I’m A Christian And I’m Sorry: An Open Letter to Those Wounded By The Body Of Christ CONCLUSION

Please start with the Introduction. The rest of the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

CONCLUSION

To everyone who doesn’t believe in God, doesn’t embrace Christianity, doesn’t look like, talk like, dress like, believe like Us, yes, I am a Christian and I’m sorry for how We’ve treated you. We’ve shunned you, made you feel lesser than us and at times have even gone as far as telling you that since you’re not like Us, you‘re not welcome in this nation (“Give me MY America back!” bumper sticker anyone?). We’ve been egotistical, prideful and would gladly hold Our heads up high proclaiming We’re God’s elite. I choose to recognize that the only good in me is Christ Jesus. Aside from Him I’ve got little, if anything to offer. I’ll do my best to take the lower position and love you genuinely with the love of Christ that called me to the self-less life. I won’t always succeed and at times I may look just like the Ones that make me so discouraged and for that too, I’m sorry.

Ephesians 4:1-2 “I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.”

1 John 4:20 “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.”

To the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yes, I am a Christian and I’m sorry that We’ve turned our back on Your ways. God, I’m sorry that We’ve chosen to go it alone and set up enough self-help programs and plans that eliminate Our need for you. Forgive Us for saying that We speak and act on Your behalf even if You didn’t instruct Us to say or do anything. Jesus, I’m sorry that We’ve not loved others as You’ve loved Us. We judge, slander and elevate Ourselves despite Your commands to be servants of all as You were. We lift our dirty feet up for others to wash instead of kneeling in the dirt to cleanse theirs. I choose to follow Your example above all else, no matter what the cost. Holy Spirit, forgive Us for grieving You with Our disinterest in living lives that pursue holiness. We’ve run on our own strengths and abilities and abandoned Your guidance. I’m sorry for leading the way in disobedience and rebellion, trading in Your way for my own for so long.

Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

The eternal Jesus came to this earth to destroy the works of the enemy so that I might have abundant life in the here and now. I choose to live in a realm unseen by eyes of flesh that is not established in kingdoms of men. In this place I can see as my Father sees for He doesn’t see as man sees. I want to see like that. I want love without expecting anything in return. I want to lay down my life so that in doing so you might see the beautiful face of my Jesus, the image of the Invisible. I lay down my rights, my accomplishments, my failures, strengths and weaknesses. With all that I am I want to be surrendered. Doing what I see my Father do and speaking what I hear Him speak. May absolutely everything else fade away and in the doing so may the things of this world grow strangely dim. I lay down my rights and desires to defend myself at all costs. Father, You’ve seen the depths of my innermost being and You still love me. Because of this, I choose to go and love likewise, fueled by Your unconditional agape.

Philippians 3:7 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,  and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”