The World of What If.... What if Jesus Meant His Words...

In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 5 through 7, Jesus gives us what is often called “The Sermon on the Mount” or perhaps more accurately “The Torah of Messiah”. This presentation is unique in that it only has narrative type statements, there are no other points interjected into the text, such as who was there, no one seems to ask any questions, there is no walking around or noticing any activity in the crowd present. It is one of my favorite New Testament documents, which I often call “Jesus Uninterrupted”

In very typical Rabbinical teaching form, Jesus lays out His “laws” during these sections. If one took the time, you would see the stance of Jesus clearly expressed through the Laws of reconciliation, adultery, divorce, taking oaths, non-resistance, fasting, prayer, murder, money, judging and for our part today, His Law of Love.

Matthew 5:43-48 states “43. You have heard that is was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44. But I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for those that persecute you, 45 in order 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, He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46. For if you love those that love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? 47. And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same? 48. Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Notice as Jesus begins this teaching, He does not dismiss the love for our neighbors, He does though extend that love to our enemies. He brings prayer into the picture, and while He does not fill in the blanks about what we should be praying for (I am going to venture a guess it is not their death and destruction) He does use the word “love”... and this brings us to The World of What If.

What if we soundly and solidly followed the instructions of Jesus here.. to love people who to us, seem unworthy of our love? What if we bent our own egos to become more kind and considerate, to become others-centered-to see each human being as created in “the image of God”, wouldn't make it a bit harder to want to see them dead?

For Jesus here, loving our enemies is God-like. We all talk about having form or affinity with God-being the people He has designed us and called us to be. But we fall short of looking hard into the words of Jesus when He says this behavior (loving our enemies) is part of understanding and becoming “sons of the Father”. Don't let this verse get by you. Rabbi Yeshua (Jesus of Nazareth) is teaching the framework and actions of the sons of the Father.

The World of What We Have is a picture of the Followers of Jesus not following the teachings of Jesus. It looks like most of Modern Christianity shot right past Jesus and gravitated to the teachings of Paul. We have pain and suffering (which we will always have), poor and needy, beaten and oppressed, and the disenfranchised who have been brushed to the side of the road here in our world. Yet, the central message of Jesus is about paying attention to those who most need attention.

The Modern Day Gospel is about power, not love. It preaches about politics, wealth, prosperity and morals/values, not understanding the Gospel of Jesus does not support any of these ideas. When Christianity became Americanized, it became the tasteless salt, good for nothing (another teaching of Jesus)

The World of the What If is not a world with a message of hope, it is a world of people with hope. It won't survive or help anyone else for that matter to have catchy phrases, cool Internet memes, amazing musical productions and the Gospel of the Get Feeling Better About Yourself. It is about love.

A love so large that God sent the only thing He only has one of... His Son. And this son, born in a stable in nowhere special, raised as a Jew, a penniless

itinerant Rabbi walking through hamlets, cities, backwater towns, and spending His time loving, healing and ministering to the needs of those around, changed the landscape of religious pursuits for all since recorded history.

And this love, goes to those that need it most, our adversaries, our enemies. This is the love of God made known through us, that as Jesus said, we can become sons of our Father.

David

David Fournier in the Senior Instructor at Restoring Grace. David teaches classes on Hebraic Perspectives, Jewish Mysticism (Kabbalah), Early Christian Communities and New Testament Formations and Canon. David is available for your church, youth group, seminars and retreats. Email David at: dfour26@gmail.com

Mend the Soul, Mend the World

In the Christian faith practice, it is a well known teaching about how believers are two parts-one part made of their flesh, and one part made in the image of God. This “spirit” part of the Christian faith has many differing theologies and much variance in how it is taught. For me, Christianity fails to reach the depths of what this spirit part of God's creative powers resides in us.

Christianity also places focus on the individual rewards-individual savior-personal relationship with Jesus-in very high place in its core teachings. It begs the question as to what societal value Christianity has in the world, the community and among their own fellowships. There must be more than getting “saved” (most people achieve salvation by repeating a prayer never mentioned in the Bible) and hanging in there waiting for the glorious return of a Messiah that will come for His believers and melt the face off of everyone that does not believe.

In the study of Kabbalah, we teach that each person has a two-fold mission during their lifetime. The first, is a transformation of their own soul, called Tikkun Ha-Nefesh, the “mending or repairing of our souls”. The second mission is using our own transformation for the benefit of others, this is known as Tikkun Olam or “repairing the world”. Both these missions are done with the assistance and cooperation of God, working with Him to fulfill our part of the equation. Simply put, God has a plan and purpose for each of our lives, greater than the idea of a “personal” and often “self-serving” faith.

