One week from tomorrow, God willing, we will welcome a fourth girl – Ella Rae – into our family. I was thinking tonight about the years we ached for just one child and the task we have now undertaken – raising 4 girls. It’s more than I ever hoped for, but now I’m praying (as I think all parents must) that it’s not more than I can handle…

As I think tonight about the mysteries of fathers and daughters, I randomly remembered this music video from our old pal Lindsay Lohan, back when she was a young starlet with a bright future. I don’t know how much of this is embellished and how much is autobiography, but I do remember how I felt when I saw it for the first time: physically ill. And maybe a little angry. And I am thinking now about the tragic turns her life has taken, and thinking that maybe we should have seen it coming back then.

I dream of another you, one who would never.
Never, leave me alone to pick up the pieces.
A Daddy to hold me, that’s what I needed.

Haunting. Especially for us father-types. When I see LiLo in a news story, I don’t see a hedonistic Hollywood celeb or a cautionary tale or a target of ridicule. I see the scared, angry, hurting little girl in this video. And I think two things:

One: Lindsay, you do have a Father dying to hold you, whole will never leave you alone, who will pick up the pieces. And He’s close. And it’s never too late.

Two: Dear God – make me like You so I don’t mess up my girls.

It’s not that I’m worried I will wake one day and realize I have suddenly become a violent alcoholic. Through the Spirit I’ve spent a lot of years of my life nailing a lot of natural inclinations (like bad temper and addictive personality) on a lot of big gnarly crosses. I’m also not thinking I will ever be perfect. I know I have a lot to learn, and that I’ll probably figure most of it out just in time to walk them down the aisle and hand them off to some other dude.

What I am concerned with is the thousand tiny steps from here to there – the millions of moments that make up the relationship between daddy and daughters. I want to get those right more than I get them wrong. I am a little worried I might wake up one day and realize I have suddenly become that distant, irrelevant, cold persona so many young girls see their father as. And I am hoping my concern is good proof that I’m on the right track.

So for what it’s worth, here’s what I think I know is important so far. I will be completely and uncomfortably transparent and tell you these are my prayers at the moment:

1. Four girls, a wife, and a neutered cat will live at my house. As the only dude in residence, I want to be a man, in every sense of the word, so my girls will know what that looks like. And so their future boyfriends fear for their safety. I pray I can learn from Jesus’ example how to be aggressive when it’’s needed and lamb-like when it’s not, and what true masculinity is all about, beyond anatomy, meat-eating, and love of engine repair.
2. The prophet said of Jesus “a bruised reed he will not break.” As His disciple, I pray for a gentleness and discernment that will help me not crush the sensitive spirits of little girls with harsh words, impatience, or even good-natured teasing. I pray for the Holy Spirit to physically beat me senseless when I’m being a jerk to my wife or my girls. Maybe a tree could fall on my head from time time. That would do it.
3. I pray for eyes to see the unique gifts and greatnesses of each of my girls. They are all so different – the nature and nurture debate is settled for me – their personalities are hard-wired! And they all need to know they are just as God intended, that different is great, and they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Some people call that good self-esteem, I think of it more as healthy self-image – seeing who I am in through the eyes of the One who made me. I pray for the right words to encourage and build up and “fan into flame.”
4. I pray for the ability to provide security and stability for my family, so they can grow up without fear. I am also praying that God will help me rely on Him for security, stability, and provision, not just try to do it all myself. I’m still learning to trust. And I pray I win the lottery, even though I don’t play it. Or that at least one of them can get a football scholarship.
5. I pray Jesus will help me learn how to be a better husband. Fourteen years have come and gone, and I still don’t know what I’m doing. But my girls need to grow up with a real, live, functional “in-love” married couple living in their house so they know that it’s possible. It’s something I didn’t have modeled for me, and I am always needing the Spirit’s help to figure out how to make it better.
6. I pray God will keep me from sin and stupidity and boredom and idle hands. It would just be the absolute worst for my girls to have a hard time trusting or believing in God because I preached the Gospel then had a massive moral failure.
7. I pray my greatest achievements in discipleship would be leading Janae, Corinne, Maya, and Ella to become followers of Jesus – that they would not only be my daughters in the flesh, but my daughters in the Faith.
8. I pray I live a good long healthy  time so I can take my kids’ kids to Disneyland. And since faith without works is dead, I also pray for the discipline to get my sorry carcass back on the treadmill and to “just say no” to leftover Easter candy before I start losing appendages to retinopathy.
9. I pray all of my faults, weaknesses, and shortcomings would nullified by the grace, love, acceptance, and forgiveness of Jesus, shared freely in our home. I want our house to be a place of healing and hope. And I want my girls to rest knowing their father on Earth loves them, but their Father in Heaven loves them perfectly.

