Do You Fear What I Fear?

"My biggest fear for you is not that you will be an atheist, but that you will create a picture of God that accommodates what you want, and you will collect verses to back that up, and you will build your own system of knowledge, and you will worship an idol, and you will call it Jesus - a god who has no power, a god who has no authority, a god who has no justice, a god who has no strength, a god who sort of winks at evil, a god who is just like us. And the thing that I fear, I fear for those people that don't fear God. If you don't fear God, I fear for you." - Mark Driscoll

It is too easy to focus first or only on the aspects of God we like and practically or totally ignore those we don't.

In doing that we make God out to be a Santa Claus who winks at evil like its no big deal.

Instead we should first focus on the power, the authority, the sovereignty, the righteous judgment, and the wrath of God who hates evil and crushes his enemies, and that we can't measure up to our own standards of goodness, let alone His.

In doing that and developing a healthy fear of God first, we are more equipped to love what he loves, hate what he hates, and then his love means something real to us.

I didn't connect the dots at the time when I first cried out to Jesus and had an overnight transformation, but I remember what I tried to suppress while I was living for myself, proud of all the time and money I had to waste, loving pornography more than real intimacy, and making false gods out of everything in my life - that voice of God very clear in the back of my head telling me that if I kept this up and didn't change, I was going to hell.

How wonderful it is to think that while I was rebelling against him with my entire life, God was already pursuing me and setting me on a path that led straight through the cross of Jesus Christ into his loving arms! There is no way I'd be there without God first giving me a glimpse of who he is, and that picture looks nothing like an old grandpa who loves but lacks power.

Fear God and love God.

Grace and Peace friends.

Perfect Hater

One of my cousins posted a link the other day that had that wonderful bunch of chaps from the Westboro Baptist Church in it. If the name doesn't ring a bell, that's the "God hates fags" group. If that still doesn't ring a bell, excellent. Your head will probably hurt less and your dinner has a better chance of staying down. Let's keep it that way.

That's enough about that group itself. I could go on a long rant that includes in it points about jacked up theology, wrong motives, and causing God's name to be blasphemed and dishonored. That wasn't my original intent, so I'll leave it at that. I wanted to see what the Bible said about hate -- in particular hate coming from God, as I've heard and read mixed things that warrant clarification.

The cliche phrase always comes to my mind -- "hate the sin and love the sinner" which sounds good to me. Interestingly, the phrase came from Ghandi, not the Bible. Even so, is it sound advice for the Christian? We'll see.

I wanted to get some other thoughts, so I went to a website that generally has very solid answers and read this:

"Even as Christians, we remain imperfect in our humanity and cannot love perfectly, nor can we hate perfectly (in other words, without malice). But God can do both of these perfectly, because He is God. God can hate without any sinful intent. Therefore, He can hate the sin and the sinner in a perfectly holy way and still be willing to lovingly forgive at the moment of that sinner's repentance and faith."

That sounds pretty harsh to me. I guess it's because I am human and don't get what "perfect hate" is and how God can love perfectly and hate perfectly at the same time. To me, God hating someone sounds more like "I want to squash you like a bug." That is obviously not the truth, otherwise we would have all be squashed long ago.

Next I did a search in the Bible for words with "hate" and found a lot of people hating people, people hating God, God hating people's actions, people being told not to hate and so on. I found the following three verses that deal with God hating people directly:

- "The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers." (Psalm 5:5)

- "The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence." (Psalm 11:5)

- "but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." (Malachi 1:3)

So based on that, I must conclude that the website is correct, and God does in fact hate the wicked. Ouch! Remember that "the wicked" includes me and everyone else on the planet. We have all sinned against a perfect God and are deserving of nothing but his wrath.

Even so, God loved the whole world so much that he sent Jesus to take the sins of the world upon himself and be the payment we cannot pay. This love is expressed well in Romans 5:8, which says "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." In other words, while we hated God and were his enemies, and while he hated us for it, he still loved us and died on a cross for us. I don't really GET that kind of love, deep down. I don't think I will on this side of eternity.

I think the explanation of how God's love and hate play together is explained well in this: "Mysterious but true is the fact that God can perfectly love and hate a person at the same time. This means He can love him as someone He created and can redeem, as well as hate him for his unbelief and sinful lifestyle."

