Separated
From the Separated
One
day, I was talking with one of my daughters about the dysfunction I experienced
growing up. That kind of life is hard for her to imagine because our family
doesn’t have those kinds of dysfunction.
She
asked why some families go our way and others go the way of dysfunction. I told
her there are several factors that determine personal and family stability, but
in our case, we were changed by the power of the gospel.
I praise God my girls don’t deal
with the problems that come from such brokenness, but I think my daughters may,
in a sense, be representative of what many Christians experience—they don’t
know what it’s like.
Many Christians have grown up in
a Christian home. That is their reality and they forget there’s a hurting world
out there. We drive through it on the way to school, work and church, but we
don’t come to terms with the vast brokenness surrounding us.
Hurting people sometimes make
their way into our pews and, by grace and through faith, respond to the good
news of salvation. But too often, the only connections Christians have with
broken people are made outside of church.
The true test of our maturity is
not measured in how much we leave behind, but how much we love.
That’s why I love to hear a
pastor say, “We’re going to be a church that cares about the hurting and serves
those in need, showing the love of Christ to the lost.”
Exerpts
from Ed Stetzer's Article on Loving the lost.
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