The Love of God

God Does Not Love the World

Now that I got your attention... He does love the world, but... Here is the set up

We were talking many months ago about lovingly seeking to restore a fellow believer trapped by sin. In that message, I asked "how can calling a brother to give an account be a loving thing? It seems judgmental." We then went to Hebrews 12 where God is shown to be a Father who lovingly disciplines His children. The text actually reads "because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.  Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?  If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all." (v 6-8, NIV).  I then said "see the Lord disciplines the one He loves, if He is not disciplining you, it is because He does not love you."

Now you might ask, "does not God love everyone? after all for God so loved the world... (John 3:16)"

Great question.  Here's the Biblical answer.

God loves everyone; He loves the whole world.  He longs for all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  This is a general, unparticular love.  God is omniscient and knows everyone intimately (Psalm 139:1-24).  If God loves the world the way He loves children, it diminishes the special love He has for His children.  

God reserves a special, particular, unique love for His children.  This is not unlike each of us who love our children and love our country, but we love our children in a different, deeper way than we love our country.  With God, the infinite One, He loves the world with a deeper love than we love our country AND likewise, He loves His children with a deeper love than we love our children.  But this infinitude does not mean that He loves the world with the same intensity that He loves His children.

A few Scriptures to illustrate this distinction in His love

God looks on the unsaved with wrath

Jesus said "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36).

Paul wrote "But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Romans 2:5).

"So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God" (Revelation 14:19).

"Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, 'Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.'" (Revelation 16:17).

"The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath" (Revelation 16:19).

"From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty" (Revelation 19:15).


God no longer sets His wrath on those who trust Jesus

"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him" (Romans 5:9).

Rather, God loves His children uniquely and particularly

"But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Titus 3:4-6).  Notice the timing here "when the love of God appeared He saved us".  This is a unique directional love pointed at the individual God chooses to save.

"neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39).  We have God's love IN Jesus, this is a love we His children have, not a love outsiders yet experience.

Jesus speaking of the Pharisees said "but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts." (John 5:42)  (An interesting debate might be over "love of God".  Is that love for God or love from God.  A similar debate to Romans 1:16-17 regarding "the righteousness of God is revealed"  see this previous post on that.)

and again the verse we began with from Hebrews 12 "because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.  ...  If you are not disciplined... then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all" (Hebrews 12:6+8).  There are those who are God's children and those who are not.  The ones that are, He loves and therefore disciplines.  The ones that are not, He does not discipline because He has not set His love on them as Jesus said of the Pharisees in the previous passage "the love of God is not in your hearts."


In Summary

God loves everyone inside and outside His family.  He has a unique and intimately deep love for individuals inside His family.  Those outside do not experience this level of His love.

If you are outside of faith and feeling unloved right now... receive God's love by asking Jesus to
forgive you.  He died on the cross to cleanse you from guilt and to remove God's wrath from you.  As we read in Galatians 2:20 "...the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me."  Receive Him and you will receive God's special unique Fatherly love!

Church Tech

Intro

We did a trial run streaming the video of our whole worship gathering this past Sunday.  We're going to run a few trials and then go live with it a few weeks from now.  Some of my Facebook friends thought I should blog about how we're doing the tech side of this ministry.  So here goes.

Recording Sermons for Later Playback

We've been recording video of our sermons for a year and a half.  I made this video when we were in our old sanctuary. 



it walks you through recording your sermon / service and uploading it to vimeo.com.  Upstart costs are $150 the first year (hardware and vimeo subscription).  $60 per year after that (just vimeo).  So cheap, why not go for it now!?!

Asundry Upgrades from There

We did it on the cheap to prove the concept and to weigh the cost vs. return.  Over time, you add a little embellishment here or there.  Fast-forward a year and a half, we're doing things a little more sophisticated these days.  We use a HD camcorder tied to a PC via HDMI cable and a capture card.  The sound board feeds to the PC through line-in on the PC sound card.  The capture card was $90.  The camera was $500 (the newer model of this camera is now $390).  Software came with the capture card.

Live Worship Gathering Online

Now we are talking about live video.  We're still using all the same hardware but adding some components.  We are adding a second camera plus what displays on the projector for a three-shot setup.  We built our own pc that exclusively handles the video streaming.  Specs are forthcoming. 

