Who Should Christians Hate?
Look at the world today. We have abortion clinics operating in every single state of the union in the USA. Homosexuals are trying to push for "gay marriage". Islamofascists are terrorizing and murdering women, children and babies along with anyone else who happens to be in the way.
The Reverend Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church have made headlines in the last few months for their activities. Barking Moonbat has a great post reporting on their recent activities.
"What we’re talking about here is the polar opposite of the Liberals’ embracing of the homosexual lifestyle and ramming it down everyone’s throat. Phelps thinks homosexuals are evil and God is punishing us by killing US troops overseas because there are so many homosexuals in our country."
So what Phelps and his followers do is go to military funerals and picket, and shout, and try to disrupt the proceedings and further grieve the loved ones of slain troops. They loudly thank IED's for eliminating another soldier, wrap themselves in upside-down flags and sing songs that horrify funeral-goers. This is supposed to be in protest of and in punishment for a US Army that the group believes is encouraging homosexual activity. They succeeded in bringing distress to families at several military funerals. Until...The Patriot Guard Riders came along.
More from Barking: "I kid you not. I have never felt so alone, stuck in between these two groups of insane people. I object to the Liberals’ homosexual agenda but I positively detest Phelps.
I am glad to see there are decent people like the Patriot Guard Riders who are willing to stand up to Phelps and his miserable minions and shield the families of fallen heros from these madmen. I sometimes wonder if freedom of speech is worth having to put up with people like Phelps. There has to be a way to silence madmen like him without giving up our freedom to say what we want. In the good ol’ days there was. It was called “tar and feathers” and usually sufficed to keep the noise from jerks like Phelps down to a minimum."
The Patriot Guard Riders volunteer to demonstrate against and hopefully keep the Westboro kooks far enough away from the funeral to avoid the families being dealt more pain and suffering. Read the whole article here.
As a result of reading the Barking Moonbat post, some comments made in the "gay marriage" post and confirmed by something a fellow Youth worker said this evening, I feel the need to address this issue.
CHRISTIANS SHOULD HATE evil. Abortion is worth hating. We should hate sin of all kinds, beginning with our own. We should hate murder, theft, abuse, on and on. Yes, Christians should hate...and Christians should love.
Romans 12:9 - "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."
Luke 10:27 - " ...'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Christians should hate sin but never, never hate people. We see that Islam has a different message, with Imams issuing fatwas calling for murder in the name of pride, revenge, Mohammed. Islam is fueled by judgement and hatred. It is a religion of domination and the abuse and control of women and children. They are taught to hate.
Christians must be different. Jesus never hated anyone, even the men who were tormenting him and the ones that crucified him.
Luke 23:34a - "Then said Jesus, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.' "
The best movie I have seen this year was "The End Of The Spear." It is a movie about many things, including men willing to give their life to advance the cause of Christ and the families of those men being willing to both forgive and work with the very same people that murdered their loved ones. This is what Christianity is.
Yes, I will work to end abortion, put a stop to "gay marriage" and keep the liberal moonbats from turning our country into a larger Netherlands.
But I don't want to hate. I don't hate the homosexuals who have written in to this blog to debate or even diss me. I don't hate the men who perform abortions. If it is possible, I want them to know Christ in all of his loving glory the way I have come to know Christ. I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
I have known the life of drug addiction. I have prepared my solutions in tablespoons over candles, sucked the stuff into hypodermic needles and injected into my body and the bodies of others. I know what "milk blood" means, for I would shoot the stuff in and then draw it back out with the blood to try to make sure I got every bit I could into my blood stream. I ran out of easy places to stick myself because you scar veins and cause them to become impossible to shoot over time. I took LSD and smoked marijuana constantly. I drank large quantities of beer and whiskey and at work, gin and vodka so I could drink it in pop without detection.
I met Jesus and at first He said nothing about my drugs. I sat in my front room the first few days after I prayed and asked Him to forgive my sins and come into my life and read the Bible voraciously while drinking beers and smoking joints and cigarettes. I would get high on the drugs but I was getting high on the message in the Bible because I found Truth!
In time, God put it in my heart to give up the drugs, which were illegal, and then the drinking because I couldn't control it, and finally even the cigarettes which were harmful to the health of me and my loved ones. But here is the point:
He didn't hate me because I did drugs and also sold them to others. He didn't hate me for having illicit sex with women I wasn't married to or pushing drugs to teens. He didn't wait for me to change before He would allow Himself to be known to me. He wanted me no matter what, however and whoever I was.
God changed me from the inside out. I wasn't a homosexual, but I was a sinner in other ways, sexual and criminal. But He wanted me no matter what. He took me just as I was. His influence in me caused me to voluntarily change. I serve out of choice, not demand. I obey because I desire to obey God and I don't do it perfectly.
I cannot judge another man or woman. I can hate sin and I won't back away from calling it sin. But my job isn't to identify sin in anyone else, it is to say that God is awesome.
So I say to my blog friends who are homosexual, or atheist, or involved in any pursuits that are sinful, I don't hate you but to the best of my ability I love you. But the important thing is that God loves you!
So there is no person on this earth a Christian should hate. Not Osama. Not even Al Gore (chuckle)! I know, because I was a very dedicated sinner engaged in plenty of stuff I should not have been doing and God loved me right through all of that. May we Christians be careful to be sure we don't let our hatred of sin ever turn into hate of any one person. Our God is better than that!
