So It Should Be Us!
They hate us! They try more often than not to show their hatred. It has become a life issue. Why? Not sure… but it seems to grow and fester as any disease does. We pray, but God has not softened their hearts yet, but hope is there. So many have said we should hate back! God is not revealed in retaliation and conquest … in violence and hate. God is revealed in a crucified man—giving of himself to the very last breath. Jesus told us many times that God is different from our assumptions. We’ve assumed that God was righteous and pure in a way that makes God hate the unrighteous and impure. But Jesus told us God is complete love, so overflowing in goodness that God pours out compassion on the pure and impure alike. He not only told us of God’s unbounded compassion he has embodied it every day as we study and walk with him. In the way he has sat at the table with everyone. In the way he has never been afraid to be called a “friend of sinners”. In the way he has touched untouchables and refused to condemn even the most notorious of criminals. He has embodied for us a very different vision of what God is like. The traditional Christian doctrine, I have studied all my life, of Christ, does not mean that Jesus is like God. It’s more radical than that. It means God is like Jesus. Loving without end. Accepting without end. Forgiving without end. If that is Jesus, than so it should be us. I Love You! Perry