Maybe some of you older dads of daughters out there can give me a number ten – nine just seems incomplete. Or maybe you can just start a 12-step group for us. I’ll bring the brews.

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I’ve also been studying to teach about some of the “Hard Words of Jesus” at Redwood Hills. The upshot of both of those efforts is that I have been thinking a lot about Jesus’ ministry on a practical level – His words, His way of doing things, and how it affected the first generation of His disciples. A million deep thoughts come from that, but here’s one for today:

It’s hard to be like Jesus.

Anyone who’s known me for longer than 30 seconds knows I love Rich Mullins – even now so many years after his death, his words teach me. He wrote a song called “Hard” that addresses this very thing – it’s easy to get over-impressed with my general goodness – my Judeo-Christian American roots. My work ethic. the things I do and don’t do because I follow Jesus.

Well I do get a little much over-impressed
’til I think of Peter and Paul and the Apostles.
I don’t stack up too well against them, I guess,
But by the standards ’round here I ain’t doing that awful.

It’s hard to do what we know we should; it’s even harder to do it with the right heart, but that’s what Jesus asks of us. It is hard to be like Jesus. And I know I can’t even approach it on my own. Only the Holy Spirit, working in and through me, makes it even possible for me to do ONE right thing for the right reasons.

It’s a lot easier to stop at “legal” or “enough” or “acceptable.” It’s easier to justify, to forget, to judge others. It’s easier to lose track of days than it is to redeem the time.

But as I read the hard words of Jesus and the wisdom of Paul for young overseers, I want to do better, to reach farther, to try harder, to be a little more like Jesus every day. Not because it will make me successful or famous or even make me feel better, but because He is everything that is whole, healthy, beautiful, and right with the universe. If faith is a journey, I want to at least know that my chosen destination is a heart like his.

It’s a bit of a wistful rant, I know, and it’s nothing earth-shattering – just my thoughts today. I hope it encourages at least someone. It’s hard to be like Jesus. But He’s all I want to be. So no matter how hard, that’s what I’m going for. and through a thousand tiny corrections and revisions of heart and spirit and focus and action, may we each get a little closer every day. Oh – and here’s the lyrics to ponder – thanks Rich.

Well, I am a good Midwestern boy
I give an honest day’s work if I can get it
I don’t cheat on my taxes, I don’t cheat on my girl
I’ve got values that would make the White House jealous

Well, I do get a little much over-impressed
‘Til I think of Peter and Paul and the apostles
I don’t stack up too well against them I guess
But by the standards ’round here I ain’t doing that awful

Lord, it’s hard to turn the other cheek
Hard to bless when others curse you
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be a man of peace
Lord, it’s hard, oh it’s hard,
You know it’s hard to be like Jesus

And it’s hard to step out on them waves
Hard to walk beyond your vision
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be a man of faith
Lord, it’s hard (hard), Lord, it’s hard (so hard),
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be like Jesus
Don’t you know it’s hard (hard), oh it’s hard (yeah hard),
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be like Jesus

Well, His eye’s on the sparrow
And the lilies of the field I’ve heard
And He will watch over you and He will watch over me
So we can dress like flowers and eat like birds

And it’s hard when your soul had been stripped bare
Hard to lift your eyes toward Heaven
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be a man of prayer
Lord, it’s hard, oh it’s hard,
You know it’s hard to be like Jesus

Lord, it’s hard to be a man of peace
But it’s hard (so hard), ain’t it hard (hard),
You know it’s hard to be like Jesus

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There is none righteous.

Jesus came for one purpose – to fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law on our behalf. The Law was true, and just and good, but we were incapable of fulfilling it. The Law puts into writing the metaphysical reality of the universe as God created it – sin must be atoned for by the shedding of innocent blood. And  “when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” The single greatest truth in all of human history.

But the people of Jesus’ day missed the point, and many times we still do today (that’s a corporate “we” – meaning all of us, especially me). They missed that those “under the law” needed to be redeemed as much as everyone else. They were continually peppering Him with questions about the interpretation of the Law on specific points. In modern times, we dub this “legalism”. It is a perpetual obsession with the question: “How far is too far?” Or “Is it legal?”

