Thursday 13 September 2018

It's not about

It’s not about
Sometime ago I posted this short story. It’s called The Eleven O Clock Parable.
I got various reactions some missed the mark about what I was saying. Some completely got it. I put it here for you to read. At the end of which is my interpretation.
The Eleven O Clock Prayer
It’s eleven o clock. Inside the court house a judge is about to make his ruling. A community, a nation, waits. 
Will the new law be legal? 
Outside the court house men and women with placards chant. 
On one side of the street stand a group of gay men and women. All in favour of the new law.
On the other side of the street separated by a line of police stand radical men and women calling themselves Christians, denouncing the new law.
One man among them screams angrily . “HOMOSEXUALS ARE GOING TO HELL!!!”
Approached by the media he says it again, “homosexuals are going to Hell.” 
From my office window I watch asking myself the question, ‘is this man an Christian?”
Wasn’t it Christ who told us not only to love our neighbour but our enemy also?
Wasn’t it Christ who told us not to judge, lest we be judged likewise?
Wasn’t it Christ who said go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation?
Is this man showing love?
Is this man judging another? 
Can this man be effective in reaching the whole world of which a percentage are homosexual?
Is this man even a Christian?
A questions keeps rolling through my mind for which I know the answer, “Can we truly know what is in someone else’s head?
Do we really know why a person is the way they are?”
For a moment I stare down at the crowd. All the time asking myself who is on the way to Hell this day, and how can I reach them for my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
Turning away from my window I kneel down and pray, “Lord guide me this day. Let me make the right decision on this law.”
The point of the story is not about the judge. About whether the judge follows the rule of law or follows his conscience.
The Point is summed up in the words of Jesus who said,
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:12.
Would those claiming to be Christians protesting outside the judges office want those who disagree with them protesting in front of a judges office who had to decide a law that favoured Christians?
Would these people want others protesting against their rights given to them by a duly elected government in a secular democracy such as we live in?
Read the words of Jesus again,
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:12.
If you claim to be Christian, a follower of Christ Jesus the ramifications of that statement are enormous. Your very words and deeds are telling others what they can do to you.
Please think about it. 

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