The Reverend Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church have made headlines in the last few months for their activities. Barking Moonbat has a great post reporting on their recent activities.
"What we’re talking about here is the polar opposite of the Liberals’ embracing of the homosexual lifestyle and ramming it down everyone’s throat. Phelps thinks homosexuals are evil and God is punishing us by killing US troops overseas because there are so many homosexuals in our country."
So what Phelps and his followers do is go to military funerals and picket, and shout, and try to disrupt the proceedings and further grieve the loved ones of slain troops. They loudly thank IED's for eliminating another soldier, wrap themselves in upside-down flags and sing songs that horrify funeral-goers. This is supposed to be in protest of and in punishment for a US Army that the group believes is encouraging homosexual activity. They succeeded in bringing distress to families at several military funerals. Until...The Patriot Guard Riders came along.
More from Barking: "I kid you not. I have never felt so alone, stuck in between these two groups of insane people. I object to the Liberals’ homosexual agenda but I positively detest Phelps.
I am glad to see there are decent people like the Patriot Guard Riders who are willing to stand up to Phelps and his miserable minions and shield the families of fallen heros from these madmen. I sometimes wonder if freedom of speech is worth having to put up with people like Phelps. There has to be a way to silence madmen like him without giving up our freedom to say what we want. In the good ol’ days there was. It was called “tar and feathers” and usually sufficed to keep the noise from jerks like Phelps down to a minimum."
The Patriot Guard Riders volunteer to demonstrate against and hopefully keep the Westboro kooks far enough away from the funeral to avoid the families being dealt more pain and suffering. Read the whole article here.
As a result of reading the Barking Moonbat post, some comments made in the "gay marriage" post and confirmed by something a fellow Youth worker said this evening, I feel the need to address this issue.
CHRISTIANS SHOULD HATE evil. Abortion is worth hating. We should hate sin of all kinds, beginning with our own. We should hate murder, theft, abuse, on and on. Yes, Christians should hate...and Christians should love.
Romans 12:9 - "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."
Luke 10:27 - " ...'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Christians should hate sin but never, never hate people. We see that Islam has a different message, with Imams issuing fatwas calling for murder in the name of pride, revenge, Mohammed. Islam is fueled by judgement and hatred. It is a religion of domination and the abuse and control of women and children. They are taught to hate.
Christians must be different. Jesus never hated anyone, even the men who were tormenting him and the ones that crucified him.
Luke 23:34a - "Then said Jesus, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.' "
The best movie I have seen this year was "The End Of The Spear." It is a movie about many things, including men willing to give their life to advance the cause of Christ and the families of those men being willing to both forgive and work with the very same people that murdered their loved ones. This is what Christianity is.
Yes, I will work to end abortion, put a stop to "gay marriage" and keep the liberal moonbats from turning our country into a larger Netherlands.
But I don't want to hate. I don't hate the homosexuals who have written in to this blog to debate or even diss me. I don't hate the men who perform abortions. If it is possible, I want them to know Christ in all of his loving glory the way I have come to know Christ. I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
I have known the life of drug addiction. I have prepared my solutions in tablespoons over candles, sucked the stuff into hypodermic needles and injected into my body and the bodies of others. I know what "milk blood" means, for I would shoot the stuff in and then draw it back out with the blood to try to make sure I got every bit I could into my blood stream. I ran out of easy places to stick myself because you scar veins and cause them to become impossible to shoot over time. I took LSD and smoked marijuana constantly. I drank large quantities of beer and whiskey and at work, gin and vodka so I could drink it in pop without detection.
I met Jesus and at first He said nothing about my drugs. I sat in my front room the first few days after I prayed and asked Him to forgive my sins and come into my life and read the Bible voraciously while drinking beers and smoking joints and cigarettes. I would get high on the drugs but I was getting high on the message in the Bible because I found Truth!
In time, God put it in my heart to give up the drugs, which were illegal, and then the drinking because I couldn't control it, and finally even the cigarettes which were harmful to the health of me and my loved ones. But here is the point:
He didn't hate me because I did drugs and also sold them to others. He didn't hate me for having illicit sex with women I wasn't married to or pushing drugs to teens. He didn't wait for me to change before He would allow Himself to be known to me. He wanted me no matter what, however and whoever I was.
God changed me from the inside out. I wasn't a homosexual, but I was a sinner in other ways, sexual and criminal. But He wanted me no matter what. He took me just as I was. His influence in me caused me to voluntarily change. I serve out of choice, not demand. I obey because I desire to obey God and I don't do it perfectly.
I cannot judge another man or woman. I can hate sin and I won't back away from calling it sin. But my job isn't to identify sin in anyone else, it is to say that God is awesome.
So I say to my blog friends who are homosexual, or atheist, or involved in any pursuits that are sinful, I don't hate you but to the best of my ability I love you. But the important thing is that God loves you!
So there is no person on this earth a Christian should hate. Not Osama. Not even Al Gore (chuckle)! I know, because I was a very dedicated sinner engaged in plenty of stuff I should not have been doing and God loved me right through all of that. May we Christians be careful to be sure we don't let our hatred of sin ever turn into hate of any one person. Our God is better than that!