as of thus far..

Over the past several months there has been many, many issues arising in this church and over those months, all I’ve done is sit and listen; well, its not enough to sit and do nothing, now is it?

I warn you now to brace yourselves because this may be brutal and quite honest. I’ve heard and seen what has been going on in this church and frankly, I don’t like it and I’m sure many of you don’t either. As I stand in front of you, let me begin by saying that I know I may only be fifteen years old and I don’t have a position in this church but I have a voice and I feel it needs to be used for this purpose. Second, I am going to be as general as possible, so I’m not going to point out individuals and tell each of you what’s wrong and so on. Right now, I want your focus to be on what I’m saying and I hope all of you will listen, you may not agree, but at least listen to what I have to say.

I feel as if this church is falling apart because of our personal differences. Alas not everyone can get along with each other. Why should we quarrel with one another? We are here for the purpose of God; to worship him, praise him and learn about him. We are here to sanctify his holy day.

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. “ 1st Corinthians 1:10

To argue what is right and wrong- I think that is the main focus of all the quarreling amongst the church is. We argue about food, clothes, how people should act inside and out, what they should do in their love lives and then condemn them for doing what they think is right and what is right with the Lord. We are prone to make mistakes and God lets us make them to learn from them, am I right? We argue about how the churched should be run, and by what standards it should be run by. We argue about the positions in the church and whether or not the people nominated for them ‘deserve’ that position. God tells us to go to him in prayer with our problems first- not to each other. I don’t know if you go to him first or not, I’m just recognizing what it is that God has said in his writings. Once again, our purpose is not to fight with everybody in the church but to focus on God and all his glory and good works and from those we should learn what we should do when we are in need of guidance. Study his word, and u shall find what u are in search of.

It hurts me to see you arguing amongst yourselves over things that do not matter. Why do we criticize others and judge them? Does it not say that we should not judge? God is the only one to judge and it will come soon enough. He can do enough judging for every single one of us. Plus, we are not to judge, I believe, because we are no better than our brothers and sisters. Not one of us sitting here today is perfect. How many of you have the perfect spouse, perfect house, perfect patience, perfect clothes, and perfect temperament and so on? We are not here to put others down, to contradict the church and their rules, tell what they should and shouldn’t do for their own sake and own image; we are here to focus on God, not one another.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” Luke 6:41-42

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, hold and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-15

Church is not the place to quarrel with each other. I’m not saying to hide all of our problems, just to approach it with love and reason. My point is we should criticize others. We have our own faults too. Those whom we judge will also judge us. Take the problems of yours to the Lord and he will deal with them as he thinks is suitable and in his own time.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32