Jesus Scares the World

Tim Tebow was described as a divisive character because he thanked Jesus for allowing Tim to do his best in football games. Teams didn't want to take a risk on him in case – well just in case. You never know how those Christians might hurt your team. Especially when compared to:

Robert Sands – Assault

Rolando McClain – Disorderly Conduct and resisting arrest

Chris Rainy – Battery

Andre Smith – Attempting to board a plane with a hand gun

Jay Ratliff – DWI

Leroy Hill – Domestic Violence

Michael Bowley – Child Abuse

Da'Quan Bowers – Disorderly Conduct

Al Netter – DWI

Desmond Bryant – Criminal Mischief

J'Marcus Webb – Criminal possession

Javarris James – Failure to appear

Quintin Carter – Fraud

Cody Grimm – Public Drunkenness

Even Rodriguez – Resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, DWI

Trumaine Johnson – DWI

Brandon Bardon – DWI

Amari Spievey – 3^rd degree assault, child endangerment, DWI

Quentin Groves – Soliciting a prostitute

William Moore – Assault

Ronnell Lewis – Disturbing the peace, Public intoxication

Cliff Harris – Possession, Domestic harassment, Failure to appear

Claude Davis – Possession

Armonty Bryant – DWI

Daryl Washington – Aggravated Assault

Titus Young – Drunk driving, burglary, resisting arrest, Assaulting a police officer

Corey McIntyre – Assaulting

Mike Goodson – Possession, handgun, hollow point bullets

Chad Johnson – Violating parole

Joe Morgan – DWI

Adam Jones – Assault

Jason Peters – Street racing

Ausar Walcott – Attempted Murder

Aaron Hernandez – First degree murder and five gun charges

Josh Brent – Intoxicated manslaughter

You see, these guys, players in the NFL who've been arrested in 2013 - so far - fit right in, but Tim, well, what are you going to do with a player that prays?

Why Does The Pope Do This?

Why would anyone who calls him/herself a Christian do this? 

The Pope actually accepts people calling him Holy Father and title which Jesus said we are to only call Creator God.

The Pope actually accepts people calling him the “Head of the Church.” This is a title reserved for Christ.

The Pope actually accepts people calling him the Vicar of Christ; one who stands vicariously in the place of Christ.  THAT is a title reserved for the Holy Spirit.

All these titles the Pope willingly takes upon himself.

A Cold Hard Stone

I remember, before Jesus tracked me down, how I thought I was a pretty good person. 

I shone like the sun. 

I was brilliant. 

Intense. 

Too hot to handle.

Pfft! What an idiot.

C.S. Lewis, I think it was, said that he believes in God not because he can see Him. Rather, like the sun, it is because of God that he can see everything else clearly.

I couldn’t agree more.

Because of the Son, I now see that I have no light of my own. On my own I'm just a cold hard stone. Any light that I give off, such as it is, is a reflection of my Creator.

Christianity allows me to know the Creator of the Universe at an ever deeper level. 

Being a follower of Jesus allows me to become aware, at an ever deeper level, that I am loved by the Creator of the Universe.

Sweet!

We’re At War

Jesus infuses His followers with an apotropaic nature. We must push through enemy lines without fear or doubt. Christianity places us on a journey from which there is no turning back. The change in us that comes when we accept that God will make us good and that God is for us, and not against us is found in Isaiah 45:2-3.

“I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.”

Nothing can stop those who wait upon the Lord. 

They will renew their strength. 

They will rise up on wings like eagles. 

They will run and not grow weary. 

They will walk and not faint. 

Isaiah 61:1

Let us move forward with boldness and confidence, allowing those determined to go their own way, to do as they please. Instead we must grab by the hand those who struggle and search for Truth, leading them to shelter from the storm. 

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. . . and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Nelson Mandela

Love Was Here First?

We’re told in the Bible a true fact of human nature, “We love God because He first loved us.”

