God's heart Archives | Cross of Life

What do you stand for?

Beware of what you stand for, or against, as a Christian, as the world is watching.

What is the greatest commandment that we are to live by? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV).

And what is our greatest commission as instructed by Jesus in some of his last words before ascending to heaven? “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV).

So, make sure that, as representatives of Jesus, everything that you say and do is done obeying His greatest commandment and keeping in mind the effect that your actions and words may have on our greatest commission.

Make sure that what you say and do does not play in the hands of those who use religious infighting and disunity as justification for the non-existence of God and the evil of all religions. Every word that you say in public should be examined to ensure that is void of self-interest, pride and judgement. All should be said with love, empathy and compassion for the other person, whether friend or foe. But beware, simply stating that you say something in love does not necessarily mean you do. It can only be love if it is said for the sole benefit of the other person, NOT to pursue a personal agenda.

Beware also not to be known simply for what you are against. Do not put God in a box. He is so much bigger than the one or 2 issues you may feel called to fight against. We should be known around the world for what we stand for, not what we are against. We should be known as the defenders of the widows and orphans, the weak and disenfranchised. We should be known for our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, not our anger, hate and hypocrisy.

Finally, if God Himself chose NOT to impose His will in the lives of His children, who are we to try to impose our beliefs, values and doctrines on the lives of those who have chosen a path different to ours?

It is a sad day for Christianity when the world is believed to be more loving and accepting than we are.

Are you pro-life or just pro-birth?

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 ESV

The problem with the pro-life movement especially in North America is that it is essentially a pro-birth movement intend on ensuring all babies are born but with little concern as to what happens to these babies and their families once born. The problem with making abortion illegal is that there are a multitude of cases where the situation is not quite so clear-cut. Do you write these exceptions into law and if so where do you draw the line?

What about the woman who very much wants her baby but finds out her pregnancy is ectopic and has to abort or she, AND her baby, will die (and no there is currently NO way of re-implanting a foetus from the fallopian tube to the womb). Do you tell her, in the midst of her distress, that she is committing an evil act?

Where do you draw the line?

What about the 13-year-old, who finds herself pregnant after having been raped by her stepfather. Do you tell her she has to stay pregnant and give birth to a baby that every minute of every day reminds her of the evil act that created this baby?

Where do you draw the line?

And what if this person is 25 and the rapist is a complete stranger?

Where do you draw the line?

What about the 16-year-old who finds herself pregnant because she made a mistake and her boyfriend abandons her as soon as he finds out she is pregnant (and no HE DOESN’T have to live with his mistake)? Do you tell her she has to give up her life, the chance of an education, the chance of a decent job that will keep her and any future family out of poverty?

Where do you draw the line?

What about the loving family of 7, who’s parents both work 2 jobs each to put food on the table for their family and find out that they are pregnant with child number 8 knowing that the birth of this child will mean even more hardship and poverty for the rest of the family.

Where do you draw the line?

What about the pregnant mentally ill woman who can only keep her baby if she stops taking her medication, which would mean her spirally out of control into depression, mania, paranoia … and become a danger to herself, her baby, and people around her?

Where do you draw the line?

What about the women who do decide to go through with pregnancy and birth and give their babies up for adoption only to live with the trauma of their decision for the rest of their life? Will you be there for them during and after pregnancy to help and support them?

What about the babies who are born unwanted to live a life of poverty and abuse? Will you be there for them to provide the love, food, education, medical and psychological care that they need?

If you feel called to protect the life of the unborn, instead of fighting to make or maintain abortion as illegal, why not fight to support mother, father, existing children and the unborn financially, emotionally and medically?

Instead of preventing financial support to women’s health charities around the world for fear that they may provide abortion, why not support them precisely because they are offering women the choice of not getting pregnant in the first place when they are not able to feed the children they already have.

Instead of shaming teenagers when they get pregnant, which is more likely to encourage them to hide their pregnancy and seek an abortion, why not provide them with psychological, medical and financial help during pregnancy and afterwards whether they chose to keep their babies or give them up for adoption.

We need to recognise that ALL pregnant women need help. We need to support women with free medical and mental care, especially if they are struggling with an unwanted or unsafe pregnancy. We need to support them with financial help, especially if they are in a vulnerable situation already. We need to support women and girls with affordable childcare, especially if they are young, to keep them in full time education.

THIS is the battle that, as Christians, we need to fight. This I am convinced would save more unborn babies that any law restricting access to legal abortion would.

We need to fight for the right to live not just for the right to be born.

Also see ‘Love your neighbour as yourself‘

This is not our home

A strange thing has been happening in recent years as I find myself constantly angry every time I read or listen to the news. I am angry about the level of lies, and misleading facts that our leaders are spreading every day. But above all I am angry about what we, the Christians of today, have become. We have sadly become the pharisees of the modern world (see https://www.barna.com/research/christians-more-like-jesus-or-pharisees/.

We are more concerned with establishing and imposing rules in a world that does not belong to us than in protecting the weak and the vulnerable and drawing the lost to the redemptive grace of our loving God.