Part of the confusion stems from poor theology, especially a theology that constantly belittles the believer, describing us as inconsequential specks of dust in a universe in which distances are measured in light-years and the number of stars exceeds the limits of our imagination. This sense of individual “smallness” lends itself to our linear thinking, failing to see how we are all connected in what I call a “holistic continuum”. We don't see ourselves connected to the pain and suffering of others (especially when the “others” are immigrants or people we have viewed as evil) and we spend our time in our own little stew of our own little making.

We need to understand that we don't just need to see the bigger picture, but that we are connected and created to participate and impact the bigger picture. We are not just a spirit, we are a soul. We are not names, we are not addresses and telephone numbers, we are not just an accumulation of human experiences, but we are and contain inside of us the Sparks of the Divine, the “God” particle so to speak, created in the Image of the Almighty. When we begin to move in this understanding, when we begin to embrace that transformation is not a personal only, but a chance to make the whole of the world better, we will begin to grow in God.

For many Christians, asking for “anointing” and “outpourings” and “mantles” and “miracles” is a regular and accepted practice. The question is this; What would you do with these things? What point and purpose would there be in God extending His power to us if we choose to not use it for the Repairing of the World? People can want these things, but I have to ask, what work are you willing to do to achieve them?

It amazes me for a people that believe God is with them, that God created them in His image, they feel the need to call down God acting as if He is not already with them. You don't need a prophet to come tell you how to get there, you need a pastor/teacher that can help you raise the sparks of the Divine that you already posses.

Each time you obey a commandment of God, each time you worship God, each time you perform an act of kindness and compassion, you elevate the sparks inside your soul. You begin to mend the tear of your soul-the part of you that is not like God. And you also elevate the people around you. It is impossible to raise the sparks in your soul and not help repair the world at the same time.

In modern life, we often learn to cultivate and glorify the negative. Most radio talk shows and news channels epitomize this process. The Rabbis and Sages have taught us that negativity separates us from humanity and God. When was the last time you heard negativity and thought, wow, God would love to hear more of this!!!

The Talmud (an ancient collection of Jewish wisdom writings) says, “These are the precepts whose fruits a person enjoys in this world but whose principle remains intact for him or her in the World to Come. They are honoring your father and mother, acts of loving-kindness, early attendance at the house of study, hospitality to guests, visiting the sick, providing for a bride, absorption in prayer and bringing peace to fellow human beings”

This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but it illustrates how we can elevate our souls-begin the mending process-and at the same time share the Light of the Creator with the World, helping to repair the breach. Imagine a world where repair is the foremost concern of the followers of God.

My friends, I believe that the Christian Faith Practice is at its best when is is not self-serving or self-consumed, but when it is training its adherents to elevate the sparks of their souls to the purpose and benefit of those around them.

Nothing more powerfully explains this idea than Ephesians 2:10 that boldly claims

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Created for good works-not just good times or good worship, but good works. You are a unique soul, designed and delivered here on this planet to do good works. You are a divinely created human, with a soul that elevates when you obey, when you assist God in His mission of Tikkun Olam....




David Fournier in the Senior Instructor at Restoring Grace. David teaches classes on Hebraic Perspectives, Jewish Mysticism (Kabbalah), Early Christian Communities and New Testament Formations and Canon. David is available for your church, youth group, seminars and retreats. Email David at: dfour26@gmail.com

Never Give Up-A Disc Golf Story...

“Never Give Up!” -Rocky Armijo Sr. (AKA The Great One)

So many people give up right before a breakthrough-right before a win... And it can be sad and defeating all at the same time. This weekend I participated in the Discraft Ace Race at Birds Nest in Arvada CO. It was an interesting Disc Golf weekend, I also played my first professional round at Scott Stokely's Blue Power event in Widefield (more on that later).

For those of you who may not know, a Discraft Ace Race is a tournament designed to introduce prototype discs into possible production. The event is two-rounds of 18 holes (baskets) with one throw at each basket. Winners are decided by how many Aces and Metal Hits (discs that strike baskets but do not go in). This was my fourth Ace Race, all with Dave Slocum and the guys at Bird's Nest.

The rounds go very fast, averaging under an hour based on the number of participants. Today I got to play with my sons (Jack, Samuel and Andrew) along with a good friend and his son. As I get older, the company around me is more important than the event...