In American society, we ask this question all the time. In business, sports, or relationships, what is the limit? What constitutes cheating – in my marriage or on my taxes? Is all really fair in love and war? What is “ethical” or “unethical.”

For the most part, we fall back on the rules. “Technically, my company does not prohibit X, so it is not wrong.” “No one directly asked me just the right question, so I didn’t lie.” And so on. When faced with the Word in the Flesh, the questions were similar:

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?

Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?

Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:”Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?”

These are questions dripping with self-righteousness and self-justification. “I follow the letter of the law, so I am right.” This in a culture where following the Law was the only path to salvation. They forgot that Abraham was justified by his faith BEFORE the law (but I digress, read Hebrews and Romans for more on that). To Jesus, “right” was simply not enough:

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ‘The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.  Everything they do is done for men to see…

‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.’

We are increasingly interested in legalism. Both wings of Christianity use it to justify their actions. “The Bible doesn’t say this is wrong specifically, so it’s okay for me to do whatever I want.” TRANSLATION: “It’s not against the rules.” On the other end, “You don’t follow every rule in the Bible the way I do or think you should, therefore you are wrong, and I have moral authority.” TRANSLATION:  “I am right because I follow the rules better.”

The religious people of Jesus day relied on their own righteousness. Jesus taught that “right” just wasn’t enough. You have to be redeemed. And reborn. To the religious, he says:

I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

To the libertine he says:

Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

And then launches into a series of teachings (Matthew 5-7) on how to have a righteousness that exceeds legalism.

To us all, He says:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

For my part, I have lived in both extremes – I grew up in a world that valued outward piety and regard for “the rules”, with little thought of the heart and no room for failure or forgiveness. I have also at times believed the lie that “if it isn’t in the rule book, it’s okay to do and be proud of, even if it violates my conscience” is a valid way to see the world. So you see, I really am talking about me .

This Christmas, as I think about the Baby who came to save us all, I am praying He will save me from legalism – both self-righteous brands of it – and free me to live in forgiveness, grace, and true right acts and attitudes. The promise of the Manger and the Cross are that we can be released from our sin and guilt and free to learn to live like Jesus. If we are truly free, then, let’s not create chains of legalism for ourselves – even if it affects our free time activities or sense of smug self-worth.

Oh – and Merry Christmas!

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Also in that intervening time I have been putting much thought and action into these faith concepts. Since not many people currently read this and no one is dying without new content, I am finding it more important to write something well-crafted than to just write something. But I am also going to try to keep these shorther – people got lives .

All preliminaries out of the way – I have been thinking a lot of how Jesus teaches us to do good things. It seems from the things He says that He is not only interested in what we do, but why and how we do it. Here’s an example:

Matthew 6

Giving to the Needy

 ¹“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

 ²“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Obviously it’s impossible to do every act of righteousness in complete secrecy. But the intent is clear (from this and many other verses) – Jesus’ command is that we think carefully about our motives for doing the good we do.

This is what makes people of faith so different than other activists. Our primary audience is Jesus, not public opinion. While we are certainly interested in teaching others to participate in the same activities, this is not our primary purpose for doing it. And whether or not someone participates in the same activities does not change our opinion of their importance – we are doing what Jesus told us to, not what we in our infinite wisdom have decided is important.

As such, it becomes very easy to recruit others to the same world-view – it isn’t ours, so we don’t have to be defensive, reactionary, or militant. We simply show by our humble service a better way to live and interact with the world as God intended. And that is not only radical and revolutionary, but also very infectious.

Let me give an example from a completely unrelated field that should bring this into sharp focus. There are three main rivals in the computing platform space – PCs running Windows, PCs running Linux, and Apple computers running the Mac OS. For the sake of argument, let’s leave out the open-source guys and compare the two you have to pay for (oooh – maybe I’ll get flamed by Linux enthusiasts!). Most Windows users use Windows because that’s what the computer came with that they were provided for work or school or from grandma for Christmas. Most Mac users use a Mac very deliberately – they have specifically chosen to spend more on the hardware and software and deal with lack of Mac support in the business space because they want to own and use a Mac.

Both have their reasons, but since Mac folk have made a conscious choice, they tend to be far more opinionated on the subject. This has lead to the birth of many a “Mac Evangelist”, most famously skewered in what is arguably the best Simpsons episode ever. 

