How then shall we live?

A blog is a thought, or stream of thought, written down.  Right?  That's what this is, and I can say I have no idea if it will make sense.  I really don't know if I can put into words all that I am learning these days.  It is a bombardment of convictions and revelations.  

I don't know where to start.  The lessons I'm learning are important ones.  Life-changing ones. Some of my attitudes that I thought were Christ-like are not...maybe.   

This morning's sermon was part of a series titled "UnChristian".   We looked at the passage in John 4, where Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman at the well.  She had had four "relationships" and was not married to the man she was currently living with.  Jesus knew this, of course. He crossed cultural and social barriers to minister to her.  She was a Samaritan, He was a Jew.  She was a woman, He was a man.  She was a sinner, He was the perfect Savior.  He met her in her element, where SHE was.  

I am learning the balance...loving the sinner, hating the sin.  I am certain that Jesus did not condone her sin.  Perhaps she felt completely inadequate in the face of the spotless Lamb.  Yet he loved her.  He showed his concern for her in many ways, but the one that struck me the most was that he was there, in Samaria.  He was in the region that was considered the land of the "unclean" by the Jews.  He could've gone around, like the other Jews would do, on his way to Galilee.  Yet Jesus passed through that region.  

So how does this look in my life?  Well, I am afraid that I would have been one NOT to pass through Samaria.  Perhaps it begins with recognizing that I AM THE WOMAN AT THE WELL. I am the sinner that He came to Samaria (Earth) to save.   

Lately, it seems I only want to surround myself with godly influences.  What would Christ do? He certainly surrounded himself much of the time with his disciples, yet he did not shy away from "sinners".  He ATE with tax collectors and sinners.  That means he fellowshiped, HUNG OUT with them.  

This is where my thought-stream stops, because I don't know what this is supposed to look like in my life.  I don't know how much to surround myself with those that are not in fellowship with the Lord, and how much to surround myself with those that are.  I only know that Jesus has called me to LOVE all people.  As for the rest, I just don't know.