A similar example is this. I’ve worked with clients who just can’t get excited about being forgiven; about being granted a full pardon from their Creator. The reason they can’t get excited about what Jesus has done for them is because they’ve never truly repented. They never grasped the horror of their sinful nature. And because of that they can’t comprehend the disgusting demand that love has placed upon our Lord and Saviour and King who being in very nature God, gave up His right as God and came to earth as a human being.

And then our King willingly died for us so that we might live.

Because the first line is true this is also true. We will not feel compelled to repent until we first know that Jesus has made it possible for our sins to be forgiven; and this while we were still His enemies.

Because I know that I’ve repented, I can also know that I’m forgiven. I know that I’m forgiven because I also know that I’ve turned away from my former life of evil. That’s what it means to be a Christian. A follower of Jesus is someone who is sorry for the sins that s/he has committed. That person is sorry that h/her sins caused Jesus to be tortured to death. A broken and contrite heart is the best sign that repentance has taken place.

True repentance signifies the most radical change a human being can make. We go from worshipping self to worshipping Creator God. We leave a sinful nature that we loved in exchange for a love of purity and wholeness.

A line in the song Creep, by Radiohead, says, “I want a pure soul.” The singer doesn't have a clue what that would entail but he's on the right track.

I too want a pure soul.

Grieving for past sins and determining to living humbly for our Saviour is a sure sign that repentance has taken place.

Yes there is sin that remains in the world and in us, but love was here first and it is this love that draws us to repentance and it gives us the desire to show our freedom by loving (obeying) Him in return.

Atheism is not the opposite!

“The opposite of theism is not atheism, it’s idolatry.” In other words, everyone is going to worship something. We were created to be worshippers, as birds were created to fly and rivers were created to flow. It’s what we do. The question then, is who or what will be the object of your worship? Here are a few questions that might objectively reveal your god:

What is the area of your life where you are most disappointed? An area where there is a disproportionate amount of disappointment reveals where we have put our hope. Show me what you have put your hope in and I’ll introduce you to your god.

Where do you go for comfort when life gets hard? Maybe you open up the fridge for a little comfort food or you stop by and pick up a six-pack on the way home from work. Maybe it’s in the arms of a stranger.

Where do you make financial sacrifices? Where your money goes shows what god you are worshipping. The Bible puts it this way “where your treasure is there your heart will be.”

Peter Kreeft 

Better the poor whose walk is blameless than a fool whose lips are perverse

19:1

Controlling God Makes Sense?

Apparently it does makes sense. Though hard to believe, people – Christian people – try to control their Creator. And they try to do this through being “good” people. I've written before about Christians who get angry at God because He doesn't fulfil His assumed obligation to “bless them” because of how good they are.

In this scenario these people try to manipulate God by saying to Him, “If you make me and rich and powerful, possibly even famous, I'll use those things to minister to other people.” They use their obedience to “make” God give them what they want.

What's really sad about this is that those of us who try to control God are not only blind, but we're blind to our blindness. We're numb to the motives of our heart. We cannot see the spiritual realities that are absolutely vital if we're going to be transformed into the people God wants us to be. 

God Shows Compassion For Atheist Norway

No one comes to Jesus unless God draws that person to Jesus and people find Jesus through hearing The Word – The Bible.

Interestingly, the Bible is currently the top selling Book in Norway, selling more copies than previous #1 sellers like Justin Bieber’s autobiography and “Fifty Shades of Grey”

Even in theatres Christianity has become hugely popular in Norway. For example, “Abraham’s Children,” opened last year and has sold 52,000 tickets, outselling “Evita” in Norway.

Hopefully atheists in North America will be given another chance as well.

The wise fear the Lord and shun evil, but a fool is hotheaded and yet feels secure.

14:15

Show Me and Then I'll Believe

If you've talked with atheists long enough you'll have heard the demand, “Jesus should just show Himself to me and then I'd believe.”

A materialist would not believe.

S/he would simply come up with a materialist explanation for why Jesus seemed to suddenly appear.