I have no issue with Mac. In fact, I have great appreciation for the platform, the hardware, and salivate when I see an iPhone (curse you, two year contract with another cell phone company keeping me and iPhone coolness apart!). I do, however, use PCs exclusively in my work, and do so by choice, even though I work in the graphic design / video production / web world, and two out of three of those worlds are primarily peopled by Mac dudes and dudettes.

I have my reasons. First, I was too broke and too cheap in the beginning of my career to afford Macs. Now that I can, I have too much invested in PC software and gear to switch over (cause I’m still cheap). And in the Web space, which occupies 90% of my time now, there are a lot of things you just can’t do on a Mac (unless you boot it into the evil Windows OS).

These arguments hold no water with the Mac pushers. They openly mock my choices and deride my sad subservience to the evil, monolithic Microsoft Corporation (’cause Apple is far more open-source and non-monopolistic, unless of course you want to use your iPhone on another cell phone service. But I digress). Their scorn of my non Mapple-ness (see Simpsons clip above) does not make me want an Apple more. It makes me want to defend my lack of one. And it leaves a little twinge of unhappiness, cause if I could, I would join the club.

I don’t spend a lot of time trying to evangelize people in the way of the PC. Since you can get one almost for free these days and everybody’s got ‘em, I don’t have to. I also don’t actively look around for Mac users to tell them how silly they are for using a platform I don’t. But if someone observes the work I do, and asks me what I use, and then asks me why, I am glad to give my reasoned defense. And I often have more productive conversations in that scenario than I do trying to defend myself from angry Mac-abees, flaying me with their white iPod earbuds, because a person who asks a question is usually interested in the answer.

I think the reason so many folk think people of faith have a “I’m better than you because of the good stuff I do” attitude is because…well…we sometimes do. Rather than beat people over the head and try to advance our own sense of self-worth by displaying our righteous acts like an iPhone whipped out at a client meeting, the goodness God calls us to is to be evident to everyone, but the main target audience is Jesus Himself. It can’t be hidden, but we also can’t do it just to be seen. In the process of living like Jesus taught us, lots of folk will see it and ask questions. and then we have the chance to have a real conversation with someone who wants to know, not just an innocent PC-toting bystander.

This is of course where the analogy falls a bit short – we are also instructed clearly to purposefully go out and make disciples, which means we have to do more than passively do good and hope someone will ask about it. But most of our evangelizing is wasted on those who aren’t listening, and some attention to soil preparation and tactfully waiting for the right moment wouldn’t hurt our chances – might help quite a bit.

Long way to say a simple thing. But that’s how I roll. Gotta go reinstall Windows on a PC with the blue screen of death now. Stupid PCs.

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DISCLAIMER: Just about everything in this post is mostly for me. I am not writing to anyone external, I am writing to myself. If you find yourself in the same boat, so be it. And I don’t think I am doing ANYTHING right on this topic in my own life. Think of this as sermon to me, at the end of which I responded to call to repentance and said “yep, that’s me. I suck.”

The early church in Jerusalem for a time had a very communal approach to life. There isn’t definitive evidence that the extreme level of sharing they were practicing extended to every community of faith, but it IS very clear from Church history that concern for the needs of others – especially “the poor” was paramount. Paul even recounts Peter, James and John’s only instruction to him, when they gave him the right hand of fellowship (a phrase we really ought to revive) was to “remember the poor“.

The debate now is fascinating – many Christians have come to believe that a government that cares for the needs of the “poor” or “poorer” (however you define that) by means of taking money from the “rich” (however you define that) is a righteous form of government, and making sure our leaders push through that agenda is more important than any other moral issue. Many Christians believe helping the poor should be the work of the Church, so government should stay out of it and leave the giving to us. Inexplicably, many of the people in camp #2 fight for less taxation and then do very little or nothing at all to directly help the poor (beyond small donations to their local church or some other “distance giving” activity). Which makes the people in camp #1 think the gov. should take their money so they would be forced to do the right thing.