We are more concerned with protecting our rights to freedom and comfort than we are in taking care of people who cannot defend themselves. More worryingly we insist on imposing rules that we have created for ourselves on those who do not believe in our God.

How are we ever going to be able to bring the lost back to God ?

How are we ever going to be able to bring the lost back to God with our hypocritical behaviour? We claim superiority in morals whilst at the same time spewing lies, judging others, condemning non-believers and imposing rules that even we cannot live up to.

Do you really think that we are showing the true character of God when we put our right to celebrate Christmas for example ahead of the rights of other faiths to celebrate their own holidays? And what about defending the right of the unborn whist at the same time condemning the living to a life incarcerated and separated from their own children simply for asking for a chance to a better life?

This is our hypocrisy; we are now seen around the world as the most judgmental section of society. We, the Christians of today, representants of God on this Earth, are turning people away from God because of our behaviour. We have turned our back to the teachings of Jesus and in doing so we are letting him down.

Every time we treat a child of God as inferior to us, every time we draw a line to keep a stranger out, every time we close our eyes to the silent pain of another human being, every time we let fear overpower love we are showing the world the devil in us when we should be showing Christ in us.

We have a duty to serve

Wake up, brothers and sisters, this is not our home, it should not feel comfortable, we have no right to freedom and comfort in this world, they will come to us in the afterlife. What we do have is a responsibility to serve our fellow human beings regardless of race, gender, religious beliefs, nationality or sexuality to bring as many of them as possible along with us to the kingdom of God. THIS is our duty and obligation and we MUST urgently make this our priority again.

Also see http://www.cross-of-life.org/when-god-cries/.

I love you with the love of the Lord

As Christians we are told to love our neighbours as ourselves (Mark 12:31). We are told that God is love (1 John 4:16) and that as his followers we should love and show love to all around us. We are told to be compassionate like the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), non-judgmental as Jesus told those who condemned the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) and to show sacrificial love to our brothers and sisters like Jesus did on the cross (Mark 10:45).

However, too often this is far from reality.

I am not a Christian by birth right and by this, I mean that my parents did not attend Church when I was a child. I also did not become a Christian through an act of great salvation following the realisation that I had ‘made a mess of my life’. I have always believed in God but turned to the Church because of a desperate need for unconditional love and acceptance. Unfortunately, I found neither in the church.

My overwhelming experience, in my days attending different denominations, was of a group of people more prepared to accept a murderer than a person who did not conform to a set of rules, all different depending on the denomination, and loosely based on the bible under the caveat of ‘I say this in love’ that seem to excuse all manners of sins. I was judged in the Evangelical Church because it took me a long time to publicly ‘give my life to Christ’, even though, in my mind, I had done so long before as a child. I was judged in the Catholic Church for having been baptised in an Evangelical Church. I was judged above all for choosing to marry a non-Christian.

I am not alone in this experience and have met countless souls put off by the lack of compassion and hypocrisy shown by a group of people who claim to represent the God of love. It is time that as the united Church of Christ, we reclaim the love that Jesus showed us not just in words but also in the way we act towards our fellow humans whoever they may be.

Love is not a feeling that we do or do not experience

Love is something we CHOOSE to show to those around us. It must be unconditional and accompanied by acts of compassion and loving kindness that better represent what a feeling or a simple word ever could. Love is not easy, it is sacrificial, it is forgiving, it is self-denying, it is often not returned and it is only when it becomes this hard that we truly experience and demonstrate the love of Jesus.

When God cries

“As a parent you can only ever be as happy as your unhappiest child”

I remember going to church as a small child and reciting the Catholic creed. It starts with: “I believe in God the Father”.

one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:6)

As our Heavenly Father just imagine how unhappy He must be looking at the state of the world we live in filled with so many of His unhappy children.

Imagine Him crying for the children killed in bombing in Syria
Or the starving children of Yemen
Or the young girl being used for sex in the streets of Manilla
Or the little boy washed up on the beaches of Turkey when the boat that was supposed to carry him to safety from the war in his country of birth sank
Or the man shot dead in the streets of Georgia because of the colour of his skin
Or the young gay man who kills himself because he was rejected by his family and his Church
Or the children who watched their father killed by a ‘pro-life supporter’ because he was a doctor working in a clinic that provided abortion
Or simply the person who we caused pain through our unkind words

Imagine Him cry and then imagine the shame we should be feeling for uttering those unkind words, for staying silent in the face of injustice, for valuing our own comfort over the lives of those poorer than us. None of us like to feel shame though and we are usually very quick to remind ourselves that God forgives all our sins, which is true, but still doesn’t make our actions acceptable nor inconsequential.

1 Samuel 13:14 says about king David, “ But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

David’s heart was far from perfect. He committed adultery and murdered his mistress’s husband to hide his sin. And although God forgave him, his actions had serious consequences. A man died and David’s son born from his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba also died. But David was repentant and eager to please God. He was willing to recognise his fault and listen to God’s heart.

We need to be men and women after God’s heart. We need to not be afraid to recognise our faults, repent and speak out to prevent others from falling in the same trap. We need to hear and feel God’s heart and act on Its conviction with our voices, our prayers and our deeds.