We finished the first round of play with no metal hits and no Ace's among our group. There were a few bids, a couple of exciting flyovers, but no hits. We took a break and round two started underway. We could see some improvement, closer looks and Sammy drew the first metal hit. We were on the board. I got a metal hit a few holes later and another just a bit after that.

Now we are facing the last two holes, 35 and 36. Hole #3 (35th shot) was a 120 foot uphill basket with a treeline blocking right-handed hyzer run. I had just buzzed by this one on the first round, and I decided to make the same run again. The throw came out of my hand, traveled up hill and banked left to right and smashed chains and stayed in the basket. This Ace run would be just enough to win the event, and my first Ace Run in tournament play.

It's all about not quitting. Life is best served trying and pushing, never giving up to feeling tired, sad, overwhelmed or not the right person for the job... It's about still playing heard even when you are down to two holes left... if you haven't heard a word I have said so far... please remember this,,,,

“You may run out of time, but never run out of effort”
David Fournier

A very wise friend told me, “The first time you think about quitting, entertain the idea of quitting, it will be the hardest thing you have ever done. After that, quitting is gets easier”

Don't quit, don't give up. Be your magical moment, be someone's magical moment. Create your own comeback for the ages.

And whatever you do, don't be the guy sitting in your car when the magic happens...

Getting Jesus Back Into Christianity...

Jesus cannot be domesticated. Every time someone tries to house train Him, He breaks off the leash and starts causing trouble. We keep trying to cover Him up with our “isms”, (individualism, consumerism, Methodism, denominationalism, Catholicism, etc…), but He refuses to be covered by them. Underneath the crusts of our “isms”, the pressure of the pure gospel is slowly bursting through. You see, my friends, there is no such thing as “Gospelism”.

Even with the abundance of “Jesus Junk”, by which I mean all the stuff you can buy about Jesus, there is a current of activity swarming around Christianity that will change the face of serving Jesus forever. In the massively successful The Purpose Drive Life, people flocked to it because it loosely offered a gospel package that could be completed in 40 days. Churches everywhere ponied up huge dough to hold a “40 Day” event. But the Gospel message of Jesus cannot be contained or taught in 40 days.

What people are struggling with, or more to the point, churches are struggling with, is that serving Jesus is messy. Churches work hard to keep the membership controlled like a zoo, with certain kinds of animals in certain kinds of cages. Once you have them segregated, you can give them what they need to be cooperative in their environment. As the song says, “You Got To Keep Them Separated”.

Jesus, on the other hand, preached freedom and non-segregation. He went where the problems were, met with the people that had the problems, fixed the problems and then left the people there to help others work through the problems. Crowd compliance, comfortable religious practices and control where not top on Jesus’ priority list.

Face it, the gospel of God’s uncompromising love for His creation (all of His creation, even the socially unaccepted parts), incarnated most perfectly in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, will be just as unpredictable as the wild-eyed Messiah was Himself. Jesus absolutely refused to be domesticated by the cultural, political and theological forces of His day. That’s why the more we try to make Jesus out to be a conservative Republican, the more ridiculous we look.

More importantly, by trying to get Jesus to look whatever way we need Him to, we remove His effectiveness and availability to other groups of people. The Church has designed their programs to meet the “terms and conditions” of their congregants, and at the same time, shaped a Jesus that fits the mold.

We think we are making progress as we fight the evil of our day. The truth is, all we are doing is making the wrong people rich. Think about it, much of the “left versus the right” confrontation is a farce to prop up television rating and find a way to stuff 20 minutes worth of news into 24 hours’ worth of coverage.

We have kept radio show hosts employed, filled the treasuries of political parties, while at the same time laying off vital ministry team members so we can secure our church mortgage so we have a rallying point to fight this axis of evil.

But people in the pews are checking out, becoming savvy to the moral bankruptcy they see on both sides of the “debate”. They didn’t sign on to be the world’s moral police department, they signed on to make an impact in assisting the restoration of the world.

Now enters Jesus.

Brian McLaren says, “Either Christianity itself is flawed, failing or untrue, or our modern, Western, commercialized, industrial strength version of it is in need of a fresh look, a serious revision.”

I think McLaren is close, but I don’t find the answer in any kind a revision of today’s Christianity. It will take a complete overhaul, including but not stopping at a restructuring of clergy and a return to congregational accountability for their own growth and spiritual learning.

