( 2.5 minute read) Chloe and George found out that they are having a baby. Excited, ecstatic and jubilant, they start preparations for their baby. As they are living in an efficiency apartment, they start their search for a two bedroom place so the baby would have their own room.

Although taking their baby to school is some years down the road, they consider the school districts of where they will move to, just in case they remain at this location when it is time for school. Chloe and George look at each other and giggle at the prospect of having a child of their own. They are pretty excited, proud and a bit scared but most of all exuberant and want to prepare everything just right for their child.

Within two months they found the perfect place with the sweetest and perfect bedroom for their baby. Continuing to prepare, they decide on the colors for their child’s bedroom. The few pieces of furniture that will be placed in the bedroom are picked so meticulously, even their placement is tried this way and that way until perfection is achieved. They even bought the toys and started visualizing how their child will enjoy playing with them. Oh the care, the love, the devotion and the dedication that Chloe and George went about this process. If it was a movie, the audience would shed tears, happy tears indicative of the LOVE portrayed by Chloe and George for their child.

God planned out this universe ever so meticulously in preparation for His creation, His child, you and me. Our Lord prepared this Earth as the bedroom for His child. Our Creator picked the stars, the sun and everything around us as colors to paint our bedroom. Our Father picked the plants, the mountains, the rivers and seas as our furniture. He even created the fish, birds and animals for us, for you and me as play mates. When He saw that everything is just right, He then created us, and simply said, “This is ALL for you, care for it.”

Let us, His Creation never teach our children that this place, Earth, is ‘not our home’. For indeed God, our Lord and Creator designed and meticulously created this Earth, this HOME for you and me to care for while we are living here on this Earth. Thank you my Father for this beautiful and well thought out bedroom, Creation, that YOU made for me to care for. Till next week 🙂

(a 3 minute read) My apologies if what I write comes across as, I know and you do not know, or as I am telling you what you need to do. If you can believe me, know this; I am simply sharing with you thoughts I am freshly discovering on the journey of life. Thoughts that if I do not share, I would go to my grave regrettably thinking, “Reda, why didn’t you share this with others!” So you see, I am doing it for the selfish reason of laying my head down in peace.

We all have probably seen this movie before.

• Jack, a billionaire, dies and leaves a will
• The will appoints an executor
• The will has demands on Henry his son and Kara his daughter to receive their inheritance
• Scene after scene the audience witnesses the frustration of Kara and Henry
• The audience knows how this will unfold, yet the acting is brilliant so they are hooked
• The movie ends and everyone in the audience leaves with a smile on their face and most importantly is feeling great and thinking, “life is good”

So what was the message that made everyone feel this great? You know it;

Jack was not just a mean old man that wanted to make
Kara and Henry’s lives miserable
Jack wanted for them to realize what life is really about
so that Henry and Kara would live a life
full of love,
compassion, peace and joy

The fascinating thing is, everyone reading this knows this already. The fact that we leave the movie feeling good is the proof that we desire it, crave it and yearn for it.

Many view the Bible as a manual, a guideline, a path that God has provided for people to know how they ought to live their lives. A to do list for Kara and Henry sort of!

The audience is typically thinking, “If only they knew beforehand that Jack is doing this because he loves them, and not just demanding things from them, then their attitude would be so different through this.”

But we, the audience, know the plot already!! Then the question is, “why do I still look at the Bible as a to do list?”

A to do list is just easier to handle; it just takes less work from me. But work is typically more fulfilling.

Since it is all about choices;
– The Bible is a list of what God wants from me that I need to follow
– The Bible is a love letter so that I can learn of God’s love for me

Love is giving in nature and is not demanding, so there is indeed a choice between these two listings. Till next week 🙂

(a 5 minute read)   Jay and Brad, buddies for ages, were chit chatting. Brad said that a few days ago, half way to work he realized he forgot his cell phone. Frustrated, he turned around to go back to get it. On his way, he spotted their coworker Simon on the side of the highway. Simon was out of his car heading to an older gentleman that is walking on the shoulder of the highway. There was no other car there but Simon’s.