Does that mean we should do the same? Absolutely not. We're flawed humans and told many times in scripture not to hate. We can't love perfectly like God, nor can we hate perfectly like God. The advice "Love the sinner and hate the sin" is absolutely appropriate for us mere mortals!

French Hookers

I read this account in a book I borrowed and absolutely love it.

An acquaintance told me about Dr. Francis Schaeffer, a great Christian scholar with whom he was studying in Europe. Dr. Schaeffer decided to take a weekend off to visit Paris with a couple of his students. One night as they strolled the streets of Paris, they saw a prostitute on a street corner. To the student's horror, they watched their mentor walk right up to the woman.

He said, "How much to you charge?"

"Fifty dollars."

He eyed her up and down and said, "Nah, that's too little."

"Oh yeah, for Americans, it's one hundred fifty dollars."

He stepped back again, "That's still too low."

She quickly said, "Uhh, oh yeah, the weekend rate for Americans is five hundred dollars."

"No, that's still too cheap."

By this time she was a little irritated. She said, "What am I worth to you?"

He responded, "Lady, I couldn't possibly pay you what you are worth, but let me tell you about someone who already has."

The two men watched as their mentor -- right then and there -- knelt with her on the sidewalk and led her in a prayer to commit her life to Christ.

That's the end of the story. I don't know what happened to the woman after. Maybe it was just the emotion of the moment that she got caught up in and she's on the streets today. Maybe she's the most zealous Christ follower in her part of the world, letting his light shine through her everywhere she goes.

But that's not really the point. The point of the story for me is not the woman, but how the man saw the woman. As one of Shane Claiborne's college buddies has put it in the past -- Jesus never spoke to a prostitute. What?! That's right. He never spoke to a prostitute because he never saw one -- all he saw was a child who was lost and needed to come home.

Love Like God

I heard an account of some missionaries who received a package. It was a nice looking care package with smiley faces on it, which turned out to be a bomb. The missionaries weren't at home, but their 16 year old was, and he got blown across the room and injured badly. They eventually found the guy. He has four kids. The dad carries a picture of the man who made the bomb in his Bible with him to remind him to pray for the guy every day, because he loves him. The 16 year old, after finding out the guy has four kids, asked his dad if there was anyway they could help support those kids.

That's loving like God.

I heard another account of a guy who got mugged by three guys. He had his laptop stolen and was forced at gunpoint to take some money out of the ATM. He was able to tell one of the muggers that he forgave them and was able to share the gospel a little bit with him. His biggest regret? That he was not able to share more of the gospel with all three of them. His biggest hope out of the event? That they went through the contents of the stolen laptop, because there is a lot of Christian material on it, and God could use that to change their hearts.

That's loving like God.

I heard another account of missionaries who were imprisoned and tortured. Some of them ended up dying because they would not deny Christ. A report from those who were released talked about how one of the group volunteered to die first, but a number of members in the group kept one-upping each other to explain why they should die first instead, laying his life down for his friends.

That's loving like God.

I've also watched a movie before called Amish Grace. It's based on a true story of a man who came to an Amish school and shot a number of girls there, killing some of them. The most shocking parts of the story? The forgiveness the community showed to the man who shot the girls, and the compassion they showed to his wife, who couldn't believe they cared so much about her pain in the midst of their own.

That's loving like God.

These stories just blow me away, and they are just a drop in the bucket. Crazy acts of forgiveness that are beautiful pictures of the love of God for the world -- sending his son Jesus to die to pay the price for the sins of a world full of people bent on rebelling against him.

Shaken

I could just as rightly title this "Shattering Complacency In Middle Class American Christianity" but, man, that title sounds so boring it nearly put me to sleep writing it.

I think God's shaking me up again.

Sure, I spew "you gotta be transformed, you gotta be transformed" but it's a continual thing too, not a one shot deal. I think I hit a plateau in my walk with the LORD, and while that makes for easy walking...it's not all about making things easy, is it?

Let's review though.

I'm a sinner. Through and through. All kinds of junk in my life, living for myself, selfish as can be, thinking I'm "good enough". Good enough for what I don't know, but not as bad as those drug dealers, murderers, and child molestors. Yeah, there's always someone worse you can compare yourself to when you want to think you're "good". Except for that one guy out of billions. Truth be told, there is all kinds of garbage in my past that I'm ashamed of, some of which I keep tucked away in the vaults of my memory, accessible to myself and God alone.

