Only God is the Judge

 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. Mt 7:1 NRSV

What does that mean? Are we supposed to gloss over all sin? Are we to think that Hitler or Stalin were only mentally ill?

What is God trying to say? Should we differentiate between good and evil? Absolutely.

Should we confront and resist sin? Of course.

If you are a church leader or pastor and someone in the church is causing trouble or abusing children, should you passively allow it? God forbid.

On the other hand, if a pastor or priest becomes arrogant and authoritarian and causes trouble in your family, are you allowed to rebuke that man even though he is the leader?

What does Jesus say?

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. Mt 18:15 NIV

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 NIV

We must confront other Christians strongly, sometimes.

But we must never forget that only God sits on the heavenly judgement seat, not us.

If you correct another Christian, you must first bow before God's judgement seat. We are all flawed.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Mt 7:3–5 NIV

We must sometimes confront other Christians, but if you're acting like a policeman always on the lookout for sins in the community, then you've really gone astray.

It is sometimes all right to correct other Christians. Sometimes.

But am I appointed by God to correct all the faults I see in other Christians? Christians who think this way are proud and self righteous.  

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.

If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Gal 6:1–3 NIV

“You who are spiritual” is an important qualification. People who think they are always right are not spiritual. Spiritual Christians are humble, gentle and loving.

Experiencing God Personally

There are Christians who hold on to biblical truths, but they are not enthusiastic about spiritual experiences or strong emotions.

It is true that our feelings cannot be a reliable basis for our faith, but God is love. Without strong feelings, love is just an abstract theological idea.

The foundation of our faith is the Bible. The Holy Scriptures are from God himself. We must understand the clear theological statements in the Bible as authoritative, but it is a big mistake to focus only on theological statements.

In the Bible we also find the experiences of faithful Jews and Christians who loved God. These experiences are just as important as theological statements. They belong together, like flesh and blood, like truth and love, like light and life.

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Ps 42:1–2 NIV

When we try to separate feelings and experience from truth, we go completely wrong.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control… Gal 5:22–23 NIV

This is a theological statement. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are not feelings, but virtues.

Love is also a virtue, but not just a virtue. Love without feelings is not love.
Peace without feelings is not peace. Joy without feelings is not joy.

In Psalm 42, the psalmist speaks of his longing for God's presence in the services in the tabernacle or in the temple. Where God reveals his holy presence, we experience something.

There is a big difference between a map and a beautiful fertile landscape. Theological statements are our indispensable map, but God's direct presence is our promised land.

I have experienced wonderful blessings in church services. Hopefully you have too, but we no longer live in the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, God's tangible presence was mostly found in the temple, but 50 days after his death on the cross, Jesus sent us his Holy Spirit from heaven.

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Jn 7:38–39 NIV

It's wonderful when you experience a fresh refreshing of the Holy Spirit in a blessed worship service, but sometimes it's even better when you can feel and enjoy God's glory in your daily life at home or on a walk in the park.

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. Rev 3:20 NRSV

This is not just an invitation for the unconverted, but an invitation for Christians to enjoy a tangible communion with God in our everyday life.

Healings and Miracles Today

There are Christians who are enthusiastic about signs and wonders. Some of these Christians love Jesus with all their heart and have an intimate relationship with God.

Others seem to be enthusiastic about miracles, but their lives show no deep love for God and little love for their neighbour.

Jesus is our role model. His love for God and for us human beings moved him to sacrifice his life on the cross.

Through his death on the cross, his love was most clearly seen, but not only that. Everything Jesus did was motivated by his love.

We find the human life of God's Son in four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

At the age of 30, he began his ministry as an itinerant preacher. Three years later he was arrested and executed on the cross.

A central aspect of his ministry was the signs and wonders, especially the very frequent miraculous healings.

We read again and again how his miracles were motivated by great compassion and mercy.

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Mt 14:14 NIV

His teaching and preaching were motivated by the same compassion and love.

His healing ministry was inseparable from his ministry as a teacher and preacher.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Mt 4:23 NIV

There was no sickness before the first man and woman disobeyed God. In a sermon by Peter in the book of Acts, we see that sickness is the work of the devil.

And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38 NLT

After his resurrection, before he returned to the Father in heaven, Jesus declared that his disciples should continue the same supernatural ministry.

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;  

they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mk 16:17–18 NIV

This is supposed to be the normal behaviour of Christians.

‘’These signs will follow those who believe...‘’ so not only apostles.