Brad:     I was struck by the scene. It is freezing outside. Why is Simon heading to a stranger on the side of the highway, and why is that older man without a car?

Jay:        That is puzzling. Maybe the man’s car broke down back there somewhere and he was trying to get to a place to call for assistance

Brad:     Come on Jay, even older people now carry cell phones

Jay:        Maybe he forgot his at home     (Jay and Brad laughed out loud)

Brad:     Seriously now, who stops in this day and age for strangers on a highway buzzing with cars

Jay:        You and I know Simon enough to know that Simon is that kind of guy

Brad:     You are correct. So many people admire Simon, as he is indeed a man of character

Jay:        Simon probably saw a man walking on the highway, stopped to see if he could be of assistance

Brad:     It is encouraging to see that there are still people like Simon out there, isn’t it

 

Character is an opinion formed by someone about someone else. It is a description of someone by someone else. I hope we all agree that such opinion is formed by observing that someone’s behavior over time. You have probably seen this sentence before, but please read it intently and I hope you believe it to be true;

Thoughts lead to actions – Actions lead to habit – Habit leads to character

It is not only action, but habit which is a continual action of the same, that will lead others to observe or characterize one’s character, no pun intended.

Words express thoughts, and we all have words. Many a time we stop at words and thoughts, as somehow we believe that if we’re not hurting anyone else and say or think the ‘right’ stuff, then that’s great. If our actions do not express and define our words and thoughts, then no one will observe or form an opinion of character about us!

Interestingly, a group of people is characterized by others at the sum of the individual characters in that group.

So although it is not about me, it is me that forms the opinion about my group!

Do you belong to a group, a group of faith maybe? I do. I am part of the Christian community.

How is our group characterized by the world around us?? Please do not dismiss the view of the world about Christians, or think that the world is out to get us. The world around us has simply formed their opinion about our collective character observing us for 2,000 years. Hope you can accept that a 2,000 year observation is a non-biased opinion.

I want Christianity to have a better, a way much better, character than what’s out there now.

Do you?

It is a process that requires commitment, dedication and persistence. And every step involves action, and continual action at that. Are you up for the task? Our collective character reflects our God, our Creator and our Lord’s Character. This is a fact.

This action is action where you are at any moment of the day, and does not require any additional time of yours. Act where you are is the motto.

Forgive me as all I am offering here is words and thoughts.

For our group’s character to change, in my opinion, a movement is needed. A movement from within the church. A movement of collaboration.

A movement of humility, as humility is the spark that will ignite change. A change in our collective character as Christians. A change over time that can be observed by others, and their observations will lead them to see the LOVE of GOD in our lives. Thus lead them to want to know this Lord and Creator of everything. That His love supersedes and surpasses all else.

Why would they want to do that?

Because His ambassadors are a reflection of Him. “I want to be like them”, is what they will feel, say, express and want. I believe that you believe that this is indeed what God has always intended for his creation to be, an example.

This is an invitation for action, for a movement. Till next week 🙂

I do not know this for a fact, but if you are like me, we are always reading the quotes that people post about life. Such quotes or sayings that we are intent on reading are typically ones that are boosting, cheering, constructive, positive, reassuring, inspiring, lifting and encouraging. We even often have thoughts such as, “Yeah, if only ‘people’ are like that, life would be grand!”  If you believe that indeed the majority does read such quotes and long for them to be real, then we ALL are coveting to have, to give, to touch, to see, to feel, to witness LOVE around us more than we realize.

I read the quotes —————- Everyone reads the quotes

As we read them, we long for having them as reality

Therefore we all covet to have more LOVE around

More than we believe we already have

Therefore we need to generate MORE LOVE

Just as we read the quotes and smile, you read this, smile and probably think, “Ideal and utopian but not realistic”. Typically nothing starts because each person thinks that the world is either what we have around us or it is Utopian, as if there is nothing in between. I bet you that you just thought to yourself, “That’s not what I am saying”. If indeed you just thought that, then why don’t you, I, we just take one step of simply improving what is around us. “I’ve tried before”, might be what you are thinking. The problem, in my opinion, is that people do try ON THEIR OWN at DIFFERENT times and may seem to each that it is not even a drop in the ocean, and therefore it ends, and ends quickly. If such efforts are organized locally, the drop will seem like a bucket full then may grow into a shipping container which soon may become a shipping yard. Never an ocean big (utopian) but it will be pretty impactful.

