No more hate!

Check out resources for sharing your faith with your gay and lesbian friends here.

So the Westboro BC folks never showed up. Apparently they do that a lot. So, beyond the fact that they are hateful they are also liars (remember Jn.8:44). Their shenanigans did provide an opportunity for us to join over 1,000 students (see the story here) and to set the record straight about God's love for them. Our signs said things like, "God hates hate," "Jesus loves you" and "Jesus is the only way" and carrying those resulted in numerous conversations about Jesus. Pastor Dwight Saunders (our pastor !!!) was even invited to address the crowd. I didn't get the whole thing on video but what I managed to record is posted below. He was able to say that even though we have some disagreements, we are called first and foremost to love each other. He clearly told the crowd of God's love and our love for them and quoted 1Jn.4:20 - "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen."

Tolerance isn't pretending we're all the same and everything is OK but rather admitting we're different and have disagreements but loving each other regardless of those. Interestingly, and I say this only to offer some food for thought, I've been receiving hate mail and public criticism for my faith on this campus as have some of our students and even though we've communicated that to different officials we haven't so much as had a phone call or e-mail returned. It is peculiar to me that the tolerance issue seems to only go one way. That being said, of course I support standing against hate like we did yesterday, I just find it awkward a lot of other people won't stand against it when it is directed at Christians (Jn.15:18-25).

My favorite part about yesterday was that 7 pastors and several other Christian leaders joined each other to share Christ with our community. You probably remember the standing together as one post from August. This was just another continuation of that. As all of these leaders pray together every week we are also becoming a team willing to reach our community together and that was the highlight of the day for me.

What an opportunity this was to share Christ in a public and very visible way and to clarify that God doesn't hate these people but loves each of them and desires a relationship with them. I would encourage you to take advantage of opportunities like these in your communities as well. Jesus didn't run from sinners but rather met with them, spent time with them, ate with them and sought them out, never backing down from the truth but always doing that in an authentically loving way with arms wide open. We should do the same!!! This world is a hateful place but Jesus and only Jesus, has all the answers; in Him there is no more hate.

I found the full video of Dwight posted here:

God Hates Hate!

Update: read all about what happened with the WBC protest here.

Also, get resources for sharing your faith with gay and lesbian friends here.

You've all heard of the Westboro Baptist Church. They aren't a baptist church at all and aren't affiliated with any denomination. They definitely aren't true Christians but are compelled by their narcissism to make a scene. The Bible tells us, in 1 Jn.4:20 that "if anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." That makes things pretty clear. These people don't love or represent God. Check out more info on them here. I say all of this because, as many of you know, they will be protesting on our campus today. As the Christian group at FLC I feel a duty to take a stand to show the campus that God loves them and to publicly contradict what these people say about God. Everyone of us is a sinner and Jesus loved each of us enough to die for us so we could know Him. Rom.5:8 - "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." We need to share that Good News with our campus. Jn.3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." If Jesus were physically on this campus today He would be reaching out, arms wide open, to every person WBC hates! We need to follow our Savior's example and get out there sharing His love with this campus.

If you're in the area, meet up with us at 4:30 pm at the chapel at FLC. There will be a lot of other people and groups there. I will bring some poster boards to make signs that tell of God's love, if you want to bring your own feel free to do so. Special note: do not engage the WBC people in any way as they are trained to try to get a brawl going. Just peacefully share the truth of God's love with the campus! I feel like Paul in Ephesus (Acts 19) where the whole city was in an uproar and all He wanted to do was point people to Jesus. Let's follow that example today.

Finally, while we're talking about how much God hates hate and loves us, I want to encourage you to pray for these WBC people that God would get a hold of them, change their hearts and lead them to leave their hateful ways.

I hope this short message about true, selfless, unconditional, Christian love encourages you a ton!