“Three UK Christians have lost their legal challenges over workplace discrimination at the European Court of Human Rights.” Christiantoday.com[1]

Okay so people want to stand up for and be counted as Christians, that’s good, right? In our modern society, it’s also good to try and set good legal precedents.

That’s why when Nadia Erwin a Christian working for British airways who was asked to cover up a cross and was put on unpaid leave for refusing, won her case and is allowed to wear her cross outside her uniform, that was great. Hey, we allow Sieikh’s to wear turbans don’t we. All is good!

Then we get three people who decide to try for something else.

These two of the three try to change other’s lives and judge others.

The one I think got a poor judgement was Shirley Chaplin. I think the court maybe was pushing reasonability a bit. Christian today reports “Nurse Shirley Chaplin was removed from frontline ward duties for refusing to remove a cross necklace but the court ruled there were legitimate health and safety concerns.”

This is perhaps taking health a bit far, but safety with equipment etc sometimes dictates removing loose objects so perhaps we can say teh courts are reasonable in the judgement. I personally think that means no watch or phone or pen either, but who am I to comment.

However, Garry McFarlane and Lillian Ladele refused to help a same sex couple with sex therapy, which was their job.

Here I agree with the courts as I believe God gives us the rights as humans to have free will.

Christians are far too judgemental instead of loving at times.

The way to witness to same sex couples is to love them with Jesus love since everyone else gives them such a hard time. We don’t have to agree that what they do is not sinful, it is. But so it that “white lie” we told last week (probably).

God says sin is sin! Intensities and levels don’t count. He also says to watch out for the tree in our own eye before we try to take a splinter out of another’s.

Our direction is to show others Jesus. To be disciples and witnesses, not judges and prosecutors!

“Do not judge others. Then you will not be judged. ² You will be judged in the same way you judge others. You will be measured in the same way you measure others.

³ “You look at the bit of sawdust in your friend’s eye. But you pay no attention to the piece of wood in your own eye. ⁴ How can you say to your friend, ‘Let me take the bit of sawdust out of your eye’? How can you say this while there is a piece of wood in your own eye?

⁵ “You pretender! First take the piece of wood out of your own eye. Then you will be able to see clearly to take the bit of sawdust out of your friend’s eye. Matt 7:1-5

These words of Jesus are aimed at us as we start to tell others what to do.

Jesus never asked us to force others to change, only to change ourselves, tell others about this, and about him, and in that way love the world into changing.

Before Christians go to court, we should ask whether what we are doing is forcing the public to change their lives in some way, or are we enticing them to change their lives in some way. I sure hope it's more of the second than the first!

That said, more Christians need to work at moving up in the legal world so that we can influence world judgements for God.

That’s my opinion (and it is opinion). I wonder what you think about these events?

All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea, while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore" ~

We see that this man who is respected by millions of people around the world because of his inherent goodness had this said about him;

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He stayed away from Judea on purpose. He knew that the Jews there were waiting to kill him.

People were out to get him! Really! In his case in the short term they apparently succeeded but actually when we look back into history we see in the long term they really failed miserably.

God protects the value of our lives!

Psalm 56 is a clear promise of that...

God, show me your favor. Men are chasing me.
    All day long they keep attacking me.
² Those who tell lies about me chase me all day long.
    Many proud people are attacking me.

³ When I’m afraid,
    I will trust in you.
⁴ I trust in God. I praise his word.
    I trust in God. I will not be afraid.
    What can people do to me?

⁵ All day long they twist my words.
    They are always making plans to harm me.
⁶ They get together and hide.
    They watch my steps.
    They hope to kill me.

⁷ Make sure you don’t let them escape.
    God, bring down the nations in your anger.
⁸ Write down my poem of sadness.
    List my tears on your scroll.
    Aren’t you making a record of them?

⁹ My enemies will turn back
    when I call out to you for help.
    Then I will know that God is on my side.
¹⁰ I trust in God. I praise his word.
    I trust in the Lord. I praise his word.
¹¹ I trust in God. I will not be afraid.
    What can mere men do to me?

¹² God, I have made promises to you.
    I will bring my thank offerings to you.
¹³ You have saved me from death.
    You have kept me from tripping and falling.
Now I can live with you
    in the light that leads to life.

We can have people overtly trying to take us down with actions and words, we can be in very difficult circumstances, we can be subject of evil plans, but when we turn to God and ask for help, putting our trust in him as a saviour then the world changes.

The world then lights up with a warmth and spiritual glow that softens our hardening hearts and allows us to respond in love to those in the situation who would rather do us harm than even accept the love.

God’s love overcomes all! He is supreme and in charge of all paths and directions in life. We cannot succeed without his blessing our work and life. We are simple pawns in an almighty chess game of which we cannot see the edges of the board. Yet in the strong warm hands of the the infinitely wise God we rise to royalty. Become endowed with all that the righteous kings receive, and can deal death blows to the evil in our world.