While this may sound like a daunting task, it can be accomplished by returning to the model of discipleship as taught and demonstrated by Jesus. Our best estimates tell us there are about 225 million people in America that see themselves somehow and someway attached or affiliated to a church. The question isn’t how many professing Christians there are, the real question is what level of commitment they have to their churches. Herein lies the issue.

Now enters Jesus.

It’s not God who is dead. In the 21st Century, it is the church that is dead. At the very least, the conventional forms of church. Our elaborate edifices, our professional clergy, denominational bureaucracies and residential seminary training are failing to serve the needs of today’s spiritual communities and are working in unison to further push the radical and life changing message of Jesus out the door.

As the very fabric of the denominations is tearing apart, we can still bring a vibrant and radical Jesus to the forefront. We are challenged to stop preaching sermons and start living them. By letting Jesus out of the cage of our own design, He will help us repair our current landscape and then get back to the business of His work: Repairing the World.

David Fournier in the Senior Instructor at Restoring Grace. David teaches classes on Hebraic Perspectives, Jewish Mysticism (Kabbalah), Early Christian Communities and New Testament Formations and Canon. David is available for your church, youth group, seminars and retreats. Email David at: dfour26@gmail.com

A Home for the Restless (revised)

A Home for the Restless
David Fournier, Restoring Grace

Song-Still Breathing
“As I walked out on the ledge
Are you scared to death to live?
I've been running all my life
Just to find a home that's for the restless
And the truth that's in the message
Making my way, away, away”
Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day

I have failed. Looking back over my life, I realized I bought into the idea of the world needing to be saved, hook, line and sinker. I truly believed that we could all live a life of endless happiness with a simple conversion to Christianity. I was convinced that people who suffered from issues, had problems in their lives, disease and depression, have these problems because they were somehow disconnected from Jesus. If they would repent-turn around and increase their faith (along with Bible reading, tithing and church attendance) all things would go well.

As I grew older, my life became more complicated. I got married, had children, worked for a living, went to church, became a pastor, you know, all the right things. I was sure that God was blessing me and I was on the right path. What I failed to realize is that life is messy, and I needed to be okay with messy. The messier it got, the more frustrated I became and I started making really poor decisions. My decisions had huge impact on my family, my friends and the people that believed I was leading them in the right direction.

I don’t mean this article to be a confession of all my life failures, I am pretty sure it would take volumes to describe and even more volumes to ask forgiveness. The point of this article is to address the fact that I realize that all life, everyone’s life, is a very difficult boat to row. As I have aged, I am learning a whole new set of tools that help me adjust and understand the challenges that lie ahead and be able to embrace the fact that life is messy, difficult and restless.

I am perplexed by the things I believed were the end of the world. The battles over religious issues, who keeps putting the milk back in the fridge empty, what is acceptable behavior by my children out in public, who actually let the dogs out, and now the new and improved social-media-political-experts, rage on like wildfire. Now I look back and realize I was trying to place my life in an acceptable order, looking good on the outside and hoping that it would make my life good on the inside.

The ultimate irony is I have become the person I used to preach against.

Believing that people with problems are somehow “spiritual deficient” I distanced myself from them, often accusing them of their lack of religious authenticity. I am not just a hypocrite, I am a failed hypocrite. But in my failure, came a version of myself that while I am not that person I would suggest anyone follows (I often say I am a poor example of a Christian), I feel for the first time in my life, is genuine.

It became genuine when I realized that life is restless and I needed a home for the restless. We are not perfect, we won’t become perfect anytime soon, and my lack of perfection gives me more reason to be patient, loving and understanding with the people around me. Instead of pretending that all is well, my life is in order and hide my reality to project a successful spiritual image, I have embraced the fact that for me, I have been scared to death to live, to admit my failures and move on from them.

Picture Jesus, who lives a life from the documents we have about him, for the benefit of others, cared for people, healed people, fed people. In the end, he is nailed to a cross for his efforts, a sign that here is what happens to people who step out of the accepted norms. But even in the writings of Jesus, we sense that restlessness, the feeling that he too was somehow far from home. And he talks about all of us finding the end to our restlessness in a Kingdom where restlessness is embraced and welcomed.

I guess I make for a poor fundamentalist. I don’t pretend to have all the answers and I know that I will struggle with them for my entire life. What has changed for me is the understanding that not only is the struggle for real, it is okay. New Testament author Paul says we are to “struggle” with our salvation, to work it out with” fear and trembling”. Sure enough, one of the most prolific contributors to the New Testament tells us it will be messy.

