If you’ve watched the news you know that over the past week there have been three shooting sprees in our western countries that have made international news: shootings in Alabama, in Germany and in Northern Ireland. In Alabama 12 were killed, in Germany 13 were killed and in Northern Ireland 3 were killed. In Alabama and Germany the shooters committed suicide at the end of their killings. In Northern Ireland the shooter(s) are presumed to be still alive.

How do we as Christians react to this?
o We pray for comfort for those who have lost loved ones: It would be unimaginable for me if my wife and children had been killed by a gunman. I would need all the help and comfort possible from God and man. This is a good time as well to write letters and cards to those who have lost someone.
o We pray for justice; that evil man will not get away with evil deeds: God is a judge who will one day judge the whole world with perfect fairness and repay all of us according to our deeds. Jesus said that we should pray for his kingdom to come. Part of praying for his kingdom to come is to pray for justice. We should still pray that those responsible, and who are still alive, will find repentance and salvation before God. Praying that they will face justice in a human court does not contradict this prayer. We pray for justice and salvation for the killers.
o We examine our own lives: Ecclesiastes 7.2-5 tells us that there are deep lessens that we learn when we face death. Any of us could be shot. Any of us could die much sooner than we imagine. Are we ready to die? Are we ready to meet Jesus? Do we have sins we need to confess to God and man? How about the direction of my life? Are the things I’m living for worth Christ dying for?
o We share the message of Jesus’ victory over death: It is sad for a Christian to loose a loved one. But it is total despair when you believe that death is the final power in the universe. As Christians, we know someone who has broken death’s power. Jesus’ good news of victory over sin and death is very powerful when death becomes as real as it has this week.
o We love our enemies: May the Germans and Americans love the families from which the shooters came. Now is a very good time for those in Northern Ireland to show acts of love and kindness to the communities from which the shooters have come.

Things will get worse before they get better. Now is the time for Christians to shine. There will be a day when Jesus will come back and sorrow and crying will be no more. On that day we can rest. But today is not that day. Today we have good works to pioneer and to build. We have difficult people to love and sacrifices to be made.
Until that day let’s be active in Jesus and overcome evil with good.

Love you all,

Joshua

I don’t know how you feel about human trafficking.

I don’t know what thoughts you may have gathered on the subject.

I’ll tell you how I feel about it.

HATRED.

Hatred that right now there are women here in our country that have been imported and kept as sex slaves. Hatred that there are men here who are used to produce and package drugs. Hatred that some of the chocolate we eat was made with coco from slave labour in Africa. Hatred that men from here in Western Europe fly to Asian countries and go to brothels filled with children stolen from poor homes and the governments don’t give a damn.

Men. Women. Children. Slaves.

Conservative numbers estimated 30 million slaves world wide in 2008. Liberal ones estimated 200 million.

We kid ourselves into thinking that we’re basically good people because our country has signed some crap UN paper written in Geneva by guys in suits. Some of those same guys support the industry when they online porn, some of which is produced using forced, slave labour in the form of sexual exploitation.

Enjoy your viewing delegate. Chocolate?

In Psalm 10 David calls out to God when he sees this kind of situation. He says:
Arise, O LORD! Punish the wicked, O God! Do not ignore the helpless! Why do the wicked get away with despising God? They think, “God will never call us to account.” But you see the trouble and grief they cause. You take note of it and punish them. The helpless put their trust in you. You defend the fatherless.

Jesus is the one who brings ultimate justice to our world. If we are to see justice brought to this issue it must be through God’s people calling out to him night and day to liberate the captive and punish the oppressor. Please, commit yourself to taking 30 seconds (or more!) a day to call upon God until He brings Justice.

Jesus left the freedom of Heaven and came to earth to die as a slave that you and I might be free. If he has done this for us, shouldn’t we do the same for our fellow humans? If you really believe the gospel, you will.

Hey Joshua,

What’s the Bible say about being a vegetarian? I want to become one.
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I love vegetarians. More vegetarians means more steak for me.

The Bible says that God originally gave mankind all the seed bearing plants and trees for food. In high school a lot of stoners liked to quote this verse in order to tell others that it was Ok to smoke weed. That and the verse that says “Don’t judge” were all the scripture verses they seemed to know. This of course means that Adam and Eve were originally vegetarians. Being vegetarians didn’t seem to affect their health badly as Adam lived to be 930 years old! So…pass the salad.

But the earth changed. Man changed. Sin entered. There was a flood. The World that was then was packed away and another era of history was unfolded. God had told the first father of human history, Adam, that he was free to eat from any plant that he wanted. In Genesis 9.3 God now tells the next father of human history, Noah, that bacon, cheeseburgers and Chinese food made with domesticated animals are all on the menu. Even in Heaven, where there is no death, it seems like meat will be on the menu.

My question to you is: Why do you want to be a vegetarian? Some people (usually chicks) become vegetarians because they can’t stomach the thought of eating a nice, cute animal. If you’re eating meat an having nightmares of cows hunting you down and making you into a humanburger, than perhaps laying off the beef for a while wouldn’t hurt.

Another reason is guilt. Some people feel guilty for being rich or western or feel it’s their fault the earth may be getting warmer or something like this and so they seek to do something good and they decide on becoming vegetarians as a way of equalising their karma . This isn’t a very good reason and I will mention more later.

Lastly some people become vegetarians simply believing that it will improve their health and perhaps it could. But be warned: it may cost you lots of money in buying protein shakes to make up for what you loose in nutrition from the meat. Eating lots of beans helps make up for what you loose when you stop eating meat. So if you don’t mind farting a lot and having people not want to sit next you…this is also an acceptable reason.

Jesus lived in a time and place where people had different views about what someone should eat. Jesus was a Jew who lived among other Jews. The Jews didn’t eat bacon and had a lot of rules about how to wash their hands before they ate. For the Jews this was a source of pride. They looked down on others who didn’t eat like them. They thought they were better than others because they didn’t eat bacon like some vegetarians think well of themselves because they don’t eat meat. Jesus saw this as pride and decided to offend them. So Jesus and his crew sat down and began to eat while surrounded by Jewish people and they didn’t wash their hands. People were furious. How could a good Jewish Bible teacher like Jesus not wash his hands? (I’m sure many a mums have worked over time to keep their boys from hearing this Bible story.)

Jesus then told them something that many of us still need to hear. He said,
“Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

In this statement Jesus offends all religious people everywhere. He says no meat, no drink, no music, no television, no smoke, nothing that goes into a person defiles them. You can stop eating mea