Alright, We Have A Problem...

Hello everyone!

Today, we will be talking in depth about a problem I have mentioned before on my podcast: the importance of showing LOVE rather than hate to someone who believes differently than you or I do. 

I think we have all seen someone who claims to know Christ but certainly does not show the love that Christ shows us. What are some examples? One of the most common things I see Christians doing is standing outside of an abortion clinic holding graphic signs of the truth about abortion. The part that is unloving is screaming at those who walk in and those who walk out. While these images may show the truth about abortion, they're not going to make people see the love of God in you! Shouting is never the way to go!

Proverbs 10:12 says, "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses." 

Based on that verse alone, we already know that what some people are doing outside of abortion clinics is wrong! We also know that if we, as Christians, were showing more love than hate, then there would not be as much strife in the church or with the world. 

Listen, I am not always the best at showing more love than hate. I try, but sometimes I get so frustrated at the way things are going that I forget that love is always the better response! Another thing about this verse is that it says "Love covers all offenses." I believe it talks about Jesus' love that covered all of our offenses! We're called to speak the truth in love, and sometimes the most loving thing toward someone is to speak the truth into their life. I think the question boils down to "how" we're speaking and the motivations behind our speech. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says, " Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." 

While this passage describes how believers are supposed to show their love for one another by way of interpretation, there is much from the passage that can be applied to all areas of life and conduct. There are so many hateful sounds coming from Christians claiming that they are showing love, but this verse paints a clear image of what love should look like! The part I want to highlight is "love is kind"! 

I've been wrong before, but I am quite sure that yelling and screaming and booing, etc., is not kind, and as it says in this verse, love is supposed to be kind! I see people spreading hateful speech, especially when they can hide behind a screen. Texts and screenshots don't have a clear way to communicate emotion, and many things can be taken the wrong way, so when using those means of communication, an extra level of care needs to be shown. 

There have been videos surfacing of "the most homophobic place in America." There is a gay man who is wearing a pride flag, and guess who was throwing eggs, spitting, and holding signs stating "God hates homosexuals." It was people who claimed to be Christians! When this man tried to talk to these people, he asked, "Aren't you supposed to show love?" When the "Christians" heard his question, they screamed, punched, and threw things at him. This is not love. This is hate! There is a church named Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KA, and the hypocrisy and hatred that this church shows is unbelievable! Normally, I try my best not to call people out by name on my podcast because lost people do what lost people do, but for a church to talk about the love Jesus has for His people and then to hold signs that say things such as "God hates sinners" and things like that is awful, and if anyone from this church is reading, shame on you and shame on your pastor! 

While God does hate sin and people who live in sin without remorse, God does not hate His creation. According to gotquestions.com, "He wants what is best for His creation" And wants them to be no longer evildoers whom He hates. Westboro claims that hatred is how to show love. But Paul said to imitate him as he imitates Christ. What did Jesus do while He was on earth? I can tell you for sure that He didn't scream and yell, saying that God hates you! He showed incredible love to people who didn't live right, all the while not compromising the truth or the fact that God does and will judge sin. Mary Magdalene has been stereotyped to be a prostitute; she was indeed possessed by seven demons; Matthew was an evil tax collector; and many other people Jesus showed love to were sinful people, including you and me.

Love is also commanded by Jesus Matthew 22:37-40: Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”  Did you read what I read? Jesus said, Loving your neighbor as yourself is as important as loving God! The question then is, "Who is my neighbor?" Gotquestions.org defines it this way: "Our neighbor is thus anyone in our proximity with whom we can share God’s love. We are called not only to love those who are similar to us or with whom we are comfortable but all whom God places in our path."  That's incredible and a key thought when we know what the Bible describes as love based on 1 Corinthians. 

To wrap up, I want to say, that Christians, we can do better at showing the kind of love that the Bible describes. We need not be afraid to call fellow Christians out when they aren't showing love biblically. If I fail to show love in any of my conversations, I want to know.  And if anyone is too proud to hear that they aren't showing love, then there are other problems that they need to work out with God. My dad often says it this way... "speak truth, but don't be a jerk about it...call sin, sin, but don't be a jerk about it."

Thank y'all so much for your support over the past year; you truly have been a blessing! My goal for this next year is to get 100 followers on Spotify. If you are willing, you can help me reach that goal by sharing this with everyone you think will listen. Join me for our next season next year! Thank you for reading, and happy New Year! 

Some Ideas and sentences were used from gotquestions.com, and specifically the question "Can God hate?" was based on this article:https://www.gotquestions.org/does-God-hate.html 

Hello everyone and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. , so I am very excited to be doing one of the first times I've actually Full on planned that I would do a Tuesday talks with Titus not on a Tuesday So this is coming out on New Year's Eve Which I just thought would be a great way to end the year and the season for those of you don't know I have seasons on Any like podcast or platform?

