Last Sunday's message

Last Sunday at church my pastor spoke on accepting one another and admonishing one another and before the service had begun I looked at my mom who was also looking at the yellow paper that we fill out every sunday and we both said to each other..."This is definently going to be a good message today". What I felt was most important about this message was that our church and other churches are really forgetting all about helping the people within the church and the community. We are all one body and believers in Christ and we're also all ONE FAMILY of Christ and we need to remember to not forget our brothers and sisters. We need to more than ever encourage our brothers and sisters, building each other up and not judging one another. My pastor pointed out in Romans 15:7 what you can find God telling us about accepting one another-"Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God." My Pastor brought up two different points, one is: Are we in our Christianity showing legalism? Legalism is when we give out "extra biblical" rules and regulations which are then used to evaluate a person's relationship with Jesus Christ. It seems like that can shatter true unity with other believers and we as Christians do not need to be showing non-believers that we think were better and that we can tear down other people because there walk with Christ might not be as grown as yours. There are two areas where we violate the injuction to accept one another:
1.) By Judging on another-Legalism
2.) By showing Partiality-Prejudice
Paul shows us in Romans 14:1 how he dealt with Judging one another-Legalism:"Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things." Paul was sending a message to not only the weak, but the strong. He also laid a heavy burden on the mature chrisitans.
With showing Partiality-Prejudice there is a verse in Romans 12:16 given,"Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion."

I will give, due to time, the second half of the message about Admonishing later and then summarize and wrap it up. I hope by showing this truly needed message in my blog that others will see it and know that there is a great need for our fellow sisters and brothers to stop using prejudice and legalism in our churches!