I think both entirely miss the point. It doesn’t really matter to Jesus what your government does. It matters what you do. Let us go to the tale of the tape (old school football reference, y’all):

Luke 14:12-14 (New American Standard Bible)
 12And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment.  13″But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

 14and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

And then there’s this one:

Matthew 5:40-48 (New American Standard Bible)
 40″If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41″Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.  42″Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.  43″You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’  44″But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  46″For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  47″If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Jesus’ very simple assertion is that the kind of life that marks the sons and daughters of God on the earth is one that does more than is required. And He defines the kinds of actions that cause Him to know us in strikingly specific detail:

The Judgment
31″But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32″All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34″Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35′For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37″Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38′And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39′When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40″The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

 41″Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

We all know the rest. The bad guys did NOT do all that feeding and clothing and visiting. A few conclusions we can draw:

1. Jesus cares very deeply (in an eternal fire sort of way) about how we treat the hungry-thirsty-naked-stranger-sick-prisoner types.
2. There seems to be no discussion of the worthiness of the beneficiaries of this care, and no consideration of what everyone else was doing to alleviate their suffering.

In America, we make these distinctions. First, those who get help must first be worthy of it. We think what Jesus really meant was “I was hungry – even though I have a job and work really hard everyday for minimum wage, I was sick – but not the kind of sickness caused by my own bad choices like aids or cigarette-induced lung cancer, I was in prison – but I was wrongly convicted or I was rightly convicted but I’m really sorry and trying to change my ways.”

Some of us think the “brothers” Jesus is referring to are people who believe in Him – hey Bible scholars – can any of you lurkers out there prove He was only talking about Christians? Or that He wasn’t?

Some of us think He meant “I was in need and no one else was trying to help me.” Those of us in this category think that our responsibility begins where there are gaps in government programs. We adopt the Ebenezer Scrooge mentality that says the poor should avail themselves of the services provided, and if there are no services, we can then be asked to help them (“are all the poor houses out of business?”).

Even more of us think the help should be conditional and, we say, redemptive. We don’t want to just give handouts to those who do not work, because then they will always rely on handouts. We don’t want to enable and perpetuate their negative cycle.

All of these things are fine and well when discussing public policy, but that is not what Jesus is discussing. He is discussing you. And me. And our private policies. And He is telling us to act like God does.

And God does what He does not have to. He goes beyond what is required. He sets up a universe with laws and consequences for actions, and when we choose death, he allows the laws to remain and destroy our bodies, but gives His only Son to save our souls. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. He freely gives mercy to those who will openly mock it and reject Him. He loves those who hate him. He redeems those who have made themselves His enemies, not by accident, but by conscious choice.

Jesus is saying that caring for others is not about what it does for THEM, it’s about what it makes YOU. It makes you like Him.

It’s easy to see what we ought to do, then. I think we should all discuss openly the role of government in our lives, since we live in a democracy and have that right. And after we have cast our votes and paid our taxes, we should take some of the resources Uncle Sam leaves us and use them to invite strangers to our homes, and the poor to our parties, and visit the sick and imprisoned, and clothe the naked.

Of course we must attempt to bring about real change and redemption whenever we can, but we must actively seek out those who do not deserve our help, who do not qualify for our programs, who can give us nothing in return – not even the self-satisfaction that we have helped someone get their lives straightened out with our giving. Jesus said we would always have the poor with us. Because there will always be junkies and criminals and fools and drunks who just can’t seem to get it together. And to love them, with no hope of seeing anyt change in their condition is to hear the heartbeat of God and become His sons and daughters.

Many will say, “Jon, you can’t help people who don’t want help.” I agree. You can’t make anyone do anything. “Aha!” you will then say, “so shouldn’t we focus our finite resources on those we CAN help?” Only if you believe that the goal of Jesus’ story was to get us into the business of rehabilitating the least in our society. But I don’t think so. I think He wants us to do these things to rehabilitate US.

How about this: rather than decide who to show compassion on, let’s decide first to show compassion, then ask God to show us who the target is. You might be shocked to find He picks some very undeserving, unrepentant, unfix-able folk. Don’t worry about that. That’s his problem. The same God who told Hosea to marry a prostitute who would be unfaithful to him the rest of his life might ask you to take care of someone who never says the Sinner’s Prayer. The time will not be wasted. It’s about His agenda, not yours.

In part two, we will discuss how to do all this without becoming self-righteous (or at least attmepting not to become so). But to summarize part one, Jesus commands us simply:

In loving others, go beyond what is required (or even reasonable).

And that can and must be done under any government – socialist, Marxist, totalitarian dictatorship, left-wing, right-wing, Republican, Democrat, Utopian, or even Roman. Because love is not against the law. And loving like Jesus makes us more like Jesus. And that is His point.

As always, if you disagree (heck, even if you agree), puh-leeeze post a comment.

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