How does it feel?

     If there is one place Christians should feel loved and accepted, it should be the Body of Christ.  We share so much--our faith in Jesus, our destiny in Heaven, our love for the Lord.  Jesus Himself said that the way people would recognize that we are His people is by our love for one another (John 13:35).  I find it interesting He didn't say that the watching world would know we are His by our love for Him, or for the unsaved (though we should be loving Him, and the unsaved).  The biggest testimony to the lost is that Christians love each other.

     Sadly, this often doesn't happen the way Jesus commanded.  I imagine all of us believers have been wounded by other Christians at times.  It is more devastating when the attack comes from Christians.  It has to be.  Here we share something so beyond ourselves.  We have every reason to cling together.  But we don't.  Not always.  It isn't just us.  It was that way in Acts.  People were coming to Jesus from different parts of Israel, and even outside of the Jewish faith.  As they got saved, they brought their cultures and conflicts with them.  This led to the church leaders having the counsel at Jerusalem in Acts 15.  What we can gather from this is that culture plays a huge part into who we are, even as Christians.  This can be a uniting or a dividing force.  What we share as Christians should be so much greater than any difference.  But so often, we lose sight of it.

     On Facebook, one page I follow is a particular Conservative Christian group.  They share a lot of really good resources and articles.  Last night, something they shared brought out a lot of ugliness in people, myself included.  The article was about how the US population was redistributing itself, due to people moving out of states like California, New York and Illinois.  Admittedly, these three states are known for liberal politics.  Think for a second, what kind of people would move out of liberal states?  The answer should be fairly obvious: Conservatives, many of whom are Christians.  The liberals have no reason to leave these states.  They are getting their own way from corrupt state governments (many of whom were voted in by deceased people who had not been cleared off the voting registration).  There is heart-breaking corruption in these places.  A lot of Conservatives feel they have no choice but to leave.  However, the people who read the article got very unkind, particularly trashing Californians (not the state, but the actual residents) talking about how stupid and worthless they all are, and how they're trying to move to others states to make them as corrupt as the one they came from.  How smart would that be?  I have just established that the Conservatives are the ones leaving.  I am a Californian, a Conservative, and a Christian, and my heart broke as I read people's hate-filled comments.  They don't know me, or the wonderful Christian people I love in my home state, but they decided to hate us.  I feel very hopeless when people say stuff like that.  I can't change what state I'm from.  No one can.  The evil behind their hatred is the same evil behind racism.  No one chooses their race, but everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves before judgment.  What is distressing is that the people making these comments about me and my fellow Californians is that they are supposedly Christians (the page is geared to conservative Christians).

     I sobbed until my whole body shook.  I felt like my heart would stop beating. I hadn't been that broken since a college boyfriend dumped me many years ago.  I am hated by people who share my Lord and eternity.  Yet they hate me, call me stupid and worthless. They assume evil, wicked things about my motives, just because I happen to be from a state with a largely undeservedly bad reputation.  I love California, and never wanted to leave it. Our reasons for leaving our home state four years ago are a long story, but it has been God's leading for my husband and me.  After living in the Midwest, the Mountain states, and the South, we have concluded that the Christian community in California is a lot more in-depth and spiritually mature than I've found elsewhere.  There is corruption in the government.  Christians need to stand up and fight it.  Those not called to be involved should pray, not put us down.  After reading these mean-spirited comments from other believers, I was left feeling like there was no place for me.  That is a horrible feeling.  No Christian should feel that way, ever.  I responded with truth to some of the abusive, ignorant comments.

     First John 4:20 says: If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  Being a Christian in a world that never knew God is a hostile experience.  We can't be turning on each other.  Anyone who stops long enough to think it through should be able to figure out that no state has all good or all bad people in it.  There is always a remnant of God's people (First Kings 19:18).  California was the location of all major revival movements of the twentieth century.  There are multiple Bible colleges and seminaries there.  Even in supposedly evil Los Angeles, Christian denominations combined make up the biggest religion adhered to.  I have been in touch with a BIble-believing church in San Francisco.  They are trying to do a lot of wonderful ministry, but are attacked by the enemy in ways we can't even begin to know.  But all of that is beside the point.  Even if the Christians in California were fewer, we are still God's people, and should be loved and accepted by other believers, not attacked because of our state.  That kind of prejudice and hatred is so hurtful.  That's what I really want to say.  I hurt.  My soul aches to be loved by other Christians.  I want to belong.  I want to hear the words of Cheri Keaggy's song "Bring it all in" Come in, bring it all in.  We've got a place for you, there's enough grace for you.  God only knows where you've been.  Bring it all in.  We need to love and extend grace to each other.  We are hurting in a world that has rejected our Savior.  We can't go rejecting each other.  

     Let's pray for God to change our hearts and make us the loving people He wants us to be.  I don't feel very loving toward those who said those hateful things.  Clearly, they don't love me or my people  That isn't right.  Also, pray for Christians living in states that don't listen to their votes.  Did you know California is the only state that voted TWICE to keep marriage between one man and one woman?  Most states didn't vote at all, but those who did only did once.  California really wanted to keep things right.  No one talks about that. They just talk about how evil California supposedly is, and all it's residents along with it.  Pray for Christians in these places.  They are fighting spiritual battles you don't know about.  They don't want to fight their fellow Christians in other states as well!  They are your brothers and sisters.

     One thing that has comforted me was something my husband reminded me of.  Jesus was from Nazareth, and in John 1:14, Nathaniel said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"  Jesus was from a place with a bad reputation.  He was misjudged because of it.  He knows the plight of Californian Christians.  He loves us and cries with us when we are rejected by those who have been commanded to love us.  It hurts Him too.  Please pray for me, because it is so hard being a Californian out of state.  People can be so cruel.  That isn't right.  Come on, Christians, let's follow Jesus' command to love one another.  No one else will want to know our Lord until we do.