, and have lined up a good job before I get out of school? I think Jesus calls us as Christians to help people in these very situations. We are his Body and it is our job to ease their pain, to give them hope, to bring them to life and raise them from the dead by introducing them to Jesus and being Jesus to them. So I pray that God will enter thier lives. That through my example and efforts, God will work through me and let them see how loved they are by their creator. Well, not all of my blogs will be this long. This was just one I had in my head.