Life Goes On

This morning I read a Facebook post by a friend who is supposedly a wordsmith (poet)  The post amounted to a diatribe against Christians, conservatives and Republicans.  The most repeated word in the post was "hate" as he repeatedly accused his targets with hating everything liberal, Oboma-esque, or socialistic.  Then, at the end of his invective laced rant, he amazingly said, "I do not hate you, I forgive you."  I guess this was supposed to make his verbal attack acceptable.  He also mentioned that he could not imagine Jesus agreeing with those he considered "haters".  By the same token, I can't imagine Jesus agreeing with someone who uses words to attack others.  As a matter of fact, Jesus said in Matthew 12:35-37 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasures brings forth evil things.  But I say to you that for every idle word that men may speak, they will give account of it...

Years ago I saw a ventriloquism act where the ventriloquist took his "dummy" out of a suitcase. During the act, the "dummy" got a little insulting, and the ventriloquist put it back in the suitcase. As he tried to close the top, the "dummy" kept talking, becoming more and more muffled, until the case was closed and the words were too muffled and muted to understand. That makes me think about the situation with Christians in our world today. If indeed Christ is in us we should let Him be Himself through us. Don't keep Jesus in the suitcase where all those around can only hear muffled sounds and not words of life. I remember talking with a young man on the beach in San Diego, CA. When we told him we were Christians and were out telling people how they could have a relationship with Jesus, he quickly told us that he was Jewish, hoping that we would move on. About that time his friend came back from the snack stand. The young Jewish man introduce...