Passion For All: Even the Prostitute, Even the Transgender

I grew up thinking my way or the highway. If you weren't like me, then you weren't as good as me. Sad but true. I think everyone in a way, has that mentality at some point. It's pretty infantile, and pretty much human nature isn't it? It actually might be a little slanted toward the old school American mentality too. We are the best, better than the rest?

Hmmm.

As I grow in this crazy messed up world, especially this extremely divided country, I begin to see a stark contrast even more than ever, of Christ's example versus this society we live in.

I see fear gripping people and causing them to deepen the divide. I see slander of the inspired word of God, used in a literal way to bully and try to suppress those who are just not good enough to be included in the family of God. According to those who have no say in who is created in the first place.

If you are being told that Christ's love and sacrifice is exclusive, then you might want to dig a little deeper.

Today, is Good Friday. It's the day when, after centuries of sacrifice upon sacrifice by a rebellious people to appease a holy God, God gave Himself for ALL the world. He became the final sacrifice so that we might find communion with our Maker forever.

What Christ did for us, is completely unfair, unprosperous, and on an economic system that the touting American who feels entitled to some esteemed rank on the social ladder is actually further away from the truth than they believe.

The economy of Christ is not to choose certain values over loving people. Like the apostle Paul states,

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."

Choosing Values over Love is UnGodly [period]

And the more I see the news or hear those who cling to a politician or even a political movement because they protect our "Christian" values, the more I wonder how far off the ladder we have fallen?

Shouldn't we instead, choose the person who is willing to love their fellow man unconditionally? After all, it is beyond us to judge. The holy Son of God walked this Earth and spread the Good News for all, only "judging" those who put words in God's mouth and abused the decrees of the Lord. He had the right to judge, but he only used that right to judge the righteous, not the morally-depraved.

It is frightening to see that the fallen world seems to offer more unconditional love than the church of Christ. I wonder if we have completely sold out to a false premise of our beliefs?

This Good Friday, when you see Christ's limp body hanging on the cross in that movie clip, or you take the bread and wine meant to represent his brokenness and bloodshed, remember exactly who Christ meant to include in His sacrifice.

And it's not just my congregation, or the church down the street. But it's the prostitute on the corner, the transgender in the bathroom, the lowest of lows on the 6 o'clock news. God come down for every single one of us.

Those who already choose to Live in His Spirit must Love in His Spirit too. 

Open your arms, America

I have seen a person grown on American soil, with good roots, good family, and loving environment, and end up turning against every American ideal, every moral concept, and cling to an extreme that kills, destroys, and alienates.

And, I have seen a non-American come to this country, and discover Freedom, Liberty, and Hope, when they used to cling to the SAME extreme of the person above.

Let's not group a whole country of people into an extreme when all they seek is Freedom, Liberty, and Hope.

And the ones who do not seek that...perhaps, just perhaps, our God is big enough to change their hearts...and our government is strong enough to find the bad seeds.

It is a complete hypocrisy to turn them away because of fear. We are called to embrace because of Love. Are we so quick to forget history? To see what happened to the Japanese in this country when fear ran the American people?

The refugee crisis is truly a crisis if we turn our backs on women and children and men who just want to survive. There are plenty who live within our borders that think in "extremes", and every day, a potential new "extremist" is born. There are careful, intelligence measures that must take place, of course. And that should be the question to debate. What steps can we take...not what doors can we shut.

How can we live in the "what ifs"and fear? It will only put blood on our own hands if we let news networks and politicians scare us out of compassion.

Shame on America for trying to close its arms. We cannot live in fear. And we cannot surrender Christ's compassion because of it.

^{Matthew 25:35-40
35} For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

LOVE.

I've been away from blog land for a while now. Actually, just this blog. I needed to quiet myself and get right with God so to speak. I needed to realize that my fleeting thoughts weren't good material for my blog. It takes some chewing on, some digesting, some PRAYING, to open your heart on a blog. It brings messy turmoil to open it prematurely and then try and step in sync with what you've said, when really, you're not a hundred percent committed to your words. Especially controversial ones.

It came full circle to me with the latest uproar about the Grammy's. I really could care less about what went on there. Have stopped watching Hollywood glorify themselves at award shows for years now. But when I read the lyrics to the song by Macklemore (yeah, just now...I'm really out of the loop), I am deeply saddened. Unfortunately, it sounds like hateful Christianity is what he's been exposed to. His story-in-rap is a symptom of the broken human condition...and I am not just talking about non-believers.

So many Christians, (including me), have spit out their thoughts and ideas prematurely, without chewing on them, digesting them, and most of all PRAYING...so much so, that believers in the greatest LOVE this world has ever seen, are looked upon as the Haters this world feels free to discriminate against.

Those who hate stereotypes in turn, stereotype us. While it is wrong, I see that there are Christians out there that make the temptation of stereotyping hard to resist.

How can that be?

How can a doctrine like the Gospel, centered on LOVE, become so distorted as to blind the blind with Hate? Remember, Christ's ministry? Did He shout from the roof-tops the sin of the people, or did he love the sinner, heal them, and ask them to go and sin no more? We are called to LOVE. The healing and imposed conviction is not our right--only God's.

It shouldn't be surprising. There's an Enemy out there who is the Great Deceiver. And He doesn't just deceive the lost, but the children of God. How appropriate that his biggest attack is on LOVE?

Persecution is inevitable. But let's not ask for it by flippant words and giving into prideful emotions causing us to force our doctrine on those who don't even believe in our God. Let's LOVE, build relationship, seek trust and worthiness to share our hearts with the non-believer. I would say that is the supple ground for God's supernatural power to heal and save.

It's time we as believers fall to our knees before we speak, before we type, before we act. The name of true LOVE is at stake.

After all, it is Christ's greatest commandment:

To Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. AND, to Love your neighbor As yourself.

Let's stop showing the world what we are against, but show them Who we are FOR...God is Love...pure, holy, right, and true.

That's the LOVE worth celebrating!

Find Your Hope

If you have no hope, find it for good. A man, who presidents, leaders, nations have held in high esteem over the years, has a message for you on his 95th birthday: