Remember the story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea? They arrived safely on the the other side having walked on dry land, yet when Pharaoh and his army tried to cross, they became bogged and were eventually drowned. I would describe that Pharaoh as being 'bloody minded' as there was no way he was going to seriously consider Moses' request for the people to leave Egypt. However, with all the twists and turns of this story, I always felt sorry for the horses being drowned as they were the innocent victims of Pharaoh's stubborn behaviour.
The same thing happened to most of the animals in the time of Noah. The same thing is happening in world history today, only it is people we are now hearing about - innocent people left homeless and for the Christians in the Middle East conflict, no country to which they can belong. The decisions of a few can have such a detrimental effect on the lives of so many.
On a different vein, a 'first world' problem is the withdrawal of medication because of its misuse in the making of illegal drugs. I have experienced this twice in recent years, so once again, the innocent are disadvantaged because of the wrongful behaviour of others.
Whatever we do affects others, for better or for worse. One of the very sad news items which unfortunately occurs on a regular basis, is hearing of the suicide of a member of our or another community. This is so unnecessary as there is a God who loves and cares for everyone, and even in a person's darkest hour just to understand this must give a glimmer of hope for the immediate future. But what has happened to the Christian message of love? It may be safe in our church communities, but we need to get that message out into the wider community.
I would love to see Christians market the message of God's love and care on billboards, advertisements in the secular media and anywhere else where people who may not enter a church, can see this over and over again. This is what Jesus told his disciples - "Go into all the world with the Good News" - don't expect people to 'come'.
As Christians, are we partly responsible for people not realising that God loves them? Are we partly responsible for young people becoming involved in negative behaviour because our God is not presented as exciting and challenging? How can we engage with our community to show everyone that our God loves and cares about everyone?
Are we responsible?
The same thing happened to most of the animals in the time of Noah. The same thing is happening in world history today, only it is people we are now hearing about - innocent people left homeless and for the Christians in the Middle East conflict, no country to which they can belong. The decisions of a few can have such a detrimental effect on the lives of so many.
On a different vein, a 'first world' problem is the withdrawal of medication because of its misuse in the making of illegal drugs. I have experienced this twice in recent years, so once again, the innocent are disadvantaged because of the wrongful behaviour of others.
Whatever we do affects others, for better or for worse. One of the very sad news items which unfortunately occurs on a regular basis, is hearing of the suicide of a member of our or another community. This is so unnecessary as there is a God who loves and cares for everyone, and even in a person's darkest hour just to understand this must give a glimmer of hope for the immediate future. But what has happened to the Christian message of love? It may be safe in our church communities, but we need to get that message out into the wider community.
I would love to see Christians market the message of God's love and care on billboards, advertisements in the secular media and anywhere else where people who may not enter a church, can see this over and over again. This is what Jesus told his disciples - "Go into all the world with the Good News" - don't expect people to 'come'.
As Christians, are we partly responsible for people not realising that God loves them? Are we partly responsible for young people becoming involved in negative behaviour because our God is not presented as exciting and challenging? How can we engage with our community to show everyone that our God loves and cares about everyone?
Are we responsible?
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