Aside from that fact, I'm glad that God has not appeared to us. I'm glad that He has done nothing more than reveal Himself to those who genuinely search for Him. I think it was Pascal who said something like, “God has given us just enough evidence of Himself, so that those who are destined to be saved will be able to find Him, while those are going to reject Him will not be able to find Him accidentally.”

I think this hiddeness of God is actually a sign of His love. For if God showed Himself to us. If God made His existence crystal clear, then any rejection of Him (and there would still be rejection – ask any atheist) would be ultimate and final. There would be no possibility of redemption for that type of rebellion. For then we would have maximum revelation, Maximum light. There is no turning back from that kind of rebellion.

In His love, God knows that our human nature resists the brute fact of His existence. 

He knows that we must struggle to accept His reality. 

He knows that all of us initially push away His love without which we cannot exist. 

He knows who will, in time, come to desire His love and forgiveness more than anything else in the world. 

Out of His enormous love, Creator God gives us time to let the weight of our sin, propel us toward His love and mercy and grace. Out of this is a Christian born. 

Like the useless legs of one who is lame is knowledge in the mouth of a fool.

26:7

Ariel Castro Performs Abortion

Humans are a curious lot. 

We can make ourselves believe anything that we want to believe. For example:

. Atheists can make themselves believe that material things can just pop into existence without an external cause.

. Atheists can make themselves believe that matter can create itself.

. Atheists can make themselves believe that life comes from non life and that inorganic and inanimate gases evolve.

. Atheists can make themselves believe that you don't need scientific evidence to support your beliefs.

What's even more curious however is how humans can make themselves jump through mental hoops in order to justify killing millions of babies every year. Take for example the guy in the States who held three women captive for 10 years. During that time he allegedly killed at least one pre born child. He did this killing by hitting and kicking the pregnant mother until she miscarried.  

What's so strange about that?

Well, lets say that a different women is 16 months pregnant. She doesn't want to be pregnant, much less nurture and love the human being that she's created. So she hires a man to kill her pre born child. 

Is this man charged with murder? 

Nope. 

In fact what he does is legal. Sanctioned. In some cases he is praised for his courage and compassion.

Why?

It's not because it's the woman's decision to kill her child. It's because if it is the woman's decision to kill her child then the child is declared to not have a right to life. The pre born child is declared to not even be a human being IF the mother wants the child dead.

HOWEVER! If the mother has not asked someone to kill her child and that someone does kill the child, all of a sudden that same 16 week old child BECOMES a human being and the murderer is now charged with – well – murder.

Aren't we humans a curious lot?

Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them.

Proverbs 26:12

Whose Laws?

It's almost mind numbing listening to atheists as they flip aside the physical, mathematical and laws of logic. They do this just as though by our discovering them, we somehow invented them – created them even.

According to atheists, simply observing gravity means it's ours.

Learn your chemistry and presto – we don't need a Creator.

The fact that without these laws there is no chemistry is of no consequence to the atheist. Trying to understand how the fine tuning of the universe could be in place at Planck time is just a useless bit of complication.

As Richard Dawkins says, “There's no point in asking “why?”.

More than that, no one seems interested in ask Whose laws science is examining. In atheist-world, whenever asking questions leads away from a natural or material answer, the question is completely avoided. 

Fact Free Science

I pointed out one day that there is not the slightest bit of scientific evidence supporting the theory that materialism explains the existence of our material universe.

An atheist responded, “It doesn't matter that there is no supporting evidence because materialism is the default belief.”

I'd expect an atheist to say something like that. 

I'd also expect an atheist to say that's a good enough reason for why no scientific evidence doesn't matter.

When it comes to supporting the philosophical worldview of atheism, atheists have a very, very low good enough threshold. 

If You Have Seen Me

That's what Jesus said. When people demanded, “Show us God and then we will believe you,” 

Jesus replied, “If you have seen Me then you have seen Father God.”

The thing is, we, you and I, are created in the image of God and we, you and I, are to be image bearers of Jesus.

