Gift of Gifts

GIFT OF GIFTS

Jesus told his disciples before He was crucified, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for hid friends” (John 15:13). The Greek is much stronger, “No one has greater love than the one that sacrifices his soul for his friends.” The text implies that such a friend will go to hell to save his friends. These were the strongest words Jesus spoke and they indicate how important the soul of a human being is in the eyes of God. Jesus set the example Himself and His sacrifice became the heart of Christianity. Christians are called upon to give their lives and not take lives (Matthew 16:24-28).

There is no greater task for man than to preserve the gift of life. In recent days, we have seen religious people ravage in the name of God. Jesus predicted that these killers would come and think they are serving God (John 16:2). Jesus vehemently insisted that such actions were of the devil and those that do it were his children (John 8:42-47). Such individuals lived by the sword and they would die by the sword (Matthew 26:52). Anyone that took a life deliberately lost his or her own (Matthew 10:39). The God Jesus proclaimed and represented was a God of the living and not of the dead (Matthew 22:32). And how did Jesus assess such misguided people? He prayed for them and asked His Heavenly Father to forgive them for they did not know what they were doing (Luke 23:34).

Why did Jesus forgive these soldiers that did the dirty work? They were only carrying out the orders of their superiors. The source of the crime was the Jewish leaders and not even the Roman Governor (John 19:11). The bad mistake our leaders are making is assigning these religious atrocities to individuals and not to the religious hierarchy and system that teaches their adherence to kill in order to go to heaven. These dead squads cannot be separated from their religion. It has been successful for fifteen centuries, what makes us think that our psychologists, psychiatrist, politically correct politicians, and misguided Christians can persuade Muslims to like us? The world is their target and Christians in particular. First, Europe stood in their way and then the U.S.A. Now that we have a President that sides with Islam should we be surprised what our future shall be like?

We had chickens on the farm during my childhood and youth. We had a henhouse with small doors and ladders leading up and in. We children were told, “Do not let the fox into the henhouse.” Guess what happened?