Little minds breed big problems!!!

One day a man was walking down the road, he saw a guy in trouble whom he knew and did not like, the guys shopping bags had ripped and his shopping was all over the road. The man though about laughing and shouting out "hey stupid, what ya done" but decided against it, as the other guy was considerably larger than him. Anyways when the smaller guy got home, he went online and laid into this person, whom he actually knew little about or cared for in reality, unless it was getting his own opinion across, and he knew his opinion was correct and right. He spent 3 hours berating the guy for his stupidity, he went all out, name calling (but I'm only joking) he was just darn right mean, even questioning the guys morals and beliefs (even though he did not know them at all). As it happens in life the small guy needed help one day when his car had broken down( lack of fuel) it was raining heavily, he was in pain due to trying to push the car with a heart condition and nobody was stopping to help. He spied the big guy coming across the road towards him, feeling for his life he jumped in the car and locked it down. The guy knocked on the window, and asked what was up? he explained" the car aint running" "pop the bonnet bud and i will have a look" he knew there was little point in popping the bonnet "look i ran out of petrol and i feel like an idiot for doing so" the big guy shrugged his shoulders and said " we have all done it at some stage" and started pushing him to the garage down the road, when they got there he just left and never waited for thanks or reward. The small guy (in both mind and stature) had no idea what to do, "maybe just maybe i need to stop being so judgemental, maybe i need to stop having the last word, just maybe i need to become more human".

We all judge on a whim, we say things which hurt and don't actually mean to hurt anyone, but we do. We think we are right each and every time, and the simple truth is we are not always right, we do not hold all truth and knowledge in our brains. Sometimes we need to do one thing and one thing only and that my friends is SHUT THE HELL UP, and give someone else a chance to have their say, who knows we/you/i may actually learn something, and it might actually help us move on in life!!!

Justice comes with a price tag

There is lots of talk about God being by his very nature love, and i have no disagreement with that, but there is another side of the coin, which is sometimes God does something we may not like, and we mistakingly believe he is not acting in love towards us. There has to be another side to the nature of love, there are times tough love for a better word comes into play, if it does not i think love is unbalanced and heres why. If my son is doing something which can harm him, i need to step in and stop what is going on, now he maybe enjoying what he is doing, but if due to the situation its going to harm him, i have to do something, to not do it would be a massive dereliction of my parenting skills and a massive let down of my sons trust in me. You see when we only talk about God being a God of love we miss other aspects of his character, we miss those parenting parts which are there for our benefit, even if we don't like them. Obviously we focus on love as thats what we are as human beings, we crave love, we crave intimacy its in our nature its that simple. But we do have to look at that other side of the coin, for justice to work at times its going to cost something, pride may need to take a back seat, it may require us to be disciplined in some way, and that by its nature is not going to be great while its happening or even when its finished. If we take the view that God is father then discipline and judgement needs to happen at times, we can't escape it, it is i would posit an inevitability that it will happen. Does that mean God no longer loves us, no it means he is doing his job of caring for us. That act took its full conclusion in the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross, it cost something for justice to be given out, it cost God and it cost Jesus. You see for us to stand clean before him, we had to have a sacrifice, we had to do something and we need to act upon it. Justice has a price, it just depends on what that price is for us as individuals, Yes God is righteous, he is just, he is all forgiving, he loves and he cares, but to have a full restoration back to him, something happened justice was given out and it cost. Yes God is love, but he is also judge, he is also fair, we may not see it at times and we can cart a word of hurt around with us due to how something went on in our lives and we feel that we have not been justly dealt with. God is always going to be fair in his distribution of justice, whether we see it that way depends on the answer or result we get. If we get our own way God has done right, if for some reason God decides we don't get the answer we want, God has failed, God has let us down and he is no longer to be trusted and far too many of us think that way. Its a great cliche but a truism as well " If Jesus is Lord he is Lord of all" that means he is Lord of the good times and more importantly Lord of the bad times, we just need to relearn trust in him, thats not as easy as it sounds but it can be done. Sometimes we over analyse the little things, and miss the big picture, and its the big picture which is important, the big picture is the kingdom and its long term aim. Our corner of the picture as important as it is to us is not the be all and end all, even if we think it is.