Hardware

Two Cameras.  We already had one camcorder, we got another that is comparable.  The original one is in the window sill of our AV room which looks down from the center aisle on the sanctuary.  It's HDMI output runs to the Streaming PC and connects to the HDMI input on one of our AVer capture cards.  The new camera is a Canon Vixia HF R300 HD camera and will go in the front pew, halfway from the center aisle to the side of the sanctuary.  It's HDMI output will also run to the the Streaming PC.  However, because it is about 60 feet back and 20 feet up to the pc, and HDMI can only travel maybe 30 feet at best, we need a HDMI extender.  We use this HDMI Extender Wallplate from TrippLite.  We already us use it to pipe our video into the nursery (120' span) as well as our Presenter PC to our projectors (50' span). 

Three Capture Cards.  As mentioned above, we have three of these AVer capture cards.  One for camera one.  Another for camera two, a third for the Presenter PC's output so the web audience can see what the in-person congregation sees on the projectors.

Lots of Cat5e cable.  Each HDMI extender wallplate needs two lengths of CAT5e cable.  One is for the signal and one is for power.

PC.  We built our own computer with a six-core AMD FX-6300 cpu, 16gb of DDR3 RAM, a 1tb 7200rpm hard drive, and two 20" monitors.  The three capture cards are internal as well.  These parts plus Windows 7 64-bit OS cost us $600.

Software

To switch between all these shots in realtime, we are using a software program called Wirecast.  It can switch between all the different shots with cool transitions, Picture-in-Picture, Chromakey, as well as playback video files from the PC.  Then it takes the result and broadcasts it to your streaming service.  It costs $995, but we used a coupon code we found by googling "Wirecast coupon code" and got 10% off, for a final cost of $895.50.  We went with Pro rather than the cheaper version because we wanted to take audio from the sound card's line-in rather than from the camera.  Only Pro version lets you do that.

Of course, you can do it for FREE if you want a single shot production.  You can download Adobe's Flash Media Live Encoder for free and use it with Amazon EC2 instead of using Wirecast.  But you cannot switch video or audio settings during the broadcast.  If you had a hardware video switcher this wouldnt be a problem, but hardware switchers are somewhere from $5,000 - 50,000.  Wirecast begins to look pretty good for multiple shots.

Streaming Service

Streaming services are ridiculously expensive if you want to avoid commercials for your end-users (and you do want to avoid commercials).  But in googling for cheap alternatives, I found this blog that does a step-by-step using Amazon's cloud services

Downside of Amazon?  It's complicated.  I feel comfortable with the steps now, after using it a couple times.  But less techy people will definitely find it more cumbersome than Livestream, Justin.tv, or one of the others.  So the trade-off is more cash = more ease or less cash = less ease.  Like everything else in life.  Aside from cost, another benefit of Amazon is no branding.  These other services put their watermark on the video player.  I prefer the least amount of branding.  This is one major reason we went to vimeo rather than youtube for our sermon videos.

These instructions from the blog above allows you to do it for less than $20 per month. It's a flat $5 per month plus per hour of lease time and per mb of transfer. For example, last Sunday cost us $1.30. Half of that cost was us uploading the worship gathering to Amazon and the other half of that was us downloading the worship gathering to a viewing PC. We only had one viewer because we are still in trial and didnt make the URL publically available. So according to my math, 720p streaming costs  65 cents per viewer times the number of viewers you have. 

Jesus: on Hell

Intro

In today's sermon, we examine Jesus' teaching on who's in the kingdom and who's out. He brings up the reality of hell: eternal conscious torment of sinful mankind. Below are some resources for you to continue your investigation into this teaching. Feel free to contact me to discuss anything you have concern about.

The Doctrine of the Bible Fellowship Church

Article 26 - The Judgments

26-1. The Scriptures enumerate several judgments that differ in time, place, subjects, and results. All judgment has been entrusted to the Son by the Father.1

26-2. Through the death of Christ on the cross, the believer's sins have been judged, and he has passed from death unto life.2 In no case do the redeemed come again into judgment concerning their eternal destiny. Each saint, however, will be required to give an account before the judgment seat of Christ regarding his works and conduct.3

26-3.The unregenerate will be judged, condemned, and banished to eternal damnation in the lake of fire.4

1 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son (John 5:22).

2 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life (John 5:24).

3 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom.8:1). For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Cor.5:10).

4 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev.20:11-15).