Thank God for grace.

He draws me in like a magnet. Flips my heart, my mind, my life around. I've got peace. I've got joy. I want to learn about him more and know about him more. Note that I said "about" him. We'll come back to that. I feed on the Word. I search solid sites on the net. I suck info out of my bro's brain. Thanks, David. Then I want more. Join a small group and study this. Go to the weekly Bible teaching and learn about that. Take some classes and get even more. All good stuff. All edifying. But I got lazy. No, I got complacent.

I had my checklist in order. Easy peasy plateau for me. What a leech. Time for a good shaking up.

Alright, I'll serve. I'll serve in this ministry and that one. And I'll do this other thing over here and maybe give over there and help out with this. Yes, that sounds good. I'm producing. I'm giving back from what I've been given. I'm doing my part to tell people big and small about Jesus. Again, all good stuff, but note again that I said "about". I'm still going to get to that.

Until this week I had my checklist in order again. Another easy peasy plateau. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I wanted to know about Jesus and tell about Jesus, but I have not wanted to be Jesus. I have not wanted, really, deep down, to give like Jesus, to serve like Jesus, to care like Jesus, to imitate Christ like his Word says to do. I don't know that I want to now. I'm more like the Pharisee giving out of his wealth than the old widow giving everything she had to live on and trusting recklessly in God. I don't make myself nothing for the sake of others so they may see Christ in me.

Like someone said in a book I read once upon a time -- it's not that we have a hard time understanding what God's Word says. We just have a hard time wanting to do what it says, so we complicate it to get around it. You know -- take up your cross, deny yourself, follow me, imitate Christ -- it's all pretty clear.

So I guess I'm getting sick of knowing about God and would rather know God. It's time to get away from falling in love with the idea of Jesus and just fall in love with Jesus, madly and deeply.

I don't know how to do that. But God's pretty big.

Thanks for reading. I pray you fall in love with Jesus. Selfishly even, so I can bug you about how that happened.

God And Suffering?

Life is very hard at times, but God’s got our back.

God loves us. Don’t be fooled into thinking that God is not loving because of the trials we face. What parent does not allow their child to suffer a little to prepare him for what is to come? A young child does not understand why a doctor gives him a painful shot, yet it is for his own good. It is the same with the suffering that God allows us to experience. We don’t understand it at the time – and maybe we never will in this age. We just need to trust, just like a child, that God knows what he is doing when he allows us to face difficulty and pain in life.

God gets our pain. Whatever pain we may be going through, God understands it. The fullness of God dwelt in his Son Jesus Christ. He endured hunger, thirst, temptation, shame, persecution, nakedness, bereavement, betrayal, mockery, injustice, and death. On top of that, he also bore God’s wrath against sin on the cross so that we don’t have to face it ourselves. That is the ultimate in suffering! God doesn’t just understand our suffering from a distance; he experienced more of it firsthand than we ever will, and He knows deeply about whatever it is we face in life.

God gives us hope. Man’s abuse of the free choice God gave us – sin – brought, and continues to bring, suffering in this world, which in turn lets us see and experience the horrible effects of sin. But there is immeasurable hope to be found in the cross of Jesus Christ. He conquered sin and death, and, as God’s eternal Son, he’s the only one capable of doing so. Through Christ, God gives us a way to be free from the power of sin in our lives today and free from the presence of sin in the world to come. Apart from Christ, there is no hope.

God shows us grace. Really we deserve nothing from God. We’re His creatures, and we’re sinners who fall short of His glory. We deserve nothing, yet, despite whatever pain is in our lives in this age, we still have life and breath and many other good things. We deserve nothing, yet we will have everlasting joy if we are in Christ. That begins with sincerely admitting we are sinners incapable of saving ourselves, truly believing Jesus Christ died on the cross as payment for our sins, and really choosing to turn away from our sin and follow Him.

He lives, he loves, he understands, and he offers the greatest gift in the world, free of charge. God rocks.