I am not talking about social work, I am talking about a social support network of LOVE. “Ohhh Reda, what does that even mean?”

Without a support network, an individual fizzles out quickly, gives up and stops trying. The world around is full of things that stress us and bring us down, and it is a mighty force to battle. Just like It is the recognition, understanding and living the LOVE that our God and Creator shows us daily, we in turn can perpetuate this LOVE to those around us. It is not an automatic thing, instead an intentional daily activity. ‘SHOW YOU THE LOVE’ is the moto of this social network, but for a network to function, there needs to be a meeting place. What a better place other than the social network itself 🙂 Facebook.

I am dead serious about this and looking for people to join. We can call it the “Contribute Group” page. We have to be careful about not making this a boosting contest of who is doing what, as it needs to be FULL of humility and lifting others up. Here are some ideas of things to practice and share to encourage others;

• Always start with “I was going to respond by………..” or I was going to say……….” Or “I was going to do…………..”
• The second part of the sentence starts with “instead, I……………..”
• Finish with, “I am doing this to spread love, God’s LOVE that I am seeking to understand more and more each day, for my Lord desires that I reflect Him daily.”

If you start with twice a day, be conscious of doing an act of LOVE that you typically would not have done, at home, at work or wherever you are, then the drops will add up, drop by drop the ripple will grow.

So what do you say? Yes, you. Want to be the ‘person in the mirror’ at this point? Be careful, this takes daily intentionality, but it does not require any additional time from you, as it all happens where you are wherever you are. Be intentional.

If enough people say ‘go’, I will start a page to make as meeting place 🙂

I am back from being in Cairo, Egypt for 10 days. A wonderful time visiting with family and friends and I thank them all for spending time with me. As I am very tired to write this week, the following are words of wisdom not from me 🙂
“You can have defects, be anxious and sometimes irritated, but don’t forget that your life is the largest company in the world and only you can prevent its decline. A lot of people like you, admire you and love you. I’d like you to remember that being happy is not having a sky without a storm, a road without a traffic accident, work without fatigue.

To be happy is to find the strength of forgiveness when you are hurt, to seek the power of hope in the midst of battles, to be filled with security when fear attacks, and finding the love in the core of disagreements.

To be happy is not only to enjoy a smile, but to also reflect on the sadness. It is not only to celebrate the success, but to learn from the lessons of failures. To be happy is to recognize that life is worth digging into, despite all the challenges, misunderstandings and periods of crisis.

To be happy is to cease feeling the victim of problems around you and become the author of your own story.

To be happy is to thank God every morning for the miracle of life. It is to have the courage to hear a “no”. It is to feel confident to accept a review although unfair. It is kissing the children, it is to pamper the parents, it is to live out poetic moments with friends even if our friends have hurt you.

To be happy is to have the maturity required to say, “I was wrong”. It is to have the courage to say, “Forgive me”. It is to have the sensitivity to say, “I need you “. It is to have the ability to say, “I love you “. Then your life becomes a garden of opportunities to be happy.

To be happy is when you get on the wrong road, you restart at zero and be more passionate about life in spite of the disappointment.

And you’ll find out that to be happy is not to have a perfect life, rather use the tears to irrigate tolerance and use the mistakes to sculpt serenity. Use the obstacles to open the windows of your discernment.

Never give up on those you love. Never give up on happiness, because life is incredible!”

This was a translated speech from Pope Francis. Please forgive any inaccuracies. A beautiful message, I believe and may we all seek Contentment as it overflows with Peace and Joy. Till next week 🙂

As we start a New Year, it is a perfect time to talk about something new. Well, ‘new’ maybe a stretch as the subject matter itself is as old as old can be, or so we believe, yet the proposition included here, at least to my knowledge, may be newish. So here it goes.

