Christians Vs. the World

I want to preface this post with a warning: this post is directed towards and ONLY towards, God fearing, Jesus following Christians. In no way do I imply that anyone of any other religion should be held to these standards. So there. That is out of the way. I have a bone to pick with you Christians- many of you who are on my Facebook friend list and even more of you who aren't on my friend list. Today is Chic Fil A Appreciation Day and I have seen post after post of people going out to support Chic Fil A. I am one of Chic Fil A's biggest supporters and this post is not going to debate all that has been debated since they came out and said marriage is to be between a man and a woman. Many of your posts have been fueled with passive agressive attitudes and snide remarks about the LGBT community and I am quite honestly disgusted with you. Now I am not involving myself in this type of debate because it is a futile debate. Too many people on both sides of the argument have had hurtful comment and insinuations thrown at them due to their decision to support or not support Chic Fil A. Those on both sides are predominately unwilling to listen to the other side and actually hear what is being said. Instead, everyone wants to yell and scream about how right they are and quite frankly it is exhausting watching both sides make morons of themselves. So please, don't bring all that junk into this converstaion. This conversation is regarding a verse in Scripture that is quite popularly quoted but one that seems to forgotten once someone dares to live differently than us Christians. You know, Christ followers. Here it is: Mark 12: 30-31 "Love the Lord your God... Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these". Now I don't know about you, but my literal neighbors are not Christians and I keep hearing at church how there are 500,000 lost people in Knox County and they are all my neighbors. Do you know how many of those 500k people have different political, social and religious ideals than me? Most. In fact I would say more than 75%. But Jesus was very clear in His teachings. Love your neighbor. Period. Not ONLY those neighbors who sit next to you at church, or sing on the praise team, or volunteer at the shelter; but also those who are part of the LGBT community, that drunkard that you see walking down your street (maybe that is just us...) and that bitter, lonely widow who lives next door. How do you show love to those hurting, aching souls in your life and community who are desperate for someone, ANYONE to show them love? Or do you not have these people in your life? If you are a Christian and you cannot think of people you see on a weekly basis that need to see Jesus's love then I urge you to stop being so selfish and get off your booty and FIND someone. It won't take long and yeah it is uncomfortable. It is hard to proclaim to be a Christian and defend all the other Christians who have treated others like dirt and expect those who have been burned to just instantly forgive and forget. I'm sorry, did you forget? They are LOST. Why, why WHY do we continually expect those who do not know Jesus and His love to act like they know Jesus and His love? And why, why, WHY do we, who know Jesus's love and sacrifice continually act like those who are lost? The double standard has to end. I have little to no respect for those of you who will read this and take it upon yourself to whine and moan about how self righteous I am but will do nothing to try and show love to those around you. Beyond the fact that you disagree with a homosexual lifestyle I ask you to consider this. Have you ever thought about how lonely it must be to be a homosexual in a community that is located in the Bible belt? Have you ever considered the ramifications that might ensue if someone in YOUR family was a homosexual and couldn't tell anyone about their struggle for fear of ostracization? If you feel that a homosexual lifestyle is a sin then I ask you to recall where in the Bible that sin is placed higher than laziness, gluttony (you know, that extra brownie you ate when no one was watching) lying (even if it was "innocent and white")or any other sin. We have to be able to examine our hearts and motives. Do you fear the unknown? Are you afraid the Democrats or the homosexuals or the homeless are going to make you the same as them by association? Or do you still believe that by solely inviting those who are lost around you to church on Easter is going to be the only way they will come to the know the Lord? These people are broken, hurt, damaged and lonely. Hear me when I say this because I have talked to so many who are in the LGBT community in this area and they are lonely. All in all the lost want the same thing we do: community. Acceptance. Love. Grace. forgiveness. Understanding. I have been guilty of everything I talked about in this post. But the Lord has shown me that He wants us to offer all the things He offers us daily to those around us. We deserve the grace and love no more than those who we believe to be dirty rotten sinners. And we were and sometimes still are dirty rotten sinners. So instead of just heading for the showers alone why don't we all turn around and extend a hand of love, understanding, acceptance and grace to those who are in the same pit we just crawled out of and hit the showers together.