Let Us Love in Deed and in Truth

Let Us Love in Deed and in Truth

“I want to go to church, but I can’t find a church that welcomes me.  I went to a church in Atlanta where the pastor came and clapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Son, we’re glad to have you here!’  I said, ‘My name is Cindy.’  He dropped his hands and wiped them on his pants as if to wipe off the contamination.”

            This was part of a speech given in one of my classes this semester.  Let me describe Cindy to you.  She looks like a male, wears her hair in a short butch, wears men’s clothing, has masculine manners.  But she’s female. 

            What if Cindy showed up at Grace Baptist Church?  Would she be welcome?  Would you wipe off your hands to remove the contamination?  I am convinced that I wouldn’t do that, nor would most of you.  But I judged Cindy.  I was convinced that she was involved in an “alternative” lifestyle that most of us would reject.  But I was wrong.  As she learned to trust me, she told me that she had always felt like a boy, that she was in the wrong body.  She even had a girlfriend, but she knew that God condemned sex outside of marriage.  She wanted me to know that she was keeping herself pure because she wanted to please the Lord.  She and her partner were abstinent, in her words.  I have felt rebuked for my instant judgment and have confessed it to God and asked Him to change my heart.

            I have just come from the very moving prayer and worship service at the church.  Again I must confess my failing to you.  Scotte Staab shared with us the story of the young man who came to our church this morning looking for help.  He was desperate and  people here this morning worked to meet his needs.  They fed him, gave him a place to bathe, offered him a job, prayed with him, and dealt with his spiritual needs.  I realized that I had seen that young man, probably when he first arrived at church.  I saw him in the hall, looking lost.  But I was in a hurry, late to choir practice.  (I am not indispensable to choir, by the way!)  I spoke to him, said hello, and rushed past him.  On some level I knew I should stop and see if I could help him, but I didn’t.  I failed him.  I am grateful that there were others here who did not fail him, who actually saw him and met his needs.

            On a personal level, I would not have made it through a very difficult period in my life without the members of the body here at Grace Baptist.  They met my physical needs, cried with me, prayed with me, loved me.  I am a member of Grace Baptist Church because members of this body embraced me in a desperate time of need.

            I acknowledge to you that I need God’s help to make me sensitive to others’ needs and to help me to act to meet those needs.

            I wrote before about the ID card of Christians being our love for each other.  I have just returned from a trip to Israel where an Armenian Jew who was our bus driver told me that he liked best to work with Mormon groups.  His reason was because of the love they showed each other.  They took care of those who were elderly, who were weaker, who had special needs.  He saw that they loved each other.  It broke my heart to hear that.  He didn’t say it about evangelical Christians; he said it about the Mormons.

            Oh, God!  Change my heart and my actions.  Let others know I am yours because of the love I show to your children!  Let others see Grace Baptist as full of Christians who love!

          Let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth.

                                                                                I John 3:18

                                                                                ~~Faith Himes Lamb