Leave it to me to find inspiration in the lyrics of Green Day, but this is far from my first time with them. Somehow we have dressed up our faith so clean and tidy we have forgotten the daily battles and struggles that we all face. This is creating a squeaky clean version of the faith that has pushed away the people that feel like they will never measure up, never feel welcome among the ranks. We have been sucked into a societal influence that dictates how we will measure our success. How may times have heard someone say “this isn’t where I thought I would be at this point of my life”? Here is the good news, you are still alive and where there is life, there is hope. Even if it is messy.

For me, all the efforts I spent in “projecting an image of success and spirituality” was a waste of precious life and resources. I want to be at home with my restlessness, with my failures, with my life. I don’t have a hundred years left to figure it out. I want the “truth that is in the message”, so true and with so much clarity that no one needs to explain to me and justify it to me. Truth: like being kind, sharing, caring for those in need, exercising love and not judgment. You know, these kinds of truths.

We can all improve our lives by being who we are and as we are. Remove the vexation of the spiritual pressures of the outside world revel in the simple truth, Jesus loves you just as you are, right now and forever.

David Fournier in the Senior Instructor at Restoring Grace. David teaches classes on Hebraic Perspectives, Early Christian Communities and New Testament Formations and Canon. David is available for your church, youth group, seminars and retreats. Email David at: dfour26@gmail.com

What if God was All of Us???

In the hit series by HBO called Game of Thrones, the characters range from violent killers to seductive maidens. Murder, deceit, failed overthrows and surprise killings mark the series from opening moment to end of episode. One of the constant themes of the show has to do with various alliances to different gods. There are single god believers, multiple god believers and of course, the ever mischievous followers of the “Lord of Light”.

These different believers and their differing belief systems will gladly toss off your head or kill a village of innocents based on the “readings” they get from their god(s). Sound familiar?

By the way, there are also dragons, but that doesn’t really fit into this article.

The fact of the matter is that throughout human history, people have done what they believed to be “acts” required of them or instructed to them by their god(s). For example:

Chants of “Allah Akbar” (God is Great) are chanted while women and children are beheaded for being “impure believers”

1359 CE- 350 towns in Germany murder Jews by burning them alive for being “Christ Killers”. In this year alone, more Jews are killed than the entire 200-year period of Roman persecution of the “Christians”. (Also killings performed in the name of the Lord Caesar).

1648 CE, 200,000 (read it again) 200,000 killed the area of Chiemlnitzki, Poland, during a “purging” of Christians

Era of the Witch Burnings- 1484-1750 (approx.)

Several hundred thousand killed, with books published by the church on how to discover, interrogate, torture and eventually execute witches. Historical records estimate that 70-80% of those killed were women.

1580 CE, Jean Borden writes in his instructions, Punishment Deserved by Witches, “Don’t wait for solid evidence to begin examination, torture or punishment, for if we did, only one in a million would be punished”. The reason Jean Borden gave for this type of enforcement? To appease God, of course.

I point out these examples because as we all know, violence in the name of god(s) has millions of examples and as it seems, no known cure. I picked these examples because they rank from modern cases to relatively unknown events.

There is no way humanly possible that we could absorb all the death, destruction, genocide, murder, war, rape, torture, and reckless use of natural resources, poverty and evil that has been performed by humans in the name(s) of god(s). We even go to war over which one of these god(s) is the true god…

Simply put, I reject in all cases and forms of religious practice that any god, a deity with creative powers and loving concern for their creation, is capable of requiring or even asking their followers to commit acts of atrocities against other humans. I believe that religions today are following a god(s) they created in their image, not the other way around. Here are a few examples:



When your god agrees with your theology, your beliefs, condones all you condone and hates what you hate, at the expense of all others

We have a god in our own image

When some of your god’s rules and laws apply to you and some don’t

We have a god in our own image

When your service to your god benefits your life, your finances, that god is your personal god (like a personal pizza, all about you)

We have a god in our own image


When your god is the one true god to the exclusion of all others

We have a god in our own image


When your god has you charging admission to your “worship” events

We have a god in our own image


When your god has you using a pulpit or teaching in a sacred space to assist in the election of public officials (who by the way would undoubtedly support your god’s view)

We have a god in our own image

While advances in modern science, history, geology, biology and physics have given us greater insights into humanity and understanding our origins, you would prefer to listen to some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in tongues

We have a god in our own image

Still here?

When it comes to thoughts about god(s), people are just making this stuff up. Much to the detriment of humanity, people are assuming the role of god(s), speaking for god(s) and the effect is horrific. As a country, as a faith group, as people of the world, we have never been more separated, confused and isolated, regardless of what Google tells you.


