This has been written in my head for awhile!

So this post has been written in my head for awhile now!  Floating around in the mush that I call my brain.  It might not sit well with others but I have to get it out before it makes me crazier than I already am!  So here goes.

This year I have noticed how easy it seems to get a group of Christians to come behind something that seems to be an unjust situation.  Don't get me wrong I'm all for helping people and doing what is right as long as I have enough information to make a clear evaluation of the situation.  As that goes, the most resent issue that has attracted a lot of attention has been Chick-fil-A and all that has surrounded it.  Let me explain myself before you jump to conclusions on where you think I stand.

First and foremost I'm a follower of Jesus Christ who is my Lord and Savior.  I try to live each day to the best of my ability as a follower of Jesus.  As most of us know the whole Chick-fil-A issue stems from Mr. Cathy sharing his belief about same sex marriages.  As a Christian I believe that the gay life style is a sin, as is stealing, adultery, murder and a whole list of other things.  My issue is that the whole appreciation day in my opinion showed more hate than love if you attended it because "we have to stand up for God".  If you went to Chick-fil-A on August 1st to show support for First Amendment rights then I believe you where there for the right reasons.  That being said I also don't believe that any official that can legally marry someone should be forced to marry a gay couple if it goes against their religious belief.   As for my family and I we will continue to eat there as we love chicken and also their waffle fries.

I see so many more issues within the church than gay marriage but right now this seems to be where so many people are putting their stake in the ground.  It seems easier to look and say what is wrong with the world than to maybe look at the "church" (as the body of Christ, not a specific building) and see the issues that are going on within it.  I'm not, by any means, saying I'm with out sin.  Let's be real none of us are.  When speaking with a friend lately he talked about how 50% of high school guys that he had in a group admitted having an addiction to pornography.  How often is this brought up in discussions within the church?  What about spending money on the church to make us feel better rather than sharing that money or putting the money to feed the homeless?  An example that almost made me throw up was when I seen an episode of TANKED on Animal Plant. A church had built an aquarium that cost over $250,000 and it required having a full-time biologist on staff to take care of it.  That seems a little over the top to me.  This passage comes to mind when I think through all this.

Matthew 7:3-5

New International Version (NIV)

³ “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? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

As Christians we are called to show the love of Jesus.  I believe there is so much more that the body of Christ could do to show this love.  Will you join me in trying to live it out and being the light for others?  If so here is a daily check list that I came up with for myself. I'm not going to lie it not always easy to follow this list but it is how I need to define each day!

My new checklist:
1.  What have I done to glorify God today?
2.  What have I done to advance the Kingdom of God? 
3.  How have I shown the love of Jesus?