I have just seen a clip which I have attached below only so you can see where I am coming from. My disclaimer is that I am writing this based on what I have seen in the video. If other information comes out about everything that happened, off course I would look at my take and adjust accordingly but what I have said about Jesus would still stand.
As it is, this video is NOT representative of what many Christians believe in. Jesus told us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Jesus reminded us with the woman who was set up and caught in adultery, that he who had not sinned was to cast the first stone. No one was able to cast a grain of sand, pebble or rock. Jesus who was the only one who could cast the stone because he had never sinned, saved her from the mob who wanted to stone her, offered her great compassion when all the others wanted to shame and condemn her. He also didn’t condemn her, when he was in every position to.
Jesus is all about love for the sinner. Not humiliation or shame or setting out restrictions or “punishments” like no baby shower as the video says. Sin has its own and enough consequences. Jesus’ love, heals and gives grace. His grace is sufficient for the most heinous thing you or someone else feels you’ve done. It is our responsibility as Christians to be our brother/sisters’ keepers by showing love, compassion, grace. Why? Because all of us have fallen short and God showed us his love, compassion and grace. We are to pour to others what we have received.
Its time to listen to what Jesus says only! Because he is the only one who took the beating, bruising, mocking, spitting, lashing (with a whip that had nails and glass), crucifixion. The only one who laid down his life for us to save all of us, believing or unbelieving. This video is NOT representative of what many Christians believe in. When Jesus has saved you, and you have experienced him in ways and words that cannot even give justice, it is impossible for you to shame and humiliate someone who is now in the same position you used to be in.
My sins and your sins are the same. My short and your short is the same. We’ve all fallen short! Full stop. Talk to Jesus about what is troubling you. I promise you he listens to even the things you haven’t said but are very much present in your heart. Listen to Him. How? One major way is Read Your Bible, not just Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. From Genesis to Revelation Jesus is speaking and if you really listen you will see how LOUDLY he is speaking about the Love he has for you.
It is very easy for non- Christians to quickly say Christians are hypocrites. I ask you to remember humans are the same. Memes have repeatedly shown us this. Apparently, we are and have all been living the same lives. We may be in different continents, speak different languages, think we have different problems, but our lives are the same. As you call some hypocrites, what are you saying about yourself?
We all have struggles and have contradictory behaviour. Look at your health, you say you will do something and then you do nothing. We do the same when it comes to our values/principles/morals/faith. Not every Christian is set or committed to living a contradictory life. We are committed to trying and I can remix what brother 50 Cent said by saying some of us will die trying because we believe we will get rich in heaven.
Please note we don’t try just for that reason. Personally, I have a face to face, lunch date with Jesus (He is cooking) in the backyard of the mansion he has prepared for me. You have no idea how this excites me so, I will keep trying with his help, regardless of how humans behave. I know the same is true for others.
Those of us who believe in Jesus know, we will continue to fall short, but we trust and believe Jesus will help us so long as we let him. So don’t judge us while we have fallen short today. Tomorrow is coming and we will not fall short on what we fell short on yesterday.
I am saying all this because I want you to know number one that Jesus is not represented in the words of that pastor. Jesus is not represented in the action he chose to take with my sister in that congregation. Jesus is not represented in his future intention to remove any possibility of a baby shower for my sister.
Christianity is about following and representing Jesus. If Jesus is not represented in that pastors’ words and actions, present and future, then that means that is not Christianity. So, you would be right in dismissing his words and actions as not right. Dismiss whatever you like, but what I ask most of all is that you don’t dismiss Jesus. Jesus is not like that and can never be like that.
Jesus Loves every human being. Jesus loves you with a love I or anyone else cannot explain to you. That unexplainable love is exactly why he gave up his life for you and for me. He had never sinned but was treated like a sinner. Treated like it was me, you, the pastor or my sister in the video. He never fell short like humans did. He was never contradictory in his behaviour. All he came to do was to save us out of love and not condemn us. Please take that with you.
If you want to know the quality and character of Jesus don’t look at a contradictory human who will be on a lifelong cycle of making mistakes for the rest of their life just like you and I will. Look at the life of Jesus. Start by informing yourself of what he really was like, even if you have to do it factually. Read the book of Matthew, see the humility in his life then you will see him for yourself.
Quit talking about the white man’s religion. Africans knew about Jesus long before the white men came. Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross was an African. Get educated on who Jesus is. Its time to stop keeping lies in your head. Its time to stop spreading a narrative of lies. Jesus is not a hypocrite. Human beings are the problem. Jesus is not the problem; he is the answer and he is all about LOVE. Christianity is therefore not the problem. It’s the human beings in there who are the problem.
For anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus, Its ok to say I can see his character; I just don’t believe in him. Show integrity in giving dues, where they are due, because the hypocrisy you call Christians, will be the same thing you will be doing, by not acknowledging the truth of Jesus character. What I am really advocating for with all of my being, is for you to understand that that video is NOT representative of Jesus and many of his followers.
Lies and false information are destructive in ways you can’t imagine. If you take the message that Jesus is not represented in that video, you will be taking the truth with you. It is important that you live with and only have truth in your mind. Please don’t be like Trump with his fake news. One Trump in the world is enough! On that note as we pray for ourselves and others, let us KEEP brother Trump in prayer. Don’t remove him from the prayer, keep him there!
For believers in Christ, my challenge in the form of a question is this. Why is ONE person being tagged to see the video so they can reach out to our sister. Isn’t she, our sister? Why do people not know, we are our sister’s keeper? Why aren’t our many names tagged in that post to the point IG shuts down because too many followers of Christ have been tagged! Why don’t people know our names as followers and believers of Christ? Why haven't churches been tagged? Owi!
Another challenge is this. Before I say it, let us understand as Christians we are to stir trouble, not in some violent way but for the reasons Jesus flipped those tables. Jesus said “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” My little understanding of this is that he came to shake up the world and “disturb the comfortable”, including those who were oppressing God’s children and thereby “comfort the disturbed” as Pastor Charles W. Knight of Revision Church, Atlanta, put it.
My challenge/question is this. If this happened in our churches, what would we do, while staying committed to remain under the influence of the Holy Spirit and also committed to being obedient to the commandment Jesus gave us of “Love your neighbour as you love yourself? May God give us his strength and Spirit to always do his will in scenarios like these and to urgently be the light that shines and attracts people home and not the darkness that repels them away, then we wonder why our baptism and congregation numbers are not reflective of the Resurrecting power of the Holy Spirit. We need to cause Spiritual Hypernatremia in the world i.e., we need to bring flavour in the world by being the salt we are to be.
Anyway, in conclusion, Jesus Loves you perfectly and completely in ways your or someone else’s human capacity is not able to understand. Believe in him and his words as the final word, not a contradictory human being. Look to him always and gain the peace that defies human understanding, the grace that is sufficient in every sinful situation and the unfathomable love of God, that will take you to places you never dreamed of and the ultimate place of Eternity. A place of no sorrow, pain, grief, shame, or condemnation!
God loves you! Let no sinful and contradictory human, fool you otherwise.
Related Verses
John 8:3-12
Matthew 10:34
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