Mark stole a large sum of money from James, and that led to James almost losing his house. They went to the courts and Judge Vivian was presented with their case. This was Mark’s 1^st offense. Each Mark and James had the opportunity to speak;

James went first, and he asked Judge Vivian to make an example of Mark, and the only way to show that Mark’s action is unacceptable, is to condemn him with a harsh sentence.

When it was close to Mark’s turn, he knew he had to come up with and excuse. He needed to come up with some plausible defense to at least minimize his sentence. As Mark pushed on the arm of the chair to stand up, his mind was running through what happened the night he stole the money from Mark.  He knew he was in the wrong and should not have done it. As he reached his upright position, his mouth opened and these words came out almost as if someone else was saying them, “Your honor, I stole the money. Although you have the right to sentence me to the highest degree, I am at the court’s mercy and may your grace be evident in your sentence.”

Due to some restrictions, Judge Vivian can either give the highest sentence to Mark or pardon him………. What do you think Judge Vivian should do?

No doubt we can have a hearty debate regardless of which sentence you think she should give. The one thing we can all agree on is that Judge Vivian does not require anything material or none material to pass either sentence. In other words, she decides, period.

This example contrasts Condemnation and Grace, for indeed they are opposites. History has drawn God as a judge that will deliver either Condemnation or Grace, but Grace has a price. Whatever your faith, there is a price associated with Grace. Furthermore, history justifies this logic with words such as; God requires a ‘PRICE’ as God is virtuous, impartial, fair, just, righteous, …… etc.

I only have this question to history…………….

Isn’t this underlined description above more fitting to a legalistic human reasoning? A reasoning that humanity has used over and over against each other!? Or more fitting to an EVER LOVING EVER FORGIVING AND EVER GIVING GOD!? As Paul exclaimed, does this mean that we go ballistic and do whatever is wrong? Or admire and love this God that forgives unconditionally?

Our love to God comes in the form of; His creation, you and me, acknowledging His presence, not with just our brains but with our hearts, and ever glorify him. The more I know He is with me, really with me, the more and more I will act and interact with His Love towards myself and others.

Condemnation & Grace are stark opposites, somehow we need to come together and realize that one is not a substitution for the other, rather it is a simple choice; one or the other.

These are not words out of nothing, but for this writer the Bible shows me this is God and not the one history painted for me.

When and if this grows and grows, unity will grow as there will be MINIMAL if any reason for division. Till next week 🙂

Lauren is talking to her best friend Amy, “I know that he loves me, but somehow this is not enough.” Lauren and Patrick have been married for 17 years, and they had a ‘love story’ that you can make a movie out of, but that was back then.

“But Patrick has done so much for you during the first five years of your marriage. Does not that count for something?” Amy exclaimed.

Lauren replied, “I am not denying all that Patrick has done, but, I do not know how to explain it, I have not felt anything from him in quite some time. It is just hard to keep telling myself, remember when, when he is right there in front of me.”

This scenario is an attempt, maybe a poor attempt, to show that love is a continual process. Expressing love is something that needs to be a recurrent experience, and not a “haven’t I proven to you that I love you already!” kind of thing. And for love to stay a recurrent experience, it does take work, intentionality and deliberate action. Hope you agree with me on this ‘love’ thing.

Grace is no different than love. Grace is a recurrent activity. Grace is to be; patient, considerate, thoughtful, forgiving, nurturing, protective, merciful, kind, charitable, a servant, a helper, a guardian and finally, Grace is Love.

Believe it or not, these are all descriptions of the Grace of God in the Old Testament.

You are maybe a bit surprised as somehow we have been raised to believe that Grace is somehow a God characteristic associated primarily with the New Testament. Furthermore, we have somehow cornered the Grace of God into a single act of redemption of Jesus, our Lord and Creator here on Earth, dying on the cross. Of course Jesus was crucified and was resurrected, but let me ask you this; Do you, yes you the one reading this right now, do you know about God’s grace and what He did, or do you experience God’s Grace momentarily, daily, weekly? Not think about His Grace or acknowledge it, rather experience it? Do you?