Article 28 - The Eternal State

28-1. There are two final, eternal destinies for man: heaven for the righteous and penitent, and hell for the unrighteous and impenitent.1 At the great white throne judgment, all of the enemies of God will be consigned to the place of eternal conscious punishment, from which there is no escape.2 The new heavens and the new earth shall be created3 as the final state in which the righteous shall dwell forever in the presence of God.4

1 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life (Mat.25:46).

2 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no
place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev.20:11-15).

3 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:10-13).

4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God (Rev.21:3).

Read our whole Doctrinal statement here

Links

Books

Orthodox

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

God Wins: Heaven, Hell, and Why the Good News is Better than Love Wins by Mark Galli and Randy Alcorn

Erasing Hell: What God Said About Eternity, and the Things We Made Up by Francis Chan

Erasing Hell promo video

In Error

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell

The Last Word and the Word after That: A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity by Brain McLaren

Webpages

If I Don't Preach on Hell by Jeff Hamilton of La Vista Church of Christ

The Teaching on Jesus Concerning Hell by RC Foster

What Did Jesus Christ Teach About Hell? by Kato Mivule

a Response to Prof Cox's Letter in the Morning Call

Several weeks ago, Paul Carpenter wrote an editorial in the Morning Call about the Bible and abortion. I added my two cents in the following week. In the continuing saga, an OT Professor at Moravian took me to task. Below is his letter in the July 22 Morning Call and my response to him.

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First, Professor Cox's Letter in the Morning Call

read it here

Biblical passage addresses abortion

Recent discussion in the Town Square pages about abortion in the Bible has overlooked the only specific mention of it there, found in Numbers 5:11-31. It is a case law:

A wife suspected of adultery by her husband is brought to the priest, who requires her to submit to a prescribed procedure. She is made to drink a potion of water mixed with some of the dust from the floor of the tabernacle. She is told that if she is guilty it is intended to create bitter pain, which no doubt — regardless of her guilt — it does. Further, it is intended to discharge what is in her womb, which no doubt it does. However, if she is innocent, "she shall be exempt from punishment and shall be able to bear children."

This passage is a clear example of the need to read a literary unit of the Bible within its own historical context. What was at stake in ancient Israel was the integrity of the family and the purity of the blood line. The genealogies emphasize the importance of the ancestral lineage. While biblical families always treasured births, circumstances could require abortion for the sake of the integrity of the family.

Bethlehem
The writer is a professor emeritus
of the Old Testament at
Moravian Theological Seminary.

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My Response:

Professor Cox brings up an interesting text for us to consider. The headline invites the reader to believe that the Bible does address abortion in a favorable light. His comments go on to drive this point home, when he concludes "while biblical families always treasured births, circumstances could require abortion for the sake of the integrity of the family." What circumstances might "require" abortion according to Prof. Cox? A child conceived through adultery. He uses Numbers 5:11-31 as his text.

The mistake he made with using this text to validate his argument is basic: the text does not say that the wife's unfaithfulness caused a pregnancy. It simply says "you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you" (Numbers 5:20). Prof. Cox furthers his incorrect argument by asserting that this ceremonial potion "is intended to discharge what is in her womb." Where does the text say that?

First, the text does not say that she is pregnant. Second, the text does not say that this ceremony aborts the pregnancy. Third, the Bible is not, as Prof. Cox asserts, interested in preserving "the integrity of the family and the purity of the bloodline" through the means of abortion but rather through the means of marital faithfulness.

This text is not about abortion as Prof. Cox's headline would have the reader believe. This text is about adultery and the jealousy of the wounded party. God cares that marriages are safe, happy, and playful. When a spouse believes they have been cheated on yet they have no proof, God can put your racing mind at ease so that your marriage can continue to be safe, happy, and playful with renewed mutual trust.

Timothy Schmoyer

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NOTE: I am sending my response to Professor Cox and I'm posting it here. I do not intend to send it in to the Call. I think they are tired of it. I'm frankly disinterested in writing on it. I'm much more interested in the Gospel than this issue. Priorities... priorities...

Rebuttal - FINAL COPY

My last post was a letter I wrote to the editor of the Morning Call. It was a response to Paul Carpenter's Father's Day editorial entitled "Biblical rule on abortion is unclear." The Editor said I could get it published if I cut it to 725 words, so here it is. Still good... not as good.

Here is the original article.

