Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by James MacDonald (2015-06-18) from his book, Lord, Change My Attitude: Before It's Too Late (p. 154). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition. ( Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We are dealing here with criticism and the need to replace it with love.   And the love chapter in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 13 can be summarized in the following statements: On the majors— action. On the minors— acceptance. In all things— love.   And James says, “97 percent of life’s issues are minor.” He goes on to say, “By minors we mean personal preference, personality differences... It’s essential that followers of Christ be the most accepting, nonprejudiced, nonfaultfinding, noncritical people on the face of the earth. Again, 97 percent of life’s issues are minor: little irritations; the differences between me and you; and she-thinks-like-this-but-I-don’t-see-it-that-way, and he’s-a-little-different-kind-of-a-person-than-me, and no-way-...

A thought by James MacDonald (2015-06-18) from his book, Lord, Change My Attitude: Before It's Too Late (p. 150). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition. ( Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) You may then ask, what do I do when there is a serious issue? James says, “Failure to take action will produce big fallout. In those instances, love does not sit passively by.  ‘ I love him, so I won’t upset him. ’  Wrong! Love takes action on things that are major. You say, ‘What’s major?’” James gives three guidelines to determine what are major things where love means taking action: “1. Is this a critical path? If failure to take action will produce major fallout, biblical love is on the move. If it’s a major doctrinal error, a case of marital unfaithfulness, a criminal act, or an abusive behavior, please don’t collect stories for ten years and sit passively by. Step up! Get involved! Say something! Love takes action. If the person you l...

A thought by James MacDonald (2015-06-18) from his book, Lord, Change My Attitude: Before It's Too Late (p. 149). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition. ( Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Did you realize that?   Did you know that Biblical love is both truth and affection put together? James says, “An imbalance of biblical love has often infected the church. On one hand is radical fundamentalism that emphasizes all truth and is legalistic and screaming, ‘This is what the Word says, boy!’ That’s not what Jesus did. On the other hand, we have a liberal Christianity that says, ‘Bag the Bible; we have Jesus! We have His heart for the hurting, and we’re going out to make a difference in this world.’ Jesus didn’t do that either.” He goes on, “Neither one of those is what Christ intended. It appears we need a balance between these two: truth and acts of mercy; acts of mercy and truth. Anything less is not biblical love. For instance, Jerry isn...