On the day gay and lesbian marriage was legalized, Christians stood outside a courthouse to protest. I specifically remember one person holding a sign that said, “God hates you.” No he does not. But he’s certainly not too happy about that Christian protester who had the nerve to make such an idiotic statement.
How does a loving God hate someone?
That’s why I think Christians have little faith in God. God says he will move mountains if you just ask him to. Don’t test him, otherwise he asks for the things you need and God will provide.
Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat. Don’t worry if you will have a roof over your head. The birds in the air don’t care about such things. Why you should? You are the one for whom Christ came into the world and died to forgive. Why do you need to worry about what you should eat or where you should live?
Does any of this sound familiar to you?
So why don’t Christians believe that God will do the work he promised? God will work in the souls of men. You work on you. When you tell people that God hates them, you drive them away.
You don’t get any better than George Carlin on stage telling jokes about religion being a silly belief system set up to get people in line. I miss that man’s sense of humor. But he gave religion and religious people a hard time his entire life and his words had the same effect as yours, those of you who tell others that God hates you. You push people away.
I have read every word of Christ and He taught us a lot about how to live a good life. Then he gave everyone a commission. That commission was to spread the word. Tell people Christ cam. Tell the people that Christ died for the sins of all. Tell the people that he is risen and will come again. Nowhere in that great commission was there any indication that He wanted us to judge others and tell them how to live. When you do that, you presume to do God’s work. Honestly, I’d rather you leave it to him. He can do so much better than you can.
Before you try to remove the speck from your brother’s eye, remove the beam from yours first. I love how Christ put it as it reads in Matthew chapter 7 verse 5. He says that what you have in your own eye is a whole beam, much bigger than the splinter you see in your brother’s eye. You work on you.
An even deeper revelation comes to us in Romans when Paul talks about unclean meat. In chapter 14, Paul tells us the message he received in a dream. Don’t tell your brother not to eat unclean meat. But, make up your mind to never put a stumbling block in anyone’s way. He then goes on to say that if you are hurting your brother with your own actions, then you are the one who has to adapt. In other words, you work on yourself.
It all comes back to you. You have to work on you. If you do that, you don’t have time to pay attention to someone else’s flaws. What is attractive is when a person minds their own business and does their own thing. People will watch it. They will see what God is doing in his life. That is his own message.
Why can’t a retreat just be a fun, family-oriented retreat? Why does someone always have to stand up with a microphone in hand and tell people to sit around them? “I have something I want to share with everyone… We had fun this weekend, didn’t we? We played some games. We ate very well. Oh, Margaret really knows how to cook, doesn’t she? Give her a hand with all the food that he has prepared for us… Look, that brings me to the point of this weekend as I have you captured here. When you have sex, you are tearing down the temple…”
Why must the word of God be so misinterpreted? God is not the author of confusion. Everyone in our time can have their own Bible. So if the Bible is clear in its message and everyone can read it for themselves, why the hell do we have Christians standing outside a courthouse with signs waving in the air saying God hates gays and lesbians?
If that’s true, God hates thieves. God hates murderers. God hates even liars. Does God hate us all? God doesn’t like it when we sin. But the same message that you are in charge of spreading tells us that God forgives us. How ironic is it that so many of you don’t see the very message you were commissioned to spread?
Give the message that Christ came. Christ lives. Spread the message of Jesus Christ and He alone. Trust that God will change attitudes. Trust that God will deliver souls. Have a little more faith in God.
This is not a sermon, nor is it delivered by an authority. I am no better than Jephta when he was an outlaw leading a band of robbers throughout the land of Tob. But he returned to Israel and became its commander. No man is forgotten. And every man gets a glimpse of the truth. We should be comparing notes instead of fighting amongst ourselves about what to believe and what not to believe.
