Jesus loves Muslims, free speech, and freedom of religion

(This plea for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and a statement of Jesus' love for everyone was ironically censored by Google+. I have asked Google+ for a dialogue to learn what they object to and have not received any communication from them. Please read this post and let me know (specifically) how you interpret its ideas and why you think Google+ censored it, thank you).

I couldn't sleep last night/this morning. So, I was on my computer and I came across a report on Loretta Lynch promising to prosecute any "Anti-Muslim" rhetoric "predicated on violence." The writer of the report posed the question, "what exactly does that mean?" and answered, "possibly anything she wants it to mean."

The America I grew up in (back in the day) defended freedom of speech and freedom of religion, though not in ways I always wanted. As an example, pornography, which in my opinion hurts those who make it and use it, was defended by the Supreme Court as an expression of free speech. A certain religion that used an illegal drug in its worship was allowed to continue and use the drug legally by the Supreme Court when the court deemed it an exercise of freedom of religion.  

I didn't agree with those decisions but I recognized the need for freedom of speech and religion. I realized that the preservation of those freedoms for all outweighed my objections to specific applications.  I agree with Loretta Lynch's end, that is I don't want a backlash against Muslims. But I fear the means to this end as this Administration and Supreme Court have proven capable of deliberately over-reaching the law, deliberately under-interpreting the law, and deliberately making-up law. What are they capable of doing to the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech in this instance?

After courageous American Christians lost their lives by standing up to a gunman and proclaiming their faith in Jesus, there was no U.S. government statement about the protection of Christians that would follow, that I know of. President Obama did not even acknowledge that there had been a "hate-crime" against Christians. But when two Muslims "bent on Jihad" (a tenet of Islam that instructs Muslims to kill non-Muslims) kill innocent people, this government threatens to silence any speech critical of Islam and similar followers.

Jesus wants all people (including Muslims "bent on Jihad") to know that he loves them, forgives them, and wants them to turn from evil and join him in loving God and loving people. That is what I want too.

Fame, fortune, power and pleasure

The "glory" of this "world" is the opposite of God's Glory.  What I naturally seek, and maybe you do too, is fame, fortune, power and pleasure.  I want to be great at something that the whole world thinks is important so that everyone knows me and thinks well of me.  If I could only sing like an angel, or be able to throw a bouncy ball through a metal ring; if I could only do what others cannot, I can be special, and I would earn love for myself.

Jesus did not seek this "glory."  Satan tempted him to seek this glory though.  By turning stone into bread he would meet a legitimate God-given need.  By jumping off the temple and having the angels "catch" him he would instantly draw attention to himself and his divinity.  And he could skip the cross and everyone would bow to him, if only he bowed to satan.

Jesus rejected each of these plans of satan.  He said eating was not as important as obeying (loving) God.  He said we "test" God by obeying him, not demanding he obey us.  And he chose to love God and bow to him, even if that meant dying on the cross; rather than to submit to evil, lies and coercion in order to have the world bow to him.

Jesus chose to give love to others, rather than "earn love for himself."  He chose to value others above himself (not that he was less than others, but he chose to place them ahead of himself so that they would feel the honor he had for them).  God is love and Jesus is God, so Jesus is love.  And he wants to give himself to you.  He wants you to know that he loves you, and that he cares about you and what you care about, and that he wants to sit down and have coffee with you, and just talk.

God loves you.  God, in the person of Jesus, wants to sit down and have coffee with you.  He is completely and desperately in love with you.  He has been desperately seeking you your whole life.  You may not know it but you have been desperately seeking Jesus your whole life as well.  Every relationship, every recreational drug, every drink, every fight, every crime, every time you've given up, every time you've over achieved, has been an attempt to find that missing part of you, but you didn't know it.  You were looking for Jesus.  Jesus said, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.  Jesus has done everything needed in order to have a forever relationship with you. If you will seek him, and not give up, he guaranteed he would be found by you.  But the choice to get to know him is yours. Why not choose him now?

What's in a name?

Does the same word mean different things to different people?  I grew up learning the definitions of words from the context of the experiences I was in.  Did you?  No, I don't mean the context of the experiences you were in, but the experiences I was in.  Of course not, you say.  And herein lies the problem... or opportunity.  When I say, "father" what do I mean?  I think of my father.  If I am trying to describe to you my relationship with my Heavenly Father do you instantly think of my father?  Or, your own father?

I believe some people hate God the Father because they are really thinking He is like their own father.  And their earthly fathers did not fulfill their expectations at best, and were evil to them at worst.  Satan can encourage real or imagined hurts to grow into bitterness.  So when I talk of my Heavenly Father what do I mean?

Jesus is the exact representation of the invisible God (Isaiah 1:16).

When Jesus was born He was called: wonderful counselor, mighty God, EVERLASTING FATHER, prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6).  Because Jesus was and is God's Only Begotten Son, He can perfectly represent God the Father to us.  

So what is the character of this Father?  Jesus was patient, even when His disciples got it wrong again and again (as I would have gotten it wrong as well),  Jesus was kind, even when it cost Him.  And forgiving too.  He didn't repay evil for evil.  When He was dying on the cross He prayed for His murderers (the religious leaders) and tried to help them discover His Forever Love by reminding them of Messianic Scripture.  Though God the Father created all things by Him and for Him, He was not proud.  He humbly seeks a relationship with us.  He never forces Himself on us.  He doesn't hold our past mistakes and sins against us.  He loves us with all that He is no matter what we do or what anyone or anything else does.  He believes the best about us and encourages us to become all He created us to be.  He does not fail.  (See I Corinthians 13 and substitute "Jesus" for "Love").

Does this sound like a Father you would like to have?  You can.  Just ask Him to forgive your wrongs and come into your life and heart.  He is waiting.  And you two have so much to talk about!

Jesus: Semper Fi

I struggle at times believing that God loves me.  Especially when I sin.  It can be a big dark hole and satan doesn't hold back saying that God doesn't love me, how could he, I'm not a Christian anymore and I never was one because Christians don't do things like that and on and on he goes.  I feel I have no defense.  I have a flash of fear that satan is right.

I remember that Jesus offers forgiveness, but satan says that is just too good to be true.  It doesn't apply to me.

I remember that Jesus died to forgive me.  Satan says nothing.

Jesus said He loves me as I am.

He reminds me He is the friend of sinners.

Jesus tells me my relationship with Him didn't begin based on my behavior and it doesn't end based on my behavior.

Jesus says I am seated with Him in heaven.

Jesus says that His love never fails.  It is stronger than death.

I choose to trust Him.

And I start talking with Him, asking, how do I turn away from sin?

This will help stop the violence...

I think the real issue is not too many guns but a lack of mental health care.  Let me explain.  It shocked me to find out that, generally speaking, the cities with the strictest gun control laws have the most crime and the cities with the most guns have the lowest crime.  Internationally, when comparing countries, the same principle plays out.  Conclusion? When the people bear arms there is less crime.

So if gun control will not stop "crazy" (President Obama's word) gunmen what do we do?

The mentally ill must be offered treatment.  And, as you consider paying for that last statement, realize that one of those receiving treatment just might eventually be you.

One in five people in the United States will experience their own mental illness in their lifetime.  That is 60 million people.  Yet voting for funding to meet this challenge isn't popular.  Ignorance, fear of the unknown, stigma, blame all contribute to distort the perception of the disease and its treatment.  Medication and behavior therapies can dramatically help a dramatic number of sufferers of mental illness.  And it costs much less than paying for the prison stays many, many sufferers of mental illness are forced to endure.  It costs less than hospitalization.  And, if you value human life, it costs less than suicide or homicide.

But that is just the start.  Because when you treat mental illness you rescue someone from a prison of intense psychological and sometimes physical suffering.  You release the person to be what God intended them to be.  They can even stop costing taxpayers and start becoming taxpayers and actually start paying back those who funded their rescue.

Since getting the correct meds and taking them starting in 1985 I have worked for 23 years as an Advertising Designer.  I have given back in taxes and charitable giving, roughly between $150,000 and $200,000 during that 23 year period (adjusted to 2008 dollars).

I have also had the privilege to marry my beautiful wife and adopt out of foster care the two boys I love.  So much beauty can happen when someone who is mentally ill gets the right treatment.  Financially it goes from negative to positive.  And, humanly, it goes from a living death, to the light of life.

Will God Do What I Ask?

If I believe I will receive, right?

Yet belief does not create reality, it recognizes reality.  And that reality includes God and all He chooses to do.

If I have enough faith God will give me what I ask for, right?

Not necessarily.

Faith is trust.  If I trust God I will ask Him for, and receive from Him, what He wants for me.

This can be what I need in order to carry out the mission He has given me.

This can also be a new red sports car.  Can I ask Him for a new red sports car?

God is amazingly generous and many, many times He has given me even more than what I have asked for; but He has only promised to give me what I need: food, clothing and shelter.

And I can learn to be content with that; because Jesus said that even in abundance my life does not consist of what I have.

It consists of Him.

Did Jesus hate the Pharisees?

There are many lies about Jesus.  One of those lies is that "Jesus hated the Pharisees."  They were the religious leaders of the Jews and Jesus called them snakes, and hypocrites and fools and told them they were headed for hell unless they believed He was the long-awaited Messiah or Chosen One of God.

For some reason they didn't like being called that.  And I believe that was one of the reasons they killed him.  But Jesus did something incredible because He loves them.  He not only prayed for their forgiveness in front of them; He preached to them from the cross: that He is who He claimed to be, in a way they would understand.

In Jesus' day the Bible did not yet exist and the Scriptures were not referenced by chapter and verse numbers.  Many times, the first few words of a book or chapter identified the passage.  If you look at the first line of Psalm 22 it reads:

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

and the verse continues,

⁶   But I am a worm, and no man;

    A reproach of men, and despised by the people.

⁷    All those who see Me ridicule Me;

    They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

⁸    “He ^£trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;

    Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”

16b   ...they^£ pierced My hands and My feet;

¹⁷    I can count all My bones.

    They look and stare at Me.

¹⁸    They divide My garments among them,

    And for My clothing they cast lots. (NKJV)  

Jesus, hanging and dying on the cross, cared about the Pharisees receiving eternal life with Him so much, that he cried out to them the reference of the Passage of their beloved Scriptures that talked about what was happening before their eyes.  The Pharisees prided themselves on knowing the Scriptures and would have certainly known this Psalm and what it said.

They experienced what Jesus had told many earlier:

"When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He..." (John 8:28, NKJV)

Jesus met the Pharisees where they were at and gave them what they needed.  Jesus had told them earlier that the only sign they would get would be the sign of Jonah, meaning, Jesus would be dead and buried and rise on the third day.  Sunday, as astonishing news traveled around the community, they knew that He done this as well.

If Jesus loved those who hated Him enough to do all that so they could spend eternity in Heaven with Him is there anything that you need that He would not do for you?

God's Gift of Mental Illness, part 2

I understand "faith in Jesus" or "saving faith in Jesus" to mean that I trust him.  He doesn't promise me wealth; just food, clothing and shelter (see Matthew 6:33).  He doesn't always heal me of every disease if I trust him (see Paul's thorn).  And misery is not and indication of sin (see Job).

God gave me mental illness because I wanted to be a Christian like those in the Bible.  And, as the first step I needed to be humbled.  I have asked him to remove this disease.  He has not done that yet.  Andy Stanley's In the Meantime: A purpose and a promise http://yourmove.is/episode/ep2-a-purpose-and-a-promise/ revealed to me that I do not have to feel inferior to others because of my weakness. Jesus told Paul that the affliction Jesus gave him was intentional.  In order that, Jesus could pour his strength through Paul. My mental illness is my weakness so that Jesus can pour his strength through me.  Everyone has weakness.  And Jesus can pour his strength through all.

Those who deal with mental Illness, and those in the Church who deal with mental illness, especially, can receive rejection from others, including others in the Church.  Like racism and sexism, this rejection comes from ignorance and fear.

Let's talk. And then walk the talk.

Together.

What do you have to say?

God's Gift of Mental Illness

For years I've struggled with the position a "TV" Pastor (who I greatly admire and has taught me most of the theology I have) has taken about not using meds to remedy mental illness.  The implication I've always drawn was that "God will take away the mental illness" and therefore meds are not needed.

I have just watched an episode of "Your Move with Andy Stanley" that I believe challenges the above implication.

Please consider watching In the Meantime: A Purpose and a Promise http://yourmove.is/episode/ep2-a-purpose-and-a-promise/