LETS NOT JUDGE, LETS LOVE !!!

Listening again to the story of the prodigal son, started off a train of thought. I pondered the fathers response when his lost son returned; happiness, relief and rejoicing. No condemnation, no recriminations, just forgiveness, welcome and jubilation. How often have we been in that position ? The sinner who has returned yet again to the Lord for forgiveness, after going our own rambunctious way, and ending up in trouble yet again......! What happens ? Does God chastise us, hold up our previous sins as a mirror, telling us how bad we have been, or does He simply forgive us, welcome us back into His loving arms and entreat us not to go wandering off on our own again.

Why then do we judge anybody and I include myself in the big we. We Christians are in danger of outdoing the Pharisees with our critical attitudes. The Pharisees felt so self-righteous that they "killed" God... Just because Jesus preached a different message from theirs and all his T's were not crossed nor his I's dotted. They completely missed the essence of who Christ was and failed to understand the message he brought; forgiveness, repentance and love, most especially love... Do we show love to all as Jesus instructed us to do; to the lepers, prostitutes and Samaritans of his time, and to the paedophiles, drug addicts, homosexuals and suicide-bombers of our time.

There will always be actions and crimes abhorrent to the majority at any point in time, and whilst we should detest such heinous acts we shouldn't condemn the sinner. After all did God ever condemn us??? Be honest and judge yourself, do you deserve to be here? I know I don't......! I know if I'm to be judged fairly, they should lock me up and throw away the keys!!! But I'm here and thriving only by the amazing grace of God. I hear some of us [Christians] saying that salvation is also there for them [non-Christians]. True, the big problem is that they don't yet know it... Like the prodigal son living in a foreign land in a time of want and famine, they are yet to return home. We should be out there beating drums and engaging in riotous celebrations, so the noise of our merry-making may carry on the winds to the far away lands of want and famine and call them home.......!

Instead we adopt an even worse attitude than the 1st son, [we the returned prodigals] and stand in judgement and condemnation of those we consider sinners or unsaved. Shouldn't the terms "unsaved" and "sinners" even engender in us pity for people who know no better. Jesus won his converts by showing love and forgiveness not by moralising and judging as the Pharisees did. Examine yourself, how judgemental are you? Do you consider some sins unforgivable or disdain and avoid some people because they engage in acts that are wrong? Do you choose not to have anything to do with people who have different belief systems, including some of our brethren who are on the extreme fringes of Christianity? How will they ever learn the truth if we don't and won't tell them? And I'm not talking about big crusades here, I'm talking about everyday interactions we have with people of all faiths and persuasions.

We are uniquely blessed to live in the UK, and in London too, which is the most cosmopolitan, and ethnically diverse city in the world!!! Where people of different races, faiths and cultures live side by side. God is the ultimate master-planner as we know, do we really think that it's by accident that one of the smallest countries in the world, [an island actually] has people of every race and religion living in it, in such close proximity that one cannot avoid coming into contact with someone of another faith everyday??? Do our lives, attitudes and speech reflect love and the message of peace? Do we attempt to see things from the other persons point of view, then we may get a handle on why people behave in certain ways. Only then would we be able to reach out to them and bring them back into the fold. After all that's part of what Christ came to do for us, as well as dying to redeem our sins.

He came and lived on earth as a man so he could experience everything we experienced, feel everything we felt and thus be better able to understand us, then he could be an advocate for us with the Father when he returned to Him. He didn't come just to condemn people, he didn't say anyone was beyond salvation, he just loved us even before we repented of our sins and returned to the Father.

If we really have life in Christ, we should be increasingly like him, we should strive to love all our fellow men not just the Christians amongst them. If we do this I believe it could be one of the most effective tools of evangelism in our time. Maybe I'm preaching to the converted, maybe I'm alone in my rant for better understanding and tolerance of our lost brethren, who have just not returned to the Father yet. If that's the case, I leave all of you to continue walking in love whilst I go back to my Father and ask Him to show me how I can better love and reach out to his lost sheep, shalom...

I will father...

Love IS the answer

Fell in love with this statue I found on the Champs Elysee in Paris