 Like this is season one But, by the time we get to next episode, we will be on season 2, because 15 episodes is kind of awesome, and I want to thank you guys so much for all of your support, but let's get into it real quick,  What is the topic for today? So I named  today's thing.

It's Alright, we have a problem. And the reason I named it that is because Christians we've got a problem because we are coming across as hateful at some points and There are some points where there's no excuse for it. So we need to figure out what's going on And how can we fix it?  I think we all have seen someone who claims to know the love of Jesus Christ, but certainly does not show that. Okay, so one of the most common examples that I use is Christians standing outside of an abortion clinic or a Planned Parenthood. I've seen these protesters before. I have wanted to go there to pray before, but there's also the group that you can get associated with that are holding up gruesome signs that, okay, yeah, sure, they show the truth of abortion, but I mean, do we need to be showing that?

Is that the way we love? The way we love is say That baby is a creation of God. God loves you and that baby. And so that's the way we show love. We don't show love by being hateful. So that's why today I'm talking about how to show love and why it's important.  Love in our interactions instead of hate and I'm also kind of calling out some people who are showing hate while claiming to be Christians so one of  my verses for today that we're using is Proverbs 10 12 and it says this hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses So I really like that verse because it gives us a good example I mean, you're hearing it.

Hatred just always stirs up strife. But, guess what? Love covers all offenses. You know what love covered all of our offenses? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's love covered our offenses when he died on the cross. So, it's showing the power of love that truly is there. We already know that what some people are doing outside of abortion clinics, like I mentioned before, is wrong.

We also know that if we as Christians are showing more love than hate, there would not be as much strife as there is in the church or with the world that there is today. Listen, I've not always been the best at showing love versus hate. I mean, God knows I can do better. It's, all of us can.

I try, but sometimes I get so frustrated with the things that are going on around the world, and I just, fail to show love. And that happens. It's not okay. It happens. I mean, it's funny, because normally when you say, it happens, you say, it's okay, it happens. But, this one, it happens, it's not okay, we need to do better.

So, Another thing about this verse says like I like I mentioned before love covers all offenses And it's like Jesus's love that covered all our offenses So we are called to speak the truth Love I cannot stress that enough I have constantly mentioned that on my podcast when I talk about absolute truth.

Yes We can be sure that truth is absolutely there. But did I was I a jerk about it? I mean  I could have full on told those people that I was interviewing that day that No, you're wrong because there is absolute truth, but I didn't because I was just there to hear hear their answers And I did tell them after I was done recording that I believe in an absolute truth That is the word that Jesus Christ gave us, but I wasn't hateful about it I tried my very best not to be  I think the question eventually boils down to how do we show love in that where we're speaking and the motivations behind our speech.

So first off,  first Corinthians 13, four through eight says love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.

It always protects, and always trusts, always hopes, always preserves, love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease. They, where there are tongues, they will be stilled.  But where there is knowledge, it will pass away., the cool thing about this verse is it describes how we're supposed to love incredibly well.

So, this passage,  describes how believers are supposed to show their love for one another. Just by the way of interpretation, there is so much from this passage that can be applied in all areas of life. And there are so many hateful sounds coming from Christians claiming they are showing love, but this verse paints a clear picture, a clear image, of what love should look like.

The part that I want to highlight right now is love is kind. Love is not hateful. Love is kind. So, I've been wrong before. But I'm quite sure that yelling, and screaming, and booing, etc, whatever, is not love. I mean, , that's hateful. And people get upset when people scream. When you're screaming, you're not screaming because you're excited most of the time.

You're screaming because you're mad. And you're screaming because you're being hateful. And so, what I'm trying to get at is, it's not kind. And this verse says, love is supposed to be kind. And we as Christians are supposed to Be loving to our neighbors our neighbors isn't just anybody we'll get to that later, but our neighbors isn't just anybody it's everybody all around us See people spreading hateful speech, especially when they can hide behind a screen.

Believe me I've seen it in the comment section of any  post It's ridiculous. I mean, 

, first off, texts and screenshots don't have a clear way to communicate  How our emotion is going to be and so many things can be taken the wrong way But also they can be put the wrong way sometimes we We fail to show love when we can hide behind our Facebook account or whatever  all you got to do is write down one comment and just You're showing a little bit more hate than love, and it's bad, because it's so much easier to get upset at something when you're not looking at someone in the eyes, and you just type it down because you're mad.

Right there, there's the hate. That's a problem. And so,  and even when we are trying to speak the truth in love, be careful. Do an extra level of care. It needs to be evident that you are trying to be helpful, not trying to be hateful.  So, there have been videos surfacing of the most homophobic place in America.

And there is a  who I presume to be a man. I'm not sure, but he was wearing a pride flag,  but Guess who was throwing eggs and spitting and holding signs stating God hates Homosexuals and shoving it in his face Christians it was us it was the Church of God and I have to say, we failed.