It makes me sigh when I ask myself, “Do people see Jesus when they watch and listen to me?”

Sporadically.

On a good day. 

Atheists are infamous for feeling caged by the guidelines that our Creator has set before us. Not once can they see that injunctions against adultery, for example, are there to help relationships thrive. Instead atheists see God's guidelines as sexual repression, even as their own marriages disintegrate as a result of adultery.

Christians Want Peace?

What do you think of when you contemplate the offer of peace that Jesus gives to us who are His disciples? Isn't it often something personal?

Inner peace?

The ability to walk through the storms of life and not be devastated by them?

I do. I mean, that kind of peace is very real and certainly welcomed in times of suffering and loss. I wonder though if Jesus didn't mean much more than that.

I think that much more than inner peace. for those of His spiritual family Jesus wants, no, more than that, demands Kingdom peace.

A society of peace.

For Jesus, Kingdom peace was a very big deal, “On earth as it is in heaven.” I think that Jesus would not be satisfied with anything less than Christians working for love and justice and peace in the family, the community, the world every single waking moment of our lives, Just as He did during His time on earth. 

Misunderstanding Atheists

I've been spending some time on Hemant Metha's blog and if there is one word that would describe the atheists who comment there, regarding their views of Christianity, it would be misunderstanding. Massive, chronic, profound, dramatic misunderstanding.

Of course this is nothing new. Today's atheists call themselves “New” and mock what's written in the Bible as bronze age nonsense. Those who deny their Creator are of course pre date the Bible by several thousand years. As Jesus said,

They will be ever hearing but never understanding; they will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. Matthew 13:11-17

The unbelief of the atheists has rendered them ignorant of life and how it works. The young women are so dull of mind and slow of thought that they believe that being hard and impervious to kindness is a badge of honour.

Again,

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. John 3:19,20

Those words, spoken two thousand years ago, ring as true on Hemant's blog today as ever before. God's revelation to us is inaccessible to those who live upon the earth. In fact, when the light of Jesus shines on the lives of these people, rather than turning toward the light, they run deeper and deeper into the darkness. They actually prefer darkness to light.

“For although they knew God exists, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:21

As I said a couple posts ago, I'm done visiting atheist blogs. I'm not sure why I kept trying to tell these people about Jesus. Five years is a long time. Part of me found it impossible to believe that they would hold to a world-view that has absolutely no supporting evidence. They just seem absolutely blind.

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4

There's a good line that goes, “When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.” Sadly, these unfortunates don't even know they're in a hole. The bottom of the pit is where they think life is meant to be lived. Atheists call it freedom. They've believed the lie.

“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Ephesians 4:18

God, grant me the Serenity

To accept the things I cannot change...
Courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it.
Trusting that Jesus will make all things right
if I surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Jesus forever in the next.
Amen.

I'm Done

I can't do it any more. I can't go to atheist blogs and try to reason with them.

There is no point. Five or six years ago I used to say, more in a derisive manner than anything, that atheists were dull of mind and slow of thought. I thought they simply lacked the intellectual capacity to evaluate the evidence.

I then changed to, atheists are spiritually dull of mind and slow of thought. Some of them were certainly smart enough. They simply couldn't discern spiritual matters.

Then I noticed that atheists we not so much spiritually dull of mind as thoroughly and utterly incapable of processing the evidence. In fact they were unable to recognize evidence of God's existence as evidence for God's existence. It just does not compute for them. They are spiritually blind and deaf.

Couple these things with the fact that materialism has not one shred of scientific evidence to support or explain the existence of a material universe, and one begins to see that atheism and those who adhere to it is a deliberate attempt to block out what the atheist intuitively knows to be true. The atheist brings a world-view of materialism to the evidence, and because of that, s/he couldn't draw a correct conclusion even if that person wanted to – which s/he doesn't.