We find a similar statement in the Gospel of John.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. Jn 14:12 NIV

But didn't Jesus warn that we can work miracles and still be condemned as sinners?

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Mt 7:22–23 NIV

That is the tragic reality.

But some want to claim that all preachers in our time who really or supposedly work miracles are hypocrites.

Is it possible that a preacher blessed by God can work real miracles but end up being condemned as a sinner?

Judas Iscariot healed the sick, just as Peter and John did, but he betrayed Jesus and was condemned.

But if Jesus taught signs and wonders were important, we should also value miracles. He is our role model. We should believe for miracles and make sure we are motivated by love, as Jesus was and is.

 

The Future will be Different

 We are in a kind of no man's land, a waiting time.

We are waiting, but we don't know what lies ahead. The future will be different from the past, but we don't know what will come and when it will come. We have promises from God. We may expect revival, but what will revival look like in the unknown future?

The revivals of the past often appeared unexpectedly. We read history, but we know the world of yesterday is never coming back.

We are like Abraham in the Bible who set out on a pilgrimage not knowing where God would lead him. Abraham went from his homeland to a completely different destination. We stay where we are, but the world is changing around us.

Abraham and Sarah had to trust God for their unknown future, just like we do today. 

Abraham really had to trust God because he was 75 years old when God promised to give him a son. He had to wait about 25 more years until Isaac was born.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. Rom 4:19 NRSV

We often get tired of waiting and with many trials. I am sure that Abraham and Sarah were sometimes tired and discouraged.

But God wants to encourage us. He gives us his word and his loving promises.

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
 
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isa 40:29–31 NRSV

We are in an unprecedented global crisis. In such times can expect God's miraculous intervention. Millions are sick and yet millions are cowed in the shadow of death. So many are dying.

The Second World War was also a terrible crisis. Millions died and but millions were sick, injured and traumatised.

Shortly after the war, God was at work with great mercy. Great revivals appeared in different countries. Evangelists appeared in America and thousands of seriously ill people experienced miraculous healings.

In Solingen in Germany, a German evangelist emerged who exercised amazing healing gifts. 

Hermann Zaiss was a very gifted German evangelist at the end of the war. Already in 1945 thousands and thousands from all regions of Germany and also from other countries came to his meetings. Many seriously ill people were miraculously healed, but these were not the greatest miracles.  

There was a young soldier in the British occupation force. He burned with a terrible hatred against the German people. His commander was a Canadian officer who regarded this young man with Christian compassion because his uncontrollable bitterness was poisoning his own soul.

This young man was not a monster. As a Jewish child from Germany, he had found refuge in England, but his entire family was murdered by the Nazis.

The Canadian officer brought the traumatised young soldier to the meeting to hear the German evangelist.

Also in the audience was another badly injured man. He was a hard-core Nazi from the Waffen-SS, a devoted disciple of the Führer.

In the last days of the war, he was hit by the explosion of an artillery shell. When he awoke from a coma, he saw a black American nurse smiling at him with Christian Mercy. He no longer understood the world. One of his legs had been torn apart and he was permanently crippled.

The bewildered SS officer and the bitter young Jew listened to the sermon, saw the healings and felt the presence of God with His love and mercy. Then their hearts became warm and soft. They converted to Jesus and testified of their experience.

Then the most amazing miracle of all occurred. They became firm friends.

In dark times we can expect amazing miracles.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
God's love never changes. God is love. 1 Cor 13:7 NLT

Jesus Feels Your Pain

True compassion is an intense mixture of love and hate. Jesus had that kind of compassion. He loved people with an incomparable love, and at the same time He hated the circumstances in which they were trapped.
Hunter, Joan. Healing the Whole Person

If you truly love people, you will really hate disease. If you truly hate sickness as Jesus did, you will believe in God's healing power.

God really loves you. So how does He feel about you when you are sick?
 
People have different theories about it.

(The love of God) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Cor 13:7 (NKJV)

How are we to understand this?

``The love of God endures and tolerates illness. 
or
``The love of God believes in healing because God loves us and therefore hates our sickness.``

Jesus is our role model. What do we learn from Jesus in his ministry before the cross?

Jesus did not tell any sick person: ``I do not want to heal you because you have to learn holy patience in your illness.``

Jesus never said: ``God has chosen only some sick people to get healed and you are not one of the chosen ones.``

When we study the ministry of Jesus, we see that Jesus never rejected a sick or handicapped person seeking healing.

When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.
 