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A Rebuttal of Paul Carpenter's "Biblical rule on abortion is confusing"
by Timothy Schmoyer
June 22, 2011

Paul Carpenter's editorial attempts to make the case that the Bible is vague on abortion. Yet Mr. Carpenter, while admitting he is no Bible scholar, inaccurately portrays biblical teachings. I am a biblical scholar and would like to bring clarity to what Mr. Carpenter falsely calls “unclear”. As a Christian pastor, I whole-heartedly agree with Mr. Carpenter's main point as shown through these statements: "I [decry] efforts to impose religious dogma on others by force" and "no law governing abortion or anything else should ever be enacted just because of a narrow ideological doctrine." While the faithful gladly obey what God teaches them, sincere Christians have always insisted that obedience comes from what God does in one's heart, not by what one man forces on another.

The biblical case is that "personhood" begins at conception. Mr. Carpenter questions this using Genesis 2:7: "God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and in this way man became a living being." Certainly the first man, Adam, was not alive until God breathed life into him. Yet, Adam's creation is not the normal way life is brought into the world. The Psalms hold more helpful texts which address when life begins. As David considers God's immense devotion to humankind, he writes in Psalm 139:13-14, "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Also, while confessing his sin to God, David declares in Psalm 51:5, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." How can it be that I am both wonderfully made by God AND AT THE SAME TIME sinful since conception? The answer lies in a God of love who wants to free, rescue, restore, and do more with us than we could do alone. Religious people take abortion seriously because we long to see what a God of Redemption could do in that life if only it'd be given a chance to continue living.

Next, Mr. Carpenter addresses Deuteronomy 12:23 which warns against drinking animal blood as pagan worship, since "life is in the blood". Can we say that to kill an unborn human before it has blood is okay since "life is in the blood"? Talking this way makes the whole debate a farce. We shouldn't take a verse about animal blood to answer the question of when human life begins, as Mr. Carpenter wrongly attempts.

Third, Mr. Carpenter references Exodus 21:22-24 where Moses gives case law for personal injury: if two people are fighting and one accidently strikes a bystanding pregnant woman and the pregnancy is lost, there must be restitution. Notice the accidental aspect to the passage. In Old Testament case law, if a man kills another man accidently, he is not to be executed (Numbers 35:13-28). There is a clear distinction Biblically between willful decision and unintentional accidents. Abortion is an intentional decision and not an accidental ending of life; therefore, Mr. Carpenter's use of Exodus 21:22-24 does not add to the abortion debate.

Finally, I would like to respond to Mr. Carpenter’s slapstick treatment of Genesis 38, though the passage has no relation to the issue of abortion. Onan's selfish sin illustrates a lack of care for the helpless. In those days, society provided for widows through their children. If a man died leaving his wife childless, his brother would marry her and give her children (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Onan shrugged his responsibility towards his sister-in-law. This passage is one of many in which we see God’s immense concern with the helpless in society (Deuteronomy 10:18, 14:29, 24:17; Luke 18:16; James 1:27, to name a few more).

I encourage readers to view Christianity through a different lens. Christians are not anti-abortion or even pro-life. Christians are pro-Gospel. The Gospel (Good News) started by our leader, Jesus Christ, is a message that is far more holistic and uplifting than one specific issue. Our message is one of gracious love and eager forgiveness, not hateful condemnation. Christians are not interested in changing lawbooks, but hearts. We are not interested in exerting power over those outside faith; we are eager to introduce Divine power to those outside faith. We see God doing that one heart and mind at a time.

A Rebuttal to "Biblical Rule on Abortion is Confusing"

On the Father's Day edition of the Morning Call, columnist Paul Carpenter wrote an editorial entitled "Biblical Rule on Abortion is Confusing." My fear is not the content of the column, but rather that readers glance over the headlines and see "Bible" and "Confusing", cementing further their rationale for never picking up the Book.

Here is a link to the original article.

Below is my response

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A Rebuttal of Paul Carpenter's "Biblical rule on abortion is confusing"
by Timothy Schmoyer
June 22, 2011

I am writing in response to Paul Carpenter's editorial entitled "Biblical rule on abortion is confusing" published in the Morning Call on Sunday, June 19, 2011. Mr. Carpenter attempts to make the case that the Bible is vague on abortion. I would like to share the meaning of the Biblical passages he chose.