So, that's it. I'm done trying to urge any particular atheist to consider God. Only their Creator can open their spiritual eyes. Only He can draw them to Jesus. Sadly, I have not seen any evidence that Creator God has any interest in drawing to Himself those who are determined to reject Him. In fact, I've seen evidence that those who are determined to reject their Creator are having their hearts hardened even further. Atheists are actively seeking and gathering around themselves, those who will convince them that Jesus is not God. They actively resisting any and all attempts to show them the offer of salvation that is right before their eyes.

I'm done. That's it.

It was fairly naive on my part to think that those who call themselves rational would think rationally, those who call themselves scientifically minded would take science seriously, and those who call themselves logical would actually follow the laws of logic. While it was not a total waste of time, it was most certainly unproductive as far as helping people turn off their self-determined path to eternal destruction.

Did God Really Say?

I saw this post a few days ago. It was all about the Bible “not” saying that marriage was between one man and one woman. The case was presented that because men in the Bible often had more than one wife, and God didn't strike them dead on the spot, obviously God does not mind homosexuality and same sex marriage. 

Obviously!

I've rarely seen a more persistent case of “Did God really say?”

In fact, I've only seen it more clearly once – In Genesis 3:1

"redrum”

Do you remember that movie? I can't remember the name of it. I never even saw it. I just remember the ads for it had some little kid saying in a whisper, “I see dead people.” And he sees the word murder, written backwards on the wall - in blood – "redrum."

“I see dead people.” Well, that's gotta mess up your day, seeing dead people. Seeing stuff that isn't there. Actually, I've done that too. I used to look at a beautiful woman and imagine positive qualities that weren't there, or probably weren't there. Have you ever done that? I've done it so much that I now pray, “Lord Jesus, help me to see people as Jesus sees people. Open my spiritual eyes. Give me wisdom.”

I pray that kind of stuff. And you know what? He does that. And the really cool thing is, the more we receive from God, the more He gives us. You want wisdom? Ask Him! That's one of the things God will always answer with a yes. Of course, the opposite is also true. If you don't bother drawing life from your Creator, even what little life you have will be sucked out of you.

You know what else I sometimes do? I attribute negative characteristics to people just by looking at them. And those characteristics probably aren't there either. All I have to do is look at them and I make a judgement – BAM – just like that.

I wouldn't be doing that if I was looking through spiritual eyes. So I ask, “Lord, help me to see people like Jesus sees people. Open my spiritual eyes. Give me wisdom.”

I'm not alone, of course. Most people judge by outward appearances. But it's wrong. Really, really wrong. In fact, at it's worst, it's a form or murder.

 “The Lord will not let the godly go hungry, but He refuses to satisfy the craving of the wicked.

Proverbs 10:3'

Do you know why that is? Jesus says, "I Am the living water. Who ever drinks from Me will never thirst again."

Truer words were never spoken. Without Jesus, however, there is never enough. 

You find the right romance and for awhile it's a 10 and then it settles back to less than that.

You find the right job and for awhile it's a 10 and then it settles back to less than that.

You find the right drug, the right look, the place to live, the right income bracket and for awhile these things are a 10 and then they settle back to less than that.

But Jesus? He's enough. The presence of His Spirit is always enough. In good times and in bad, in sorrow and in joy, He sustains. He supplies all our needs. The hunger for more simply disappears. 

It made Marx furious then, and continues to make atheists furious today. They can't understand it, so they lash out, and flail about and mock and jeer. They even pretend He doesn't exist. All in response to watching something they can't have.

The Atheist's Worst Nightmare

Stephen Hawking has been fighting against Big Bang for most of his working life. It's no secret why. Big Bang is the atheist's worst nightmare. In a “Brief History of Time” Hawking states,

“So long as the universe had a beginning, we would suppose it had a creator (the cosmological argument). But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end; it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?”

To make such a scenario work, the atheist enters fantasy land. Again, Hawking, “Maybe what we call imaginary time is really more basic, and what we call real is just an idea that we invent to help us describe what we think the universe is like.”