Grace and Peace

We Need To Fall In Love

You know what we need to do, if we haven't already? We need to fall in love. Not with another human. Not with a hobby. Not with a job. Not with food. Not with any person or thing on or of the earth we typically use the phrase "I'm in love with..." whether it is rightly applied or not. We need to fall in love with the one who loves us so much, he gave his only son so our relationship with him could be restored. We need to fall in love with the one who loves us so much that he willing suffered and died on a cross so that we might be saved if we put our faith in him. We need to fall in love with our great and glorious God, creator of the universe, and author of life.

Why? The answer is simple. He deserves it simply because he is God. Period. We need no greater reason, not that there is one. He loves us so much, has given us so much, and offers us so much more, its incredible.

But what do we do so often? Take his blessings for granted. Take credit for the good he does through us or for the gifts he has giving us. Call stuff "ours" instead of his. Claim control over "our" lives instead of acknowledging his sovereignty. Pick and choose which parts of his word we want to hear and follow without giving it full authority in our lives. Show up to church once a week, sing a few songs, listen to a message, and walk out of there maybe feeling uplifted, maybe feeling entertained, but not really feeling the joy of a full life that God Almighty has to offer us. Not really getting it.

Shame on us whenever we do crap like that.

The first and greatest commandment is to love the LORD with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength. We're supposed to love God with everything we got, not just our leftovers. God doesn't want lukewarm, half hearted love. God wants our best.

Our best starts with acknowledging who he is, and who we are compared to him. Our best starts with giving his word authority in our lives and following it. Jesus said "if you love me, you will keep my commandments". If we say we love God but don't do what his word says, living like the world, we are liars who don't really love God or know him. This means repentance. This means not sleeping with your boyfriend/girlfriend before getting married. This means not getting drunk. This means not gossiping about others. This means controlling our anger and our tongues. This means forgiving when we are wronged and not holding grudges against others. This means putting Christ at the center of our lives, making him Lord as well as Savior -- you can't have the latter without the former.

So if we're not putting God's word in its proper place of authority in our lives, and if we have not repented of our sins and turned away from the fully into the waiting arms of Jesus Christ, what should we do with these other things? Don't bother, until we get right with God. If we're not deeply in love with him and showing it, he doesn't want our half baked offerings and worship songs that amount to lies. He doesn't want our service that means nothing without a real relationship with him. What he wants is us, fully and completely. Let's give him THAT, first.

Grace and Peace brothers, sisters, friends.

Five Love Languages

You may have heard of the five love languages before. If not, briefly, these are five distinct categories, or languages, in which we can show and receive love. The concept is mainly applied to married couples -- the husband and wife may both be earnestly trying to show love to each other but neither feels loved for some reason. The problem in that case is they speak different love languages. The solution is to learn the love language, or languages, of their partner and learn to speak that language. Its a pretty cool concept, and so true.

The five love languages are words of affirmation, acts of service, giving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. Try to find a genuine act of love that you show your spouse and its going to fit into one of these categories.

But I had an interesting thought tonight. Okay maybe boring to you, but interesting to me. How do these languages apply in other relationships, particularly our relationship with God?

I am fully convinced God can hear us speak love to him in any of these languages, but how do we? Let's think about it.

Words of affirmation. That sounds like a big chunk of Psalms to me. Much "worship music". How about just dancing like David before the LORD praising his name and lifting it up? Praise is very good.

Acts of service. That sounds like meeting the physical and spiritual needs of others. Feed the hungry out on the streets of the city. Help your neighbor, your biblical neighbor that is, out when they need it. Do a service project through a local church. Anything where you get out there and be the hands and feet of Jesus. Service is good.

Giving gifts. That sounds like offerings to me. God has given us so much, how hard is it to give some back to him? Send tithes to your church home. Sponsor a child in another country. Support a missionary. Help fund a special project through the church. There are so many ways to do it. Giving is good.

Quality time. That sounds like prayer and getting into the word to me. Just spend time with the LORD talking to him and listening to him speak to your heart. Don't speed read the Bible just to meet your reading plan. Don't rush through rote prayers you say all the time without thinking. If your heart isn't in it, God doesn't want it. Spending some real time with him is good.

Physical touch. Okay, I admit I don't know about this one. But I can think of how it could play out the other way round. Its when we stand before Jesus Christ one day. After a lifetime of applying the above four languages to our relationship with Jesus, what a joy it would be to hear, as he puts his hand on a shoulder, "well done, good and faithful servant, well done."