You are maybe wondering, “What do you mean experience it?”

Just like Lauren in the scenario above, somehow somewhere we, in my opinion, know and acknowledge what God has done for us, but sadly we do not experience His Love and His Grace as a recurrent activity in our daily lives. This may explain why we, the collective we, have lost the passion for God, for how can we be passionate about something we do not experience. If I may summarize what I believe where we stand in our road with God, it is as follows;

Be a good person, worship God and do what you can to help others.

If this is you, please know that in spite of what we claim about Grace is the free gift of God, the equation above is pointing to your works…………… not your faith………… for being a good person and helping others is works, even your worship is works ..……..

I say this not to discourage, but indeed the opposite is desired. It is said to have you want to seek this thing termed “experiencing God’s grace”, this recurrent experience that you have throughout your life. Again, not the knowledge of what He has done, rather experience what He is doing. Another term to use is; ‘how to infuse God into my life”. Sounds weird though, as if I am bringing God into my life, doesn’t it? But indeed it is you infusing Him into your life. It is you and me choosing to experience Him in our lives. God created you and me with the freedom to choose. Therefore, indeed I, you, we need to choose to infuse God into our life, on a frequent and regular manner, and NOT just know and acknowledge what He has done in the past. It is God’s desire that we choose to experience Him and infuse Him into our lives, recurrently.

‘How’ is the question, correct? Not that there is an answer that I do know and can just share with you right here. Rather it is a different look at the same Bible we have used for thousands of years. The Bible is still the plumb line, it is indeed the experience of man and God for thousands of years, and through it we can see the Grace and Love of God to His creation, the one in His likeness, plastered all over it. For when we understand and realize the recurrent Love of God, we have no other option than to fall in LOVE WITH HIM. Then, we will experience NOT acknowledge the recurrent Grace and Love of God momentarily, daily, weekly and recurrently LOVE Him back.

Merry Christmas to you all 🙂  and till next week.

I hope you agree with me that God’s first and foremost thought is to Love His creation, evidenced by His first act of Grace and Mercy when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. They discovered their nakedness, and made themselves aprons / armor to cover their bodies, not just their you know what, with leaves, Genesis 3:7. God, wiser and more sensible, made them garments / coats of skin, Genesis 3:21. This is the first act of Love, Grace and Mercy in our Bible. God made them garments of skin.

This is also what humanity has deemed as the FIRST SACRIFICE. For God to make garments of skin, then God had to kill an animal to make the skin garments. The account of this is;

• Man sinned
• God killed an animal as a sacrifice for the sin
• Now the skin is available, so God made garments of skin from the sacrificed animal

The model we teach and have accepted for thousands of years is as follows;

Sin = Punishment

To avoid punishment = Sacrifice

Sin + Sacrifice = Sin wipe or Sin absolve or make up for the sin

But wait a second. If this is so, then God atoned, wiped, made up for Adam and Eve’s sin…………..

No, no wait, it is much more complicated than that……….. It really is not. If we believe and teach this model, which we do, then this is the road we’ve paved. Here are some details on it. Call it road #1 as there is a road #2 to follow.

Road #1:

• This account is God setting up the example of how to atone for man’s sin. When you sin, you need to sacrifice something to avoid punishment. But wait Adam and Eve were punished…..
• Did Adam and Eve get a double jeopardy? Punished and a Sacrifice given for their sin??
• One may ask, then why did God do the act himself? Why did He not say, “Adam, go kill an animal and sacrifice it to me to atone for the sin you’ve done?”
• We can always try and explain away the questions above, but let us track the offering of a sacrifice that we have in the Bible;
  > Able and Cain offering sacrifice………… this was in thanks to what God has provided
  > Noah landed offering………… this was in thanks for God saving them
  > Abraham offering the ram…………… thank you indeed for stopping me from killing my son
  > Jacob after talking with God……….. thank you and what a privilege to commune
  > Then we have Moses’ laws of all sorts of detailed offerings and sacrifices about detailed sins
• From Adam to Moses, regardless of whom you believe, there are thousands of years, thousands. If the model we believe and teach is that crucial to God and how man atones for his/her sin, the question that as to be asked is; Why is there no mention of the sacrificial giving for sin acts until the laws of Moses?
• Of course I cannot prove anything, but the only thing I can offer is Exodus 32. Moses goes up the mountain. Israelites mold the golden calf and worship it. God tells Moses to go down as your people Moses have made themselves an idol. I, the Lord God, will wipe them away and start fresh with you. Moses pleads, God says, alright alright, and God did not bring on this disaster on the people. In essence did not punish them for their sin, although this is the UTMOST SIN of worshiping an idol. Rather, God had Grace and Mercy on them. Now, Moses, with the foreknowledge of all that, goes down, sees the idol and the people sacrificing and goes wild………….. Orders acts of killing and 3,000 die. So the Lord had Mercy and Grace, He forgave the ultimate sin, but Moses went ballistic.
• A humble conclusion, road #1 is a pretty complicated and just gets us, humanity, in all sorts of corners and pits we cannot get ourselves out of. Pits of agony, turmoil and indeed leave a bad taste in our mouth about our Lord God and Creator. This is the road that mankind has followed, and the pits became points of contention about God meant this, and no God meant that…….

Road #2:

• God created us with the freedom to choose
• Choices have consequences and the consequences have to be navigated
• God loved Adam and Eve so much that he wanted them protected, so he made them garments of skin for that is what they needed as they existed the garden and worked the Earth
• The animal killing to get the skin is an act of God’s Love, an act of His Mercy and an act of His Grace
• God is always with us through whatever choices we make. He is holding us up navigating the consequences of our choices no matter what, may they be easy or hard roads to navigate
• A humble conclusion, road #2 sounds a lot more like the God you have grown to know, isn’t it? This is a road that if man chooses to follow, the points of contention will hopefully be at a minimum, and mankind would find more to unite around than to split over
• Please know that in this road as well, God indeed did come to earth in the form of Jesus, and He was crucified and risen as our Lord, to express, demonstrate and prove His LOVE to us as this has been His message since the beginning

It is time to encourage you to ask these questions; Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church? Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant? Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible, for it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂

John at the young age of 7 is very curious about things around him. He loves to eat cookies no matter what kind they are. John’s dad of course knows all this. He wants John to learn that life is all about choices, and choices are always associated with consequences. So John’s dad places a white chocolate cookie jar and a chocolate chip cookie jar front and center on the dining room table. He asks John not to eat from the cookie jars in the dining room, but he can eat from any other cookie jar in the rest of the apartment.  He leaves John alone and goes to the bathroom.  John tries very hard not to come near the cookie jars in the dining room, but it gets the best of him. John reaches into the white chocolate chip cookie jar, and takes a bite.

Even at his young age two worlds collide, the ecstasy of the great taste of this cookie and the frustration over doing what his dad asked him not to do. He hears his dad approaching and he hides under the table.

Dad sees one of the two cookie jar lids open, confirming what he already knew John will do. Dad calls for his son. John, squeamish and afraid, comes out from under the table. He hugs John and says, ‘John I love you and I will not hurt you because you did not do what I asked. But since you made a choice to eat from this jar, I will lock the door to the dining room so you will not be able to get to eat from the other cookie jar I asked you not to eat from. John actually felt relieved, as it is his father’s love that matters most.

We are raised with the belief that there was a ‘fall’ when Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit. That God, as a result, separated them from HIS presence. That God could not forgive what they did. So it is a story of failure on the part of man and of condemnation on the part of God. We title the story ‘the fall’ but there is nothing in the story about; falling from the grace of God or the separation from God or God not forgiving them. Nothing about condemnation, rather it is much like the story of John and his dad. Read it for yourself and here are the highlights;

Genesis 2:9; two trees in the middle of the garden

Genesis 3:3; not to eat from the trees in the middle of the garden

Genesis 3:6; both made a choice and ate from the forbidden fruit and it was pleasing

Genesis 3:16; Eve you will have labor pains (can’t keep you in Eden)

Genesis 3:17; Adam you will have to work the ground to eat from its harvest (can’t keep you in Eden)

Genesis 3:21; God made garments of skin for them and clothed their nakedness (do you see the love here?)