We failed in that situation. And,  when this man tried to talk to these people, he asked, Aren't you supposed to show love?  And every time he asked that, the Christians, and honestly, , in my blog, I put the Christians in quote because that's not acting like a Christian. But, the Christians heard, when the Christians heard this question, they screamed, punched, and threw things at him, didn't even answer his question.

Because they were afraid because they knew they were wrong.  There's a problem. That's the problem. Some Christians get proud. And I'm not saying not to be proud of the God who we serve. I'm saying not to get proud of what you say. You don't need to stand by everything. , a good example is just when you're having a conversation and you were 90 percent sure about something but then the person Googles it and you were wrong. 

Take that. The way my generation puts it is take the L,  in that situation, take, take the lose because you know, you just got called out and honestly you deserve it when you are showing hate. So there is a church that I am wanting to take the L right now. , and their name is Westboro Baptist in Topeka, Kansas.

, they've been around for a long time and the hate that they show is just incredible. And the hypocrisy. And this church, the, it just, it's unbelievable. And normally I try my very best not to call people out by name on my podcast. Because lost people do what lost people do. But for a church to talk about the love that Jesus Christ has for us, it's hypocritical to  hold signs and scream and yell and tell people that God hates you  and he wants you to go to hell. 

That's one of the biggest things that this church says. God wants you to go to hell. And that's not true. If he wanted us to go to hell, he never would have sent his son to die on the cross. So they say awful things to, and if anyone from this church is reading, or if your pastor's reading or listening, I want you to cure this.

Shame on you.  I'm shame on you and your church and to your pastor of this church.  Please stop. Teach your church about the love of Christ and stop teaching hate because that's wrong.  So while God does hate sin and people who live in sin without remorse, God does not hate his creation.

 I Want to say, he also hates evil. He did not create evil. Evil was a choice. So, according to got questions. com, God wants what is best for his creation and unquote, he wants them to no longer be evil doers whom he hates. He doesn't want us to be evil. He doesn't want us to live in sin and be the people that he describes as the people he hates.

God hates evil doers,  but there is an option for us to get out of the evil doings.  📍 So,

Westboro Baptist claims that hatred is the way to show love. I have read the transcripts of their sermons. I've been trying to make sense of it, but no. There's no sense that they have, , they claim to show love, but Paul said to imitate him as he imitates Christ.  Well, what did Jesus do? Okay. So what I'm, what I'm saying, when I say Paul says to imitate him as he imitates Christ, we need to imitate what Christ did while he was on earth and imitate those with the godly character.

So listen, what did Jesus do on this earth? Well, I'll tell you for sure. He did not scream and yell, unless he was calling out the Pharisees, which is why I'm fired up right now. I'm calling out, Westboro Baptist. ,, he did not show hate. 

He showed incredible love to those who didn't live right, to sinners. So he, this is what he did. He,  while not compromising the truth or the fact that God does and will judge sin. So Mary Magdalene has been stereotyped to be a   and she was indeed possessed by seven demons. Which I would consider pretty bad.

That would be pretty bad. So also Matthew was an evil tax collector. He would take more than he needed to to  fill his own pocket and that was awful. That's a bad thing to do and many other people Jesus showed love to were sinful, sinful people.  But that also includes you and I.  So, Jesus showed us love, so it's our turn to show it to others. 

Love is also commanded by Jesus. Matthew 22, 37 40 Says this Jesus replied you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind this is the first and equal this is the first and greatest commandment a Second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself the entire law  And all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments Did you hear that though?

Did you hear the thing that said a second is equally as important? Love your neighbor as yourself That's equally as important as loving God, which is something a lot of people who read that verse miss The question is who is my neighbor? Well got questions org defines it this way Our neighbor is thus anyone in our proximity with whom we can share God's love. We are called not only to love those who are similar to us or with whom we are comfortable, all whom God places in our path.  So that's an incredible key thought. And when We know what the Bible describes as love based on first Corinthians That is a great way to keep thinking so to wrap up I just want to say Christians we can do better at showing the kind of love that the Bible describes We need to not be afraid to call fellow Christians out when they're not showing love properly but also don't forget if you're not showing love properly You should fix yourself first.

 But, if I fail to show love in any of my conversations, I want to know.  If anyone is too proud to hear that they aren't showing love, including me, There's a problem. And so, they need to work that out with God. As my dad often says, Speak truth, but don't be a jerk about it.  Call sin, sin, but don't be a jerk about it. So, thank y'all so much for,  your support over this past year.  You, you guys have truly been a huge blessing. My goal for this next year is to get 100 followers on Spotify.

So I have followers on Facebook and I'm very grateful for those. But the ones that really count are the ones who follow on Spotify. So, if you can, please follow on Spotify and subscribe and all that. And also, you can help me reach that goal in another way.  Share this with everyone you think will give it a listen.

Join,  and don't forget to join me for our next season next year. So I want to thank you guys so much for  listening and watching. And,  , I want to wish you guys a happy new year and we'll see you in 2024. Goodbye!