We can talk all day about the existence of God, or the proof of a creator. That is a conversation I would love to have with you!
But everyday I see his hands so clearly leading and taking care of me that I can't do anything BUT believe in a loving, active God.
If I could I would do anything so you could experience the joy and freedom that our creator has made available to any who answer his gentle call.
-Nathan
If you turn on a TV, or check one of your three aps delivering you the most up to date news and events from around the world on a minutely basis, you will suddenly be surrounded with information of all the things in the world that are going wrong.
Flip over to your favorite entertainment channel and or talk-show and you will begin to hear the second part to “bad things happening”-you will hear in unison the reaction to these terrible things, reaction of sadness, disapproval, blame and anger.
As the light from our TV screen daily lights our eyes, and the sound bites inform us of the terrible and saddening things happening, we feel something rise in each of us.
We feel a voice, a cry for justice and change...
We find ourselves entering in the discussion, trying to find solutions and make the changes necessary to make this world a better place.
We talk about banning the things we don’t like and and taking a stand against the people who have the wrong ideas, we speak-out with emboldened voices against those who represent what we appall, and we learn to hate what we know is wrong.
But, is that enough? Is that enough change the world?
No......
I believe with all my heart it is not.
We as people have learned what we should hate, detest, and stand up against.
And maybe, just maybe, that is half of it, maybe that is a the place we begin.
But it must not be where we stop.
Have we forgotten the other half of the story?
Have we forgotten the only reason why we even take stands?
Have we become so entangled with our own rage for what is dark, that we have forgotten to love the light?
God tells us.
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
It would seem we have the “Hate what is evil” down.
But we just might have forgotten about the ‘sincere love’ and ‘clinging to what is good’.
We have become a people who love nothing, but have learned to get angry at all the right things.
But is this really the way to change?
God says
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”
It seems that anger is something God has called us to use VERY sparingly. But if that’s the case.
Are we to simply lay back and allow immorality, injustice and perversion? NEVER! We must stand up against it.
BUT, we must stand up against it, with the only thing that has or ever will change the world.
Love...
It is no longer enough to hate and be angry about the things we disagree with, we must now face them with the all encompassing, all powerful, unrelenting force that is the Love of God.
Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but LOVE covers all offenses.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us LOVE one another, for LOVE is from God, and whoever LOVES has been born of God and knows God.
Romans 5:8 but God shows his LOVE for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 “For God so LOVED the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
1 John 3:18 Little children, let us not LOVE in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Ephesians 4:2-3 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in LOVE, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.