Grace and Peace

Being In Love

A co-worker and sister in Christ sent this out and I was blessed by it.

Think back to when you met that man/woman that you just knew would be the one. Remember when you realized/admitted to yourself that you loved him/her. Now remember how much you wanted to act like you were in a movie
and yell to everyone in the football stadium 'I love you!' You told family and friends how perfect he/she was; he/she was just what you were looking for.

Well, I told the LORD that I love Him today.

And He said to me,

* 'How much do you love me?
* You haven't told anyone how good I've been to you.
* You haven' t shared how perfect my love is.
* You haven't spread the good news that I am always there to listen to your problems.
* You haven't told your family how I helped you pay your bills when you didn't have a high paying job, or how I got you a better one.
* You haven't shared with anyone how I took away that addiction that would have cost you not only your job, but also that man/woman
* that was just what you were looking for. On that note, how much do you really love me?'

So I said I would share with my friends and family (for starters) just how wonderful, perfect, understanding, patient, loving, unselfish, considerate and forgiving GOD really is.

He has blessed me with a family that loves me and genuine friends that I can confide in. But even more than that, He has saved me from destruction I couldn't even see coming. He gave to me the peace of knowing Him and He has never broken a promise. Truly, He is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

And I stand in my stadium today to tell all of you, 'I DO LOVE YOU LORD JESUS CHRIST WITH ALL OF MY HEART AND THANK YOU FOR LOVING ME SO UNCONDITIONALLY!'

Grace and Peace

Motivation

You know before I came to Christ I thought there was something screwed up with "religion". I guess I still do, because I still maintain that Christianity is not about a religion, but a relationship with God.

What I thought was stupid was the whole system of works. You see, at this time, I didn't know the gospel of Christ. I figured everything, Christianity included, was about works righteousness. We live our lives and then we are judged to determine our eternal destination and what rewards or punishment we receive, based on what we do in life and how we measure up to God's standard.

Why I thought it was is stupid is the motives seemed all wrong. Either I'm avoiding bad things that I really want to do, and maybe doing things I might not really want to do, because I fear hell. Or I'm doing that because I desire riches in heaven. Fear and greed. Two ultra-powerful motivators if you ask me. But they suck!

It was only until after I came to know Christ that the truth was made known to me. I do not follow God's law out of fear or greed, but because I love God. His word says that whatever we do, we should do it to the glory of God. And that is not something that should be driven by fear, or greed, but love for God and love for our neighbor (which is a way to show love for God!). What once seemed like a requirement while I was dead becomes a joy now that I am alive. Praise the LORD for that simple and beautiful truth!

Grace and Peace

Zeal And Treasure

I have to tell you I got so blessed today! I met two guys from Set Free Ministries today that just blew me away. Rarely have I seen such obvious excitement and joy overflowing from a brother in Christ. These guys were just so clearly thrilled to be working for the Lord and had such a passion for Jesus and helping other people!

All I could think is "Lord, I want THAT kind of love and zeal".

One of the guys also offered up an interpretation on the parable of the treasure in the field, which I will share.

The parable goes something like this. The kingdom of God is like a treasure in a field. A man walking through the field finds it. He goes and sells everything he has to buy the field and thus obtain the treasure.

I understand the man to be a sinner such as you or I coming to Christ in repentance and receiving the greatest gift there is. But here was this man's spin on it:

Let's say the man is us, the field is the world, and the treasure is God. That doesn't really work too well, because we can't really buy God, and we really don't give up absolutely everything.

Instead let's say the man is Jesus and we're the treasure. He really did give up everything. He gave up his crown and his cloak to come down to earth and die as a sacrifice for our sins, purchasing us with his blood. We're his, and he works through us.

I don't really believe that's the intended meaning of the parable, but I still think its a very meaningful point my brother made! :-)

Grace and Peace

What If

Let's play a game called "What if...would we?" The first part is this: What if after our physical bodies died, that was it? I don't mean the atheist version of it, but rather where everything about Christianity remains true, except for any kind of life after death. So what if that was true -- would we still desire to know, love, and serve God? Would we still want to present our lives as a sacrifice to God? Would we still want to be set apart? Would we still desire the things of the Spirit over the things of this world?