This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." Mt 8:16 (NIV)
Jesus took our weaknesses upon Himself by renouncing His eternal divine omnipotence for a while. He became a weak baby and took our human limitations upon himself.
 
He took our illnesses upon himself by feeling such painful compassion.

But Mt 8:17 is a quotation from the Old Testament.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
 
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV)
These verses in Isaiah prophetically point to the cross, where Jesus took our sins upon Himself and suffered our punishment in our place.

If we look closely at the text, we see that Jesus took on not only our sins but also our sicknesses on the cross.

Why did Jesus take away not only our sins but also our sicknesses on the cross?

Because sickness came into the world through sin.
 
Therefore, Jesus wanted to abolish not only sin, but everything that is connected with sin: shame, guilt, inferiority, blindness, all kinds of handicaps and all kinds of diseases.

When Peter first proclaimed the non-Jew, he summarised Jesus' ministry with these words:

And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38 (NLT2)

Here we see that God not only hates disease. Disease here is equated with oppression by the devil.

If you are depressed, mentally disturbed or ill, God himself feels your pain.

God sent his son into the world to give you a new life.

He carried your sin, your shame, your guilt, your pain and your sickness on the cross.

The Source of True Life and Love

You are the light of the world. … let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)
 
Moses was the light of his generation. After forty days alone with God, Moses came down from Mount Sinai a changed man. His face shone.
 
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light ... Matthew 6:22 (ESV)  
When a woman is in love, her eyes shine. Her whole face lights up. If we love Jesus, and we are living in His presence, we are like young people in love and the world can see it. 

This love is not based on achievement or good work. It is comes from the revelation that God loves you with all His heart.
 
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 (ESV)
 
CHILDLIKE TRUST
 
How does a child grow up? By experiencing his parents´ love and trusting in their guidance.
 
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Mark 10:15
 
In a healthy family, the parents exercise sacrificial love and the children enjoy that love. It is in enjoying the love of God, that we shine like lights in a dark world. 

Nothing makes a person’s face like up like the enjoyment of loving because you know you are loved. God IS Love.
 
If we focus on our own striving to keep God’s commandments, we lose the childlike enjoyment of God, which is our source of love, joy and power.
 
But isn’t obedience also important?
 
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. John 15:10 (NKJV)
 
Disobedience is not childlike trust in a good Father. Jesus spoke about good works that draw unbelievers to His light.
 
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? Matthew 25:37 (ESV)
 
And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Matthew 25:40 (ESV)
 
When we heal the sick or buy food for a homeless person, kindness motivated by the love of Jesus shows the goodness of God to the world.
 
The obedience that Jesus loves is not based on an obligation to a ministry. Jesus is not impressed when we strive to win approval, escape criticism or please leaders.
 
And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Luke 22:25
 
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Matthew 23:8-9
 
Preachers who intimidate and control are trying to make people good, but they destroy the childlike love, joy and faith which is the real source of Christian goodness.
 
Fear is the opposite of faith. The fear of man (including church leaders) actually undermines trust in God.
 
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 1 John 4:18 (ESV)  
Should preachers always be soft and comforting? Jesus was not. Godly ministers lead, teach and challenge, but they do not control people with guilt, duty and intimidation.

Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

I pray you will find the right Christian friends and mentors. They will see you as Jesus sees you, a unique son or daughter of God.

Loving Humility, Not Cruel Humiliation

Paul describes himself as a slave but also as an apostle.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-- Romans 1:1 (NIV)
He had surrendered his life completely to the will of God, subordinating himself like a slave, but God had entrusted him with a high office. 

God wants us to humble ourselves before Him, but not because He wants to humiliate us. If you are always putting yourself down, you don’t understand God's love.

If your family, your boss or your church leader keeps putting you down, it is not from God.


I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. 
Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. Jn 15:15 (NIV)

 
In many English translations we read the word SERVANT but in the original Greek text the word is DOULOS, which means SLAVE.

If you dedicate yourself to God’s will fully, like a faithful and willing slave, but love and trust God like a beloved son or daughter, Jesus will embrace you and treasure you as a dear friend.

You need the peace of God!

God's will for you is peace.

Peace in Hebrew is SHALOM. That includes safety, healing and complete well-being. This peace comes only from God. 

Herrmann Zaiss was a dedicated evangelist in Germany who was deeply hurt in spite of amazing success. He was full on charismatic. His ministry resulted in numerous conversions and healings, but in 1924 the resistance of the anti-charismatic Christians was much stronger than it is today.

