A challenge for West Memphis

Scripture:

3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.

Observation:

John is addressing a situation concerning a man named "Diotrphes who has been causing problems in the church. We know nothing about Demetrius except that he may have carried this letter from John to Gaius. The book of Acts mentions an Ephesian silversmith named Demetrius, who opposed Paul (Acts 19:24), but this is probably another man. In contrast to the corrupt Diotrephes, Demetrius had a high regard for truth. John personified truth as a witness to Demetrius's character and teaching. In other words, if truth could speak, it would speak on Demetrius's behalf. When Demetrius arrived, Gaius certainly opened his home to him.

John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, warns each of us to "imitate good" not evil.

Application:

As I read our verse for today, I immediately asked myself "if anyone was to imitate me, would they be acting out good or evil?" What am I showing by my words, actions, attitudes and motives?

I am afraid that too often my actions and words fall short of goodness.

I am so thankful to be a part of the West Memphis, Arkansas community. Christ like love was seen in action over the past few days in the response to the tragic death of police officers Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans. Churches came together, races came together, law enforcement came together, Christians in general came together.

As I watched this unfold, my heart was stirred for a genuine move of God in our community.

My friends, as adults, we have often portrayed anything but Christ likeness to the newspapers, television camera's, and radio personalities. Because of this, I am afraid our children have been and will continue to imitate our prejudices and lack of love.

I don't care how much we label ourselves "Christian" the true test is our fruit. How can any Christian man or woman spew hate and prejudice against another race? Can we really convince ourselves that God is OK with our hatred?

We have division in our community and God is not pleased with it. There are some who love the TV camera that, quite frankly need to avoid the camera and microphone because of what comes out of their mouth. It is not helping our community. It is harming it and causing the division to be even greater. And the problem with that is, as our text says, people are imitating our community leaders. And the TV camera rolls and continues to pick up "christian" men and women talking about how wrongly each side is treating the other. My God, please have mercy on us. Please forgive us for our severe lack of Christ like love. Please help leaders to realize they are leading people to either evil, or good.

I'm not just talking about our political leaders, but our church leaders as well. I call out to all of our Crittenden County ministers to help heal the racial and religious division in our community. Pastors, if you get involved in "politics" your political views must not usurp God's views. You must continue to hold up God's Word and standards. God is a God of love and not division and hatred.

My heart is burdened for the law enforcement in our area. There has been a lot of things spoken negatively against our law enforcement over the past few years. The standard for Christian is not to do battle in public via television, paper, etc. But the following:

Matthew 18:15-17 (TM) "If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him--work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend. (16) If he won't listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. (17) If he still won't listen, tell the church. If he won't listen to the church, you'll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God's forgiving love.

Confronting, fighting, arguing through the media is anything...ANYTHING, but Christ like. I plead to every Christian in Crittenden County. Please pray that our community will be united and healed. That will happen when our pastors, and political leaders are united.

Someone has got to step up and be the adults. Someone has got to step up and be Christ like even when we are angry. Someone has got to lead by example. Let's start right now. Whether you are Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ, United Pentecostal, Episcopalian, Church of God in Christ, Methodist AME, Presbyterian, Catholic, Assembly of God...let's determine to love one another in spite of our differences. Let's determine to show a world that desperately needs showing, that Christianity is still alive and effective in our community.

Please hear the heart of a Pastor who loves this community more today than I ever have! And wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I believe we are on the verge of a great renewal and awakening! Blessings!

Prayer:

"Oh God, please forgive us for the division that we have allowed to take place among our churches and leaders. Please forgive those of us who claim to be a Christian, for not acting much like one. Please forgive me for not being more involved in our community and with our Ministerial Alliance. I plan to change that immediately. Please forgive our political leaders for putting their own agenda above Yours. Please forgive each of us for allowing the racial division to go on for years in our community and instead of praying against it, we fan the flame by our silence, or by the other extreme of speaking hatred. I declare renewal and awakening over the West Memphis community, and start with each of us that read this blog today. In Jesus' name, amen!"