That sounds like a tough question.

It has a problem in it at the get-go -- do we who know Christ really want all those things anyway, knowing the wonderful promise of eternal life? Though I would argue that if we don't want all those things now, then we don't really know Christ, or at the very least, we don't know him well. I would argue that if we don't want to give our lives in service to Christ now, then we, or the devil, are just telling us what we want to hear to make ourselves feel better. Maybe that makes us in-name-only Christians. Maybe that makes us lukewarm Christians. Neither is what we could, or should, be.

So we move forward with the assumption that we're genuinely in Christ for the purpose of answering the question.

I know the obvious answer is supposed to be "Yes, of course!" But after thinking about it for a short while the other day, I think my answer to that question at the time was "I don't know." Looking back I see that Satan was throwing a fair number of darts my way that day, because here's where my mind went: So what do you get out of it then? You spend a great deal more of your time focusing on other people and things of the Spirit, and then you're dead and gone. Why bother? Why not just live it up and have as much fun as you can before you're dead?

Then I put the question aside for a while until tonight.

What a stupid line of thinking going through my head. Thank God for the shield of faith.

Our creator gave us so much, including our lives. That alone makes him worthy of praise and worship. He loves us so much that sent his son to die on the cross to pay for our sins and free us from terrible bondage. Faith in his son allows us to live in the presence of God forever. There is nothing greater for us. But, really, even if this life was it, we still gain much through faith in Christ. I can testify to changes in my own heart and life that came through faith in Christ, but really I don't think anything sums it up better than these words of our Lord: "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." (John 15:11)

So if we really think we would not bother with Jesus if there was no promise of eternal life, we need to ask the following about our relationship with God knowing that there IS a promise of eternal life: Is God really first in our lives now? Do we really love Christ, or do we love sin? Do we really want to serve our Lord more than we want to serve ourselves through fulfilling worldly and sinful desires?

It's just a "what if", but its still food for thought, I think. I had a bite either way.

Grace and Peace

Two Wrongs

This is dumb:

http://ricksanchez.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/28/threats-to-obama-up-400-and-a-pastor-hates-obama/

From two sides.

The first side is preaching hate from the pulpit and preaching politics from the pulpit. This was more hate than politics, but neither should ever be done. This pastor can hate Obama all he wants, but that is not what he is supposed to do. Yes, Obama is wrong regarding abortion. Very wrong. That's a no-brainer. A lot of other people are wrong too. But that doesn't mean we hate them. Having hate in our hearts is sinful just as murder is sinful. No, we are called to love others even if we hate what they do and what they promote. Our God loves everyone. He doesn't love them because of what they do or who they are, but because of who He is. If His love was contingent on our actions, he wouldn't love anybody.

This pastor tries to use the Bible to defend his hate, but he is wrong. God loved David. Adulterer. Murderer. God loved Matthew. Back-stabbing tax collector. God loved Saul. Christian-killer. Jesus died on the cross to save everyone and even asked for forgiveness for those who nailed him to it. Is that not love? The fact of the matter is that we are all sinners that God still loves. To be saved, we all need to come to repentance and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Obama included.

The second side is what the world does with stupid preaching like this. The media is all to eager to eat it up, blow it up, and make it into an example. We know this. They take anything that is a little off the wall, pump steroids into it, and make it into the entertainment for the day. It doesn't matter if we're talking about the antics of a puppy or the rampage of the latest serial killer. when either hits the news, its entertainment.

The problem here is that stupid news clips are what some unbelievers form their opinions of Christianity with. So when someone goes around shooting his mouth of under the label "Christian", it builds a wall up between the people that eat it up and the people trying to reach them, making this a double-travesty and making it harder to reach them.

So I say we should stand on the third side. The side that says pray for our nation's, and the world's, leaders so that they may come to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ and lead looking through that worldview. The side that says also to pray for preachers so that they may preach the love of God and Christ crucified, rather than hate and politics.

Grace and Peace

God Loves Everybody

The senior pastor at our local church wrote a little "ABC" poem about the different type of people that God loves. It was silly and light and got people engaged. But then he went on to make the real point. God does in fact love everybody, including terrorists and murderers. That bothered some people.

