Insights from a Passionate Christ Follower

What do you think of our President Trump?…  Or his last opponent, Hillary?… Or his predecessor President Obama? Our nation is divided over current politics and for many people it has moved from opinions to hatred. How did we get here and where will this lead? We all know that “Haters gonna Hate” and internet Trolls are going to post, but how did we get to this place that families and friends can’t even conduct civilized discussions without emotions and words flying? It’s not just politics!

Growing up in different parts of the country, growing up different… being brought here illegally… simply being a minority… or woman – all bring challenges that are not fair and at times unjust!  What has educated our opinions, politics and faith?  What has formed our ability or inability to live life openly, trusting and loving ourselves and others?    Who are you afraid of?    Who was it that hurt you?    Who do you love to hate?

Growing up in America as a US Citizen is a privilege and blessed life compared to most other places in the world.  When compared to the life others live, we Americans should never consider voicing even the smallest of complaints or injustices… even so, life can still be challenging and difficult due to our choices and the choices of those that effect us.  In this land of freedom and privilege there are those that choose to belittle and bully others, people that judge and criticize you without knowing your story, and those that choose violence through abuse, rape, and murder.  So even growing up in the greatest nation on earth does not protect you from injustice – Life is Not Fair!  For women, this holds double true – throughout history and everyplace in the world.

I grew up in a sheltered, mid-west Christian family I knew little of the injustices that others endured. Yet even in that culture, my sisters experienced challenges I never faced.  It would be years later, after living in other parts of the country, experiencing issues of race, religion, abuse and influence from piers that I came to learn to hate others. Some I hated outwardly, others I was less aware, but I certainly felt uncomfortable when around those who were different to me.  Once I chose to surrender my life to Christ and allowed God to work on me, I started realizing just how many people-groups I had learned to hate. Rich people, poor people, smelly people, blacks, gays, trans… the list went on and on.  Little by little God would make me aware of the darkness of my heart and give me grace to receive His love so that I could begin to love others as He called me to do.

Even as a Christian, loving Jesus and growing in my faith, I still loved to hate those that we all hated together – child molesters, wife beaters, mass shooters and gays (LGBT).  Eventually, because I wanted more of God in my life, the love of God brought me to people and places that would expose my hatred and judgment for what it was (evil) and help me to let go of the darkness so that I could embrace His light.

In today’s culture of extreme religious terrorist, haters, internet trolls and political division, it is more relevant than ever that I share this theology that God taught me through His Spirit and Word.

I have far too many “God journey” stories to tell but let me start with this early one that started me to re-think everything I thought I knew: I was attending a weekly prayer & Bible study home group one summer at a time when I was personally asking God to show me His heart for humanity.  I remember hearing about an enemy of Israel that attacked them and killed a small number of citizens. The next day the capitol city of that attacking nation suffered an earthquake that killed tens of thousands and I remember rejoicing that they got what they deserved. I probably even believed (at that time) that God brought the earthquake as a form of justice and revenge. After all, “don’t mess with God’s chosen people!”

The next week when I arrived to the home group I began to weep for no apparent reason.  Others asked what was wrong and I did not know.  At the end of the group time as I left it lifted and I was fine. The next week it happened again the same way, weeping, sadness and sorrow. Upon leaving it lifted. I was so perplexed that I took time to ask God and wait on Him to show me what was happening to me. The following week it happened for a third time in a row and I would not leave till God revealed to me what was wrong… then I heard Him in my heart say: “You asked me to show you my heart. This is a very small example of how my heart is breaking over the loss of lives in that capitol city that suffered the violent earthquake. I love each one of them equally as much as I love those in Israel and you and everyone else.” This was my first mind-blowing revelation that God is Love – way beyond my religious teachings.

I remember traveling to Russia after the wall fell to teach new converts at a bible-school. While there I fell in love with the people of Russia and was deeply impacted at how similar they are to us and how we were lied to about each other by our political leaders. I had grown up fearing and hating the Russians/Communist due to my American cultural influence. They are lovely people with beautiful hearts. Granted, there are some evil people in all cultures and nations… but even they have had things happen to them growing up to form them in such a way that they live their broken lives harming others.

With each people-group that God led me to embrace and learn to love I would be amazed at how I was so wrong to fear or hate them. Once you allow someone to tell you their story and get to really know them, you realize, there go I but for the grace of God.  Along the way, as my heart was healing and learning to love, God was teaching me the true spiritual issues behind all of this found in His Word – (not the religious teachings of men that I grew up with).

RELIGION is a spiritual condition that can be pure and wonderful, full of love, service and sacrifice for others… Or, it can be a hard, strict set of laws that dictate judgement of self and others leading to fear, hatred and war. For clarification, when I refer to religion I am meaning the later that promotes separation, fear, judgement and hate.  Behind this type of religion are evil spirits disguising themselves as righteous.

There are two kingdoms in the earth. One is ruled by God and the other by His enemy Satan. They are both spiritual in nature (unseen). God’s plan is to get His spiritual life and love inside us so that we live and love and share it with others. Satan’s plan is to get his spiritual death, hatred and strife inside us so that we suffer and are used to harm others. There are many religions – only two kingdoms.

Religions around the world teach that women are of less value than men. It has permeated every culture and caused the needless suffering of all women everywhere throughout all time. It began in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:15) Satan hates women because her seed will crush his head (take his authority and power), so Satan has done everything possible to harm women. Sad that he uses religion and men to do so.

How do we love and not hate when we have been wronged, mistreated, abused or harmed by others? Certainly as Christians, we can choose to turn the cheek or forgive… but how do we really do that?  How do you love the unlovable?  We are told to hate the sin and love the sinner.  But How?!!!

I found the answer in Eph. 6 – our battles are spiritual, not with people that do us wrong, but with the evil spirit behind them causing the action.  And our weapons are spiritual weapons of love, prayer, worship and speaking God’s word – not physical weapons of revenge and hatred toward the person.  If a puppeteer walked a puppet up to you on strings and made the puppet kick you… who would you get upset with?… the wooden puppet?… or the one causing the action.  Learning to see the true culprit of evil and injustice is the answer to who we should love and who we should hate.

SATAN is the problem. His name is translated Accuser or Slanderer. He accuses three ways: (1) He accuses God to us – saying God is not fair or mean and that we need to blame God for our problems. (2) He accuses others to us – saying we need to hate them for what they did to us. (3) He accuses us to ourselves – saying we are not worthy of love.  When he gets us mad at God we are not fighting Satan. When he gets us mad at others we are using our authority against fellow humans and not Satan. When he gets us down on ourselves – we give up and don’t believe we are of any value.

I had to learn to hate religion and the evil forces behind it so that I could love church people and those of different faiths.

I had to learn to hate the spiritual idolatry of sexual sins that trap and uses men to commit violence against women and children so that I could love the prostitutes and pimps and rapers and molesters.

I had to learn to hate the spirit of division so that I could loves those that are different from me in race or sex or belief.

I had to learn to hate the spirit of rebellion that causes us to disrespect our political leaders so that I could love whoever our President would be.

None of this is to imply that I agree with wrong doing or openly trust someone being used by Satan to do wrong, but I put my focus of spiritual love on the people while agreeing with God to hate the spiritual evil at work in the earth.