We are strengthened by Holy Spirit and guided by wisdom into paths of success and joy. Isn’t that great? Isn’t that wonderful?

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.~
Martin Luther King, Jr.

When there is a time of thinking, struggling and straining to get to an objective and there is little chance of success, it seems almost a forgone fact that sooner or later we give up and relinquish our hope and accept what we consider as fate to deal us the blow that we expect will come.

Yet this is not what God expects!

God wants us to continue, be steadfast, thrust forward to the goals that he sets even when the going is rough and unwelcome.

God never promises anything like an easy life to us.

God's own son Jesus had a tough life independent of his ministry. Jesus was the oldest of his many brothers and sisters, in a culture where men must lead. His father died when he was fairly young (we think). 

 Jesus was not bailed out of tough circumstances by miracles despite the fact he was the son of God. He lived in the anguish of having lost a human father. Jesus had to take over the family business which was hard manual labour. He was a carpenter!

Jesus, being the eldest son has responsibility for looking after the family and earning to feed them all.

Not an easy life!

Then, what was his goal?

To free the world of sin!

Now that is an almost impossible task isn’t it?

To discourage him he had Satan against him trying to take him down every step of the way.

Even the leaders of his community were afraid of him and planned his downfall, and even his own brothers ridiculed him at times. It says...

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He stayed away from Judea on purpose. He knew that the Jews there were waiting to kill him.

² The Jewish Feast of Booths was near. ³ Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You should leave here and go to Judea. Then your disciples will see the kinds of things you do. ⁴ No one who wants to be well known does things in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ Even Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in him.

⁶ So Jesus told them, “The right time has not yet come for me. For you, any time is right. ⁷ The people of the world can’t hate you. But they hate me. This is because I give witness that what they do is evil.

⁸ “You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast. For me, the right time has not yet come.”

⁹ After he said this, he stayed in Galilee. John 7

He had no easy life!

Did he give in and complain?

No!

Okay, so we might point out he was the son of God so what would be expected, he was a superhuman. Maybe, but the bible has many other examples.

Job is one!

Job has done nothing wrong, loses everything precious including his health and wealth, but stays the course and in the end God blesses him.

We are not here to please ourselves but to glorify God!

Once we understand that, we can fulfill our purpose despite apparent setbacks. God is good! Even when the going is rough, our friends fail us and we fail to appear to move ahead.

God is good!

Our true worth is measured by how we walk the path of life, not the human success we gather in the walk.

God’s leading and following it is our prime motivator.

In that the joy of the walk can stay with us and joy is found in the toughest of circumstances. It comes with the knowledge that Holy Spirit is with us as we enter the most difficult of circumstances. That God loves us and will be within us guiding us through the most arduous of tasks

Let’s thank the wonderful creator for this gift today! Have a good joy filled day!

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..” ~ John Milton, Paradise Lost

To be lost in a desire for an ultimate good place is something that not everyone can appreciate!

It is not often that we can understand the unattainable is within our reach. That the beauty of ultimate glory just a sentence away, lost within our mind as a decision point as yet still unattained.

The glory of heaven is not unattainable, just difficult to attain. It requires that we submit our desires and will into that of the ultimate universal being, God the Father of Jesus the son. It requires us submitting to the one who is the sustainer of this universe.

Sustained by God, we need to align the fibres of our existence toward the goal of directing our lives down paths of truth and through crevasses of sin towards the holy moment as we step into eternity at life’s end, whether in old age or impacted by a younger disaster.

Without fear, we need to let our God have full control of our lives. Let him guide each moment and suppress our base desires that well up as we take on life’s issues  in our headlong plunge towards eternity.

Eternity is for all, but heaven is for a few.

This understanding is not always well appreciated and is often met with distain and dislike.

Yet, to say to an immovable block of granite that it should get out of the way before hurling ourselves at it at breakneck speed, is simple foolishness. It is not for the granite to avoid us, it is for us to avoid the granite.

Ignoring God does not move eternity out the way and there is but two options to choose from... we have eternity with or without God’s presence. A simple choice!

Few people realize the reason this earth is as palatable as it is. is only due to God’s intervention.

Take that away, and the hell unleashed would terrorize the strongest soul this planet can birth.

So where are we in all this?

We are loved by this God of the universe. We have the example of Jesus his son, and we have the guiding of the most beautiful Holy Spirit in the universe that is willing to come into our lives and lead us to heaven.

To lead us to that joy filled existence where pain is removed, light and love reigns supreme, where time does not beat heavily on our tired bodies, and where our bodies themselves are renewed, completed, to be perfectly healthy and full of joy filled energy.

This is a good place to be going to!

The question is simple!