But that's the truth of God's word. When the Bible says "God so loved the world..." that doesn't include only "good" people. If that's who God loved, he wouldn't love anybody, because there's really no such thing. Everybody falls far short of his standard, which is the whole point of why Christ came.

So, even though they make your worst of the worst list, and mine, God loves rapists. God loves child molestors. God loves pornographers. God loves drug dealers. God loves prostitutes and pimps. God loves burglars. God loves corporate thieves. God loves crooked politicians. God loves lawyers who know their client is guiltly but get them off anyway. God loves drunk drivers. God loves arsonists. Get the picture? God loves everybody.

The point was made that he destroyed people in the past for their wickedness, so how could he love them? And I know people have pointed out that if God loves everybody, why would he send anyone to hell?

Well. God is also holy and righteous. He hates all manner of sin, and sin must be dealt with.

Out of his love God will show mercy to the sinner (that's you, me, everybody). He will be patient with the sinner and wait for him to accept the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, who paid for the sins of the world on the cross. But that offer doesn't last forever. Eventually he will give the sinner over fully, and that sin will have to be dealt with another way. The one who doesn't accept Christ and do it God's way is in dire straits at this point. He has to pay for his sin, but can't. There's only one place for him to go. In other words, God doesn't send anyone to hell; they send themselves there by choosing to do things their own way rather than God's way.

Back to all those "really bad people" out there -- they need their sin dealt with the same way the rest of us do, but God really does love them. He loves them as much as he loves you. They'll be punished one day if they don't come to Christ, but that's their choice. However, if they repent and turn to Jesus, they too will be forgiven, just like you were if you already received Christ. In fact, there is NO ONE who can out-sin God's forgiveness. So what are Christians to do? Spread the gospel to everybody, even those no one wants to touch with a ten foot pole. That's a difficult job. Praise God for those who are called to go out there and do that job with all their heart!

Now, if you're one of those still struggling with this notion that God loves everybody, consider Paul, formerly Saul. You know him. That Rabbinic Jew who was bent on getting Christians killed just for believing in Jesus Christ. Had he had his wish, no one would know about what Christ did today. There would be no Christians. Yet God loved HIM. And he used him. He used him to be a missionary like the world has never seen since. He used him to write much of the New Testament. He used him to bring the good news to the gentiles. He did much through Paul. Yet this man wasn't just a regular "bad guy" back in the day -- he was having people MURDERED for believing in JESUS. And God saved him. So why wouldn't he save anyone else?

Jesus is for everybody. If you don't know him, he's for you, too.

Grace and Peace

Focus And Love

Focus on the grand big picture of eternity, instead of getting wrapped up in the little problems of day to day life. The Lord has a greater plan than we could possibly imagine.

Focus on how well your needs our met, instead of how your desires are unmet. The Lord provides for the birds of the air, and He certainly will provide for us as well.

Focus on all the joy in your life, instead of the sorrows. The Lord gives us so many ways to find joy in glorifying Him.

Focus on what you have been given, instead of what has been withheld or taken away. The Lord gave us life here on earth and provided a means to eternal life through the atoning sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Focus on who loves you, instead of who hates you -- and with proper focus you will see that God loves you so much. He loves you more than any person on earth could possibly love you. If you doubt this, ask yourself this question: Is there anyone on earth who would allow their child to suffer and die for me? I think not, but God did just that.

In response to "I love you" my youngest daughter once said to her mother "God loves me more". She's pretty smart.

No Charge For Love

My Mom sent this to me in her last letter. I don't know where she got it, but its great.

A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the four pups and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy. "Mister," he said, "I want to buy one of your puppies." "Well," said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, "These puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money."

The boy dropped his head for a moment. The reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer. "I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?" "Sure," said the farmer, and with that he let out a whistle. "Here, Dolly!" he called. Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur.

The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse. Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up.

"I want that one," the little boy said, pointing to the runt. The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, "Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would." With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers. In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specailly made shoe.

Looking back up at the farmer, he said, "You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands." With tears in his eyes, the farmer reached down and picked up the little pup. Holding it carefully, he handed it to the little boy. "How much?" asked the little boy. "No charger," answered the farmer. "There's no charge for love."

The world is full of people who need someone who understands.