Do we create god(s) in our own fearful images?


A study conducted by Nicholas Epley at the University of Chicago and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, asked people who believed in the Abrahamic God for their opinions on controversial issues such as abortion, death penalty and same-sex marriage. They were asked what they believed the views of God, of ordinary Americans, and of well-known public figures were. Perhaps not surprisingly, their own views most closely resembled what they regarded as God’s views (even though those views were different from believer to believer)


The experimenters scanned believers’ brains while they were thinking about their own views, those they ascribed to God, and those they ascribed to “average Americans”. The experimenters found that when the believers thought about their own their own views or God’s, the same area of the brain was active. But when they thought about the views of other people, a different area of the brain-an area associated with discerning the mental states of others-was active.

The experiment lends itself to a single conclusion: While people can readily make a distinction between their views and those of other people, they are far less likely to make a distinction between their views and God’s. Basically, people map God’s beliefs (as they see them) onto their own. This necessarily wouldn’t be a bad thing unless of course you actually read the beginning sections of this article.

I am not trying to make a point about; 1) There is no God, as I believe in God. 2) It’s not always bad to have your ideology congruent with your belief and practice of your God, (unless of course this includes beheading or acts of violence), 3) All gods are man-made gods. There are man-made gods, like the god of Creflo Dollar, who needs a 68 million dollar airplane to spread the gospel around the world. (Seems inefficient, can’t we train people in those areas and let them spread the gospel?)

With all this available “god-help”, there are a few unanswered questions for me. Why does mankind find itself lost in a disordered world overrun by chaos, an existence riddled with pain and unspeakable suffering? Why do we find ourselves in a material dimension that knows only decay and death, a reality governed by the Law of Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that everything must deteriorate and corrode over time?

Something went wrong.



Somewhere along the line there was a disconnection. Mankind lost touch with its true origins. All of us, forgot about God and starting developing religions to assist us in understanding God, but later these religions served to erase God and insert mankind as the new and improved version of god(s).

How can we recover from our path of personal deity and return to God? What can we begin to work on right away that can start to turn the tide from a man-run religious effort to a God-based lifestyle?

Fair warning as we move forward. I am a Christian (albeit a very poor example of one), so I am going to approach this from a Christian understanding. You can insert any teachings or ideas from your own faith traditions that make sense.

First, Yeshua (aka Jesus), a Jewish Rabbi from the 1st Century taught several God-like lessons. One of His greatest (my opinion here) was Jesus instructing us to “bless our enemies, bless and curse not”. This is a godly trait. Praying for your enemies often relieves the feeling you need to kill them. Understanding that all mankind has a place in this universe and that all mankind (regardless of the choices they make) are God’s creation helps us to act out godliness, which in my mind is the core element of the New Testament documents.

Second, quit confusing the kingdoms. Obviously God lives in another Kingdom, a spiritual realm and by most standards, plans to guide us through our human existence to a time where His Kingdom will reign and this earthly kingdom will be over. We cannot and nor should we in the name of our god(s), God, attempt to legislate morality based on our Scriptures, doctrine and dogma. There will be a time and place for Kingdom rule, but here on earth we are to live out our days helping people see the benefits of godly living rather than clubbing religious ideals (which vary widely from one Christianity to another) into the ballot boxes.

Do you realize we could legislate all the right morals, elect all the right officials and not come close to any of the instructions left by Jesus?

Lastly, most religious groups hold to some kind of an idea that the world will end and their group (of course) will have a huge supper celebrating the ultimate defeat of evil. I like a good meal as much as the next guy, but I think it’s an adventure of missing the point.

Is it possible that the people of this world would at some point come to a realization: We aren’t suffering from a lack of religions. We are suffering from a lack of compassion. Endless reports of poverty, poor living conditions, unfair wages, slave trading, global war and so on tell us that whatever our belief in our god(s) may be, it is translating to very little difference in the world.

There can be no greater proof of a Living God that cares for His creation then people who claim to follow that God caring for His creation. If you belief in God leads you any other direction, I suggest that you have created a god in your own image.

In the Book of Psalms, attributed the King David, the Psalmist says, “I would have fainted unless I had longed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”.

I can’t speak for God and I wish preachers and the self-anointed/self-appointed would stop speaking for Him. I can only be His action here on earth. That leads me to believe that God would want me to love, nourish and support His creation. Because, that’s what I believe He is doing.