November 16, 2017

Greetings My Friend,

Lately I see and hear that the entire Word of God needs to be preached not just the soft loving things in the Bible like God loves us, is slow to anger and abounding in love or Jesus loves us and we don't recall that He got angry in the Temple wiping the tables clear of the things on them, using a whip or how many times did He call the religious leaders a "Brood of Vipers", or tell the disciple's "How long must I be with you?" or "Do you still not understand!" People seem to think being a follower of Jesus is all nicey nice with no strong statements, that we have no opinion other than what the prevailing thought is. Most Christians have not read their Bible's have never even read it cover to cover and prefer to learn from a devotional guide, their Pastor's then believe whatever is taught. The sad reality is God says a whole lot to us about not listening, following His ways and following other gods, that our forefathers never even heard of. If we think we don't have any gods before the one true God, we have a problem. Some people's god is their drug of choice, sex, money, their children (that was my god before I met Jesus) and so on. Right now we are so entrenched in being PC that we can't see our noses in front of our faces, we can't see that every culture since the beginning of time has at one time or another has been enslaved, including having indentured servants in America long before the black slaves were brought over. Many blacks were indentured servants later gained their freedom and then went on to have black slaves and were as cruel to them as any other slave owners. The Civil War was over 150 years ago, not one person alive today has had slaves been a slave. Rights have been hard won but today, all people have the same rights to own property, to live where they want to live, to go to college and on and on. We are to as believers of Jesus to forgive the sins of others as our sins were forgiven by Jesus and that our sin was as grievous as the other persons sins are. My new favorite thought is "Just because someone sins differently than you does not make you better than them." If you look at the cross, into Jesus's face up on the cross you start to learn that the white lie is as awful as murder is, adultery, homosexuality and on and on. I have spent a good many years looking at the cross, from Jesus praying asking God "to take this cup of sorrow away from Him" to the beaten and swollen face, the crown of thorns on His head to the nails in His hands and feet. I want to cry thinking how awful my sins are. Lately though I am starting to see the biggest pain that Jesus had on the cross was not all the physical abuse His body endured, it was hard for me to move past all of that. The most painful part of the cross was when Jesus cried "My God, my God why have You forsaken me!" For a moment in the long relationship of eternity Jesus did not have the presence of God with Him and that made Him cry out those painful words. This teaches me that no matter what man does to man like enslaving them the most awful pain for all of us is when God is no longer in our lives on this side of eternity or on the other. Eternity is forever and the worse pain we will ever know is if we do not believe the first line of the Bible to the last line of the Bible. I am offensive because I would not wish hell on anyone in my life even my most hated enemy. So if I go to gatherings where I am thought to be a bit daft, that is okay, I know that I will be talked about, texted about, behind my back, in front of my face. In the meantime I will pray for all the souls I can to meet Jesus fully. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet