Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Paris- a test of faith, a challenge to LOVE like Jesus.

We are open with Christopher about many of the events of the world. I feel more inclined to share dialogue with him now that he is in school and he will hear things from many peers and adults. I do not know their opinions, Christian or non believer, so I want to be the first to impart my opinion- more than my opinion- direct application from the BIBLE.

I tread lightly on the subject in some ways. I have many Muslim friends. I have had the privilege to deliver babies of Muslim faith.  I think many people are speaking ignorantly, not knowing the people. Yes there is a great difference between the beliefs and ideals and practices of a Muslim compared to a Christian. Eternally, we are very far a part.

But in the midst of tragedy on a country and on a people, what is my response. I have been thinking about this a lot the past few days. How will I respond when I have four little eyes looking  up at me. Mommy has always told them that FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD and WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, HE DIED FOR US.

Yet I hear from my "friends and brothers and sisters" and ideology that is ruled by fear and hatred towards others. Yes a group of them did an awful thing. But are we called to hate a woman and a baby when they seek refuge in our homeland. And whose homeland is this anyways....I know the history of America to be White man came and killed all the BROWN people to have their land and them made the BLACK man to be slaves to profit on their new land. Thats is another lesson. History repeats itself.

Before I get too sidetracked let me make my point.

When my son asks me about PARIS what will I say? When he asks me about how I view Muslims what will I say?

More than being an American I am first a Christian, a follower of the ideology and practices of Jesus Christ.

Our faith is being challenged. Do we really believe and live out our faith when it is hard pressed on every side.

I feel that we are speaking hate and ignorance- to say NO refugees.

What does the Bible say?

1 John 4:20 ESV / 772 helpful votes

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Proverbs 10:12 ESV / 473 helpful votes

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

1 John 3:15 ESV / 452 helpful votes

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV / 184 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Romans 1:26-27 ESV / 164 helpful votes

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Proverbs 15:1 ESV / 146 helpful votes

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

John 13:34-35 ESV / 134 helpful votes

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Proverbs 8:13 ESV / 121 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

1 John 2:9 ESV / 120 helpful votes

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

John 15:18 ESV / 105 helpful votes

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

1 John 2:11 ESV / 99 helpful votes

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 86 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Matthew 24:12 ESV / 80 helpful votes

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Matthew 10:22 ESV / 78 helpful votes

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Ephesians 4:26 ESV / 74 helpful votes

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

Matthew 7:1-29 ESV / 69 helpful votes

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. ...

Psalm 97:10 ESV / 63 helpful votes

O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Luke 14:26 ESV / 48 helpful votes

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Psalm 101:3 ESV / 48 helpful votes

I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 43 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 11:5 ESV / 43 helpful votes

The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

Romans 6:23 ESV / 39 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV / 36 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

John 14:1-3 ESV / 36 helpful votes

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Malachi 1:3 ESV / 35 helpful votes

But Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”

Proverbs 31:6-7 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

Psalm 119:163 ESV / 33 helpful votes

I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.

Matthew 5:21 ESV / 31 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’

Matthew 10:34 ESV / 30 helpful votes

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Ephesians 4:28 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Psalm 139:21-22 ESV / 27 helpful votes

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

Romans 2:6 ESV / 26 helpful votes

He will render to each one according to his works:

Psalm 5:5 ESV / 24 helpful votes

The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

Ecclesiastes 3:8 ESV / 23 helpful votes

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

John 15:18-25 ESV / 22 helpful votes

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ...

John 10:10 ESV / 22 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Mark 13:13 ESV / 22 helpful votes

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Matthew 15:19 ESV / 22 helpful votes

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Psalm 91:11 ESV / 22 helpful votes

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

Luke 21:17 ESV / 19 helpful votes

You will be hated by all for my name's sake.

Psalm 26:5 ESV / 17 helpful votes

I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.

Galatians 3:18 ESV / 15 helpful votes

For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Malachi 2:16 ESV / 15 helpful votes

“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

1 John 3:1-24 ESV / 14 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ...

Isaiah 1:1-31 ESV / 13 helpful votes

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ...

Psalm 31:6 ESV / 13 helpful votes

I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.

Psalm 119:104 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Acts 10:28 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.














I do not want my son to hate, or fear, or cast out any person because of their religion, beliefs, ect. That is not being a disciple of Christ.











We are in for some hard days a head. The Lord is watching us all. The devil is prowling.






We know the end of this story. God will conquer all. It will get ugly. People will hate us. People will kill us. Violence will happen. There will be a holy war evil against good.









In the midst will you lose your love- WELOVE because he first loved us. We are all sinners deserving of  death. 








Lets not be consumed by fear and hate.








I love the way this husband responded. 









I will tell my son that we will love them NO MATTER WHAT.





In the face of our enemies, we will still have faith and love. 



















http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34862437



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