IF SOMETHING IS NOT LOVING, IT IS NOT FROM GOD

IF SOMETHING IS NOT LOVING, IT IS NOT FROM GOD

There is a lot of conflict and a great deal of misunderstanding regarding the verses in the Bible about people loving one another as opposed to people using and abusing one another.

Here are some important points:

1. God is love.

2. God loves each and every human being, each and every creature and all of creation.

3. God has called all human beings and all of creation good.

4. God hates cruelty, killing, infidelity and anything that makes life difficult. God does not hate the people who act in cruel and evil ways. God hates the feeling and activities that lead to cruelty, neglect, abandonment, infidelity and everything that keeps people and creatures from living peaceful lives in the fullness of love.

5. The problem with what people did in Sodom and Gomorrah was not that people loved and cared for one another -- it was that those who transgressed cruelly used and abused people.

6. The only time that Jesus mentions what we call "homosexuality" was when he spoke of eunuchs -- that some were born eunuchs and some became eunuchs.

7. God has a problem with the way people act when they judge and condemn others. Judging and condemning are as much a sin as any other transgression that hurts people.

8. Over and over God proclaims God's love and good intentions for each and every person who has ever lived, who is living now, and who will ever live.

9. When people get it into their heads to decide who should or should not belong in God's Kingdom, they are trying to do something WAY beyond their pay grade.

10. Every sin has already been forgiven -- past, present and future. God God's Self came to be incarnate in a human woman's body, experience every part of life from the time of conception, lived, taught, healed, cast out demons, restored people to life. God as a human being suffered for us, died for us, defeated slavery to sin and death; and rose from the grave fully alive and completely human.

There is no other way for human beings to be restored to the loving relationship and blessings that the first human beings had with their Creator.

God loves and blesses all who love and all that is love comes from God.

To reject and persecute people because they love people of the same gender is sick and evil.

The more love and faithfulness there is, the more God likes it.

God HATES when anyone is hurt, abandoned, killed, rejected, sick, crippled, mentally ill, starving, a refugee, and in sorrow. God desires that each and every person andd each and every family will live out her or His or their live(s) in love as described by the Hebrew word "shalom". This means more than just peace and tranquility.

"Shalom" is active, not passive. When people or a person have a roof over their/her/his head; clean water to drink; food to eat and to share; live in safety; enjoy people in relationship as blood relatives and in a spiritual family as neighbors' are not ill; are not disabled; are not destitute; and are free to live and practice the spirituality of their culture' educate their children; and able to choose to pursue what makes her/him/them happy while not taking any of these rights and freedoms from any other individual, family, ethnic group, or society--this is the fullness of dynamic shalom wholeness.

THIS SHALOM is the complete, abundant, dynamic, enriching and enriched life that God in Jesus promises and that already exists in Heaven and in Earth.

THIS SHALOM wholeness, the fullness of peace, joy, mercy, love righteousness, faithfulness and assurance of blessed relationship IS the reign of Heaven or Kingdom of Heaven.

THIS SHALOM Is guaranteed to each and every human being who has lived, is living and will live one Earth. Salvation IS this Shalom. We can continue to dwell in God's love for all eternity, but we must choose to receive this Shalom wholeness and fullness of love while we still dwell on Earth.

(Nevertheless, anything we might think of as conditions does not restrict God Who Is Love from drawing any and all persons to God's Self.)

Glory to God!

God wants each individual to experience love, mercy, stability, provision, loving family life and all the loving relationships that each person can have individually and in families, and in all sorts of loving, nurturing communities.

No person or group of people in any organization or institution should ever ever ever lift up as representing God and God's love that any indidvual and/or group of individuals is not loved by God Who Is Love. This is especially true for those organizations and congregation who have people in them who call themselves by Jesus' Name and title.

But please make no mistake, we put up walls between ourselves and God when we hurt others. It grieves God's heart and God weeps for us and for the people we hurt.

God is always hoping we will return and seek God's face JUST FOR GOD'S OWN SAKE.

God in Jesus Christ is the only true living God--the only Creator, the only Redeemer, the only Sustainer--and this has been true from the beginning of Creation and will be true until there is nothing left but God.

If you do not know God and understand how much you are loved, please take a moment just to ask God to show you. The Holy Spirit will answer your questions and help you know the love that exists, redeems and sustains you no matter what has happened to you in your life, and no matter how people have or a person has hurt you. No matter how you have been hurt.

God is gentle and kind, and full of mercy that goes beyond righteousness.

God has revealed God's Self to all human beings through creation itself, in books, narrations, movies, radio sermons, Bible studies and even just by the way people lovingly treat one another.

Each ethnic group, each family, and each individual has a story about how the Divine has made the Creator known to each one. The "canon"of the Bible should never have been closed because God is still writing the truth of each person's life; of each culture's life and history; of each institution's and club's and nation's existence and relationshipwith the Divine.

You cannot expect a Pacific Islander to know the One True God in the same way the peoples of the Arctic do; or as the river dwellers in Africa do; or as the mountain dwellers in South America do; or as the people of the plains in Asia or in the Americas do.

As individuals and as people of a particular culture have a unique history and culture and spirituality, so do each of them have a special and unique way of being in relationship with God.

When Jesus says, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me," He means that He is in the Father and the Father is within Him. They are inseparable, but at the same time unique. This is a mystery, but God can actively help you know why and how it is true.

When a person doesn't know God, or a group of people doesn't know God the Divine Creator as Jesus, that is just an indication that a very special knowledge and relationship is waiting for that person or that group of people.

God will not ever force anyone to believe in God and there is no one who should tell you that you should believe in God.

You are completely, absolutely, eternally and unconditionally loved. The choice is always yours whether you will agree to a relationship with God or not.

You can refuse all your life, but God will still bless you. God will continue to love you.

If you turn your back on God and on love from people who know God, you will miss out on a lot.

But the One who will be even more hurt will be God, because God yearns for you to turn to God. God wants to bless you and enjoy being with you; provide for you and help you allow God to draw you to God's heart.

Please give God a chance.

Meanwhile, I will keep praying for you and yours, Beloved.

May the Lord of Life and Light and Love and Truth continue to bless and keep you and yours, today and always; all ways and forever.

Alleluia! Amen and amen.