Let me first say that I whole-heartedly agree with Mr. Carpenter's main point when he writes "I [decry] efforts to impose religious dogma on others by force" and later "no law governing abortion or anything else should ever be enacted just because of a narrow ideological doctrine." As a Christian pastor, I agree 100% with these statements. While those inside the faith gladly obey what God teaches them, sincere Christians have always insisted that obedience comes from what God does in one's heart, and not by what one man forces on another by the sword. This is the fundamental of the American experiment, which is birthed out of Christians pursuing a land of liberty where they could believe, live, and govern as they understood Scripture.

While I concede to the greater argument, Mr. Carpenter spends much time inaccurately portraying the teachings of the Bible. He goes to some lengths to point out what the Bible does and does not say about abortion, while admitting he is no Bible scholar. I, however, am a Biblical scholar and would like to bring accurate interpretation to the attention of the reader.

The Biblical case is that "personhood" begins at conception. Mr. Carpenter questions that assumption using Genesis 2:7 which says "God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and in this way man became a living being." Certainly the first man, Adam, was not alive until God breathed life into him. Should we say by this text that no one is alive until they breathe on their own? Certainly we can agree that Adam's life is not the normal way life is brought into the world. More helpful texts as to the question of when life begins are Psalm 139 and Psalm 51. As David considers God's immense devotion to humankind, he writes in Psalm 139:13-15, "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Jews and Christians believe that God formed us and planned our days while each one of us were still in the womb. Later in David's confession of sin before God, he declares in Psalm 51:5 "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." This text shows that we are spiritual beings while still in the womb. The seriousness of how we treat the womb is in the fact that each one of us began life in a state of sinfulness and we are in need of forgiveness from the time we are only a sperm and egg in union. How can it be that I am both fearfully and wonderfully made AND AT THE SAME TIME sinful since conception? The answer lies in a God of love who wants to free us, rescue us, restore us, and do more with us than we could do alone. Religious people take abortion seriously because we long to see what a God of Redemption could do in that life if only it'd be given a chance to continue living.

The second text Mr. Carpenter chooses to point his readers to is Deuteronomy 12:23 which warns against drinking animal blood as pagan worship, since "life is in the blood". Turning to human development in the womb, circulation typical begins by six weeks and the average pregnancy is discovered between 5-7 weeks. Can we say that to kill a unborn human before it has blood is okay since "life is in the blood"? What a farce we make the whole debate by talking this way! When God wants us to know something, He says it plainly. We shouldn't take a verse about animal blood and make any application to when human life begins.

The third text Mr. Carpenter references is Exodus 21:22-24 where Moses is giving case law for personal injury. If two people are fighting and one accidently strikes a bystanding pregnant woman and the pregnancy is lost, there must be restitution. Notice the accidental aspect to the passage. In Old Testament case law, if a man kills another man accidently, he is not to be executed (Numbers 35:13-28). There is a clear distinction Biblically between willful decision and unintentional accidents. Abortion is an intentional decision and not an accidental ending of life, therefore Mr. Carpenter's Exodus 21:22-24 has nothing to add to the abortion debate.

The final text, from Genesis 38, has no relation to the issue of abortion, however I would like to respond to Mr. Carpenter's slapstick treatment of it. The event of Onan's selfish sin is one that illustrates a lack of care for the helpless. In those ancient days, society provided for widows through their children. If however a man left his wife childless, it was his brother who would marry her and give her children (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Onan shrugged his responsibility towards his sister-in-law. God is immensely concerned with the helpless in society: the widow, the orphan, the alien, the slave (Deuteronomy 10:18, 14:29, 24:17, 27:19). Jesus reached out to the fringes of society: the tax-collectors, prostitutes, drunkards, 'undesirable' races. To the 'annoying' children, He gladly said "do not keep the little children from coming to Me" (Luke 18:16). James writes that "pure and undefiled religion is ... to look after orphans and widows in their distress" (James 1:27).

In conclusion, I want to encourage readers to view Christianity through a different lens. Christians are not anti-abortion. Christians are not even pro-life. Christians are pro-Gospel. The Gospel (Good News) started by our leader, Jesus Christ, is a message that is far more holistic and uplifting than the specific issue of abortion. Our message is one of gracious love and eager forgiveness, not hateful condemnation. Christians are not interested in changing lawbooks, but hearts. We are not interested in exerting power over those outside faith; rather we are eager to introduce divine power into those outside faith. We see God doing that one heart and mind at a time.

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Feel free to post any comments you have below.

Core Challenge Videos

I wanted to make a post that shows all the videos in one spot. As I upload more content, the Vimeo Widget will automatically add them to this blog post. Enjoy!