Genesis 3:22; cannot let you eat from the other tree, the tree of life, so I will need to lock it up (the consequence)

Don’t let words like ‘banished’ and ‘cast away’ get the best of you, for they are more like ‘sent them away’ and ‘kept them out’. Just like locking the door of the dining room. In my opinion, the title of this section should be “unconditional love” instead of “the fall”. It is only if you think that God resides ONLY in the Garden of Eden that would lead you to believe that there was a separation between God and man. And I know that you know otherwise, therefore there is no separation in this narrative. There is no condemnation, rather consequence which life is all about. In other words, there is no ‘fall’.

The proof comes in Genesis 4:13 where Cain is crying out to God; “I cannot bear the punishment of being hidden from Your presence for killing Able…….”    Proving that quite sometime after Adam & Eve eating of the forbidden fruit, God’s presence was still there then as HIS presence is here now and forever. God is one and God does not change. It is time to see the CONTINUITY of God through old and new ALIKE, and being the SAME through the past, the present and the future.

It is indeed time to shine the floodlights on the message God has for humanity since the beginning of time. Let us accept HIS love. Let us preach HIS message of LOVE rather than a message of condemnation. Do not take my word for it………………. READ IT ……….. and see what God is telling you and not what the title of that section is telling you. And if God is nudging you towards the love in this account, start asking questions and ask them with love. Not to challenge but to learn more about God’s LOVE.

So it is time to ask the same questions I ask each time and urge you to start asking at your church. Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church? Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant? Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible, for it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂

“Sorry to do this without warning, but could you please address our group and talk about what you do?” My wife smiles and responds, “Of course. It is easy to talk about things that you are passionate about.” I personally love it when I hear her say that. In fact, I believe that this statement, in and of itself, gains people’s attention before another word is said.

Many people think to themselves, “I am not the passionate type.” Do you, specifically you, move to the edge of your seat when you start talking about any of the following; politics, food, sports, abortion, religion, fashion, guns, cooking, your children, cops, vacation, sexual preference, equality, a video game, work, racial divide, a TV series……. The list is endless and I guarantee you that YOU can pick at least ONE issue and get passionate when talking about it. Therefore there are two conclusions;

1. Every individual is passionate about something
2. We are passionate about what we LOVE

In a church setting we can talk about God unceasingly, but we cease talking about our faith in ‘mixed company’. This is not a slam people, rather simply investigating a symptom that we are all very aware of. The humble answer that can be derived is;

We know a lot about God in our minds, but we do not love Him in our hearts. Please don’t be offended, again not a slam, rather looking for a remedy.

“This is a crime of passion”, is a phrase we hear. You NEVER hear, “this is a crime of knowledge.” Let our crime be to be passionate about God. I believe the remedy has been in front of us for thousands and thousands of years, but we just have not placed the emPHAsis on the right sylLABle. For if we have, then why are the majority of Christians uneasy talking about God in mixed company, why are the statistics about Christianity as a whole are dwindling and dwindling badly? Why?

The answer to falling in love with God, in my humble opinion, is simple.  Use the Bible and emphasize how God is showing us HIS LOVE is endless and unconditional, through the multitude of incidents and stories in the Bible. We have used a flash light to spot sin and the ramifications of sin, and the wiping thereof, as the light that may lead us to understand and know God. It is time to turn on the STADIUM LIGHTS and be overwhelmed and flooded by HIS LOVE that is all over from the beginning of time through today, for it is here, right here in front of our eyes, just not emphasized.

For if LOVE is the message spoken by all denominations then we will have soooooooooo much more in common.  So it is time to ask the same questions I ask each time and urge you to start asking at your church;

Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