No one really knows how Hawking justified imaginary time, nor does anyone know where his M-theory came from. The result is that Hawking says M-theory explains why we don't need God to explain our universe, and according to Hawking we don't need to account for M-theory either.

That's probably why Roger Penrose stated, “What is referred to as M-theory isn't even a theory, it's a collection of ideas, hopes and aspirations.” I'll say. The aspiration is to live in a universe without a Creator to which each and every one of us will one day be held accountable.

That fact is, there is no evidence that supports a material universe. Not a single one of the Atheist Origin of the Universe Mythologies are workable.

As mathematician Granvill Sewell explained, “It is interesting to see how those who for many years have criticized the creationists for inventing an agent external to our universe to account for the appearance of man, are now reduced to inventing other universes to explain our existence.” 

It's interesting, don't you think, how those who were in opposition to Jesus never contested His miracles of healing, only that He did them on the wrong day.

Controlling God Makes Sense?

Though hard to believe, people – Christian people – try to do this. And they try to do this through being “good” people. I've written before about Christians who get angry at God because He doesn't fulfil His assumed obligation to “bless them” because of how good they are.

In this slightly different scenario these people try to manipulate God by saying to Him, “If you make me famous and rich and powerful, I'll use those things to minister to other people.” I've lost count of how many Christian clients have told me they want to be rich enough to have a really big house so they can hold Bible Studies there.

(sigh)

These people think they can use their obedience to “make” God give them what they want.

What's really sad about this is that those of us who try to control God are not only blind, but we're blind to our blindness. We're numb to the motives of our heart. We cannot see the spiritual realities that are absolutely vital if we're going to be transformed into the people God wants us to be. 

“… in the long run, there can be no joy for anybody until there is joy finally for us all”

Working On The Wrong Side of Sin

Sin is not an intellectual problem.

Sin is not a problem of ignorance.

Sin is a problem of morality.

Sin is a problem of the will.

Sin is about wrong priorities.

Sin is about the misuse of my freewill.

Sin is about my rebellion against my Creator and it is about my deep desire to want God's glory for myself.

Many people think that to overcome sin, we must change our thinking. There's a flake of truth to that but sin is first and foremost about a broken relationship. It's about being wilfully estranged from the only One who can save us from ourselves.

While solid Biblical teaching can help to change my thinking, I won't want that teaching until my heart has been changed. Until my heart is changed this broken relationship will cause me to see God as the enemy. My stoney heart will cause me to see God as cruel and insensitive. Until I've been fundamentally changed, I will think that pleasing God is all about keeping these rules, and avoiding breaking those rules. That couldn't be further from the truth. A changed heart takes what I know and uses it to transform the way I live.

King David didn't kill Bathsheba's husband because he didn't know murder was wrong. He did it because he was adapting his own moral code to accommodate what he wanted. King David didn't commit adultery with Bathsheba because he didn't know adultery was wrong. He did it because he was adapting his own moral code to accommodate what he wanted. When I say something unkind to my children or when I don't show my wife the degree of love she deserves, it's not because I don't know better. I do those things because I'm following the lead of my heart.

Once grace has brought me back into a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus, I will seek to obey Jesus out of love and gratitude. Until then I won't care what God wants; I'll simply go after what my heart wants. 

You know how atheists rarely venture outside of the Old Testament lest they run into teachings of Jesus that convict them of a deep need for forgiveness? And you know how atheists accuse Christians of cherry-picking verses to make our case? Do you think atheists ever do the same thing? For example, have you ever seen atheists ripping this verse?

Deuteronomy 27:19 - Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow. 

Immense riches are seldom possessed by leaders of countries or corporations without the oppression of their citizens, employees or investors. Immense riches are seldom gained without the willingness to rape and plunder the earth. Unlike their neighbours, and unlike our modern industrial societies, people in ancient Israel (those who atheists call dim-witted bronze-age goat herders) were to make sure they did nothing to take advantage of each other.

Peace, Mercy and Justice were then and are today to be the hallmark of God's people.