The persecution by other Christians was very hard to take. His wife had a complete nervous breakdown and his marriage failed. His wife was apparently permanently psychotic in a psychiatric institution.

Herrmann Zaiss was a broken man despite his amazing faith.
How is that possible? In the Bible, Elijah became desperate and asked God to let him die.

Herrmann Zaiss could not take it any longer.

He did not want to have anything to do with God anymore. He still believed in God, but he did not want to live as a Christian. God could kill him, he knew that. He told God he could call him back after 20 years if He so willed. That was up to God.

Zaiss became a successful entrepreneur and married again.
In 1944 he was in Solingen and Germany was falling to pieces. In Solingen and elsewhere, allied bombs rained down day and night.

His wife told him that despite everything, he was a man of God. The time had come to re-activate his faith to encourage the suffering people around them.

Exactly twenty years after turning his back on God, he knelt with his wife, and they gave themselves completely to Jesus.

God forgave him and restored his miraculous ministry. His faith was stronger than ever.

One day they heard a bomber attack on Solingen from England was on their way. Herrmann Zaiss took to the streets and ordered the aircraft to return to England. Then they heard that the bombers had actually turned back.

His ministry increased. Hundreds of desperate Germans came to hear his message. Many were converted.

After the war, a businessman provided him with a bomb-damaged building.

People came from near and far, even from Holland. They saw amazing healings. Where despair reigned, new hope rose up.

Among the British occupation forces was a young soldier. His entire Jewish family in Germany had been wiped out by the Nazis. He was accepted as a refugee in England, and now as a British soldier he hated the Germans.

A Canadian officer was Christian and wanted to help the young Jew. He took the tormented you man to one of Herrmann Zaiss’s meetings. The broken-hearted young soldier heard the wonderful message and saw the amazing miracles. He felt the love of God and God gave him a new heart. Instead of blazing hatred, there was now a burning love.

At the same meetings there was an ex SS officer who had adored Hitler. He had been seriously wounded during the last days of the war, and he was cared for in an American hospital. He could not understand the love of American Christians, but Jesus also transformed his heart.

The young Jew and the no longer hate filled Nazi officer became close friends.

"I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near," Says the LORD, "And I will heal him." Isaiah 57:19 (NKJV)

God Loves Rejected People

The Father gave His only son Jesus for all mankind. In return, the Father wants to give all mankind to Jesus. 

 

Why do not all come to Jesus? 

 

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. John 6:37 (NKJV)  

 

Does God only draw some to Himself and to His Son?

• No, no, no.

Jesus said:

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32 (ESV) 

 

Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross, when He willingly died to pay the penalty for our sin, to receive the punishment for our rejection of our loving God because we chose to live as though He did not love and care for us.

 

Jesus died but He did not stay dead.

• After three days in the grave, He was bodily raised up from the grave by the Holy Spirit.

• He spent 40 days encouraging and teaching His followers before He was raised up from the earth again. 

While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. Luke 24:51 (ESV) 

 

The heart of the Father is to save every one of His lost children. 

• Without Jesus in your life, you are separated from God by your own choice because you have chosen not to live in the Father love of God. 

• You have lost your right to be called a son or daughter of God.

• God is the source and giver of all life and goodness. 

• If you die without Jesus, you will still exist and you will experience the darkness and emptiness of death for ever.

If you are not enjoying the love and forgiveness of God but you are reading these words, God is speaking to you calling you to come to Jesus.

• God sent His son into the world to restore everyone to Himself but He was rejected and put to death.

• It is the same today. 

• He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, John 1:10,12 (ESV) 

 

Why did God do this? Because God is Love. 

 

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8 (NKJV) 

 

God’s plan is that you would find His love in a church but sadly this sometimes does not happen. 

 

• If you have not found the love of Jesus in a church, don’t give up on God. 

• If churches have rejected you, Jesus has not stopped loving you.

 

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. John 6:37 (NKJV)  

 

If you come to Jesus by watching Christian TV or reading the Bible alone, God is loving you and not casting you out. If you are an isolated believer in Jesus, God wants something better for you.

 

And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18 (NKJV) 

 

If you are a man or woman who is following Jesus alone, God is proud of you for not giving up on His Son but He wants you to have human companionship. 

 

Ask Him to lead you into Christian friendship. 

• This is more important than marriage. Marriage can be a blessing or a curse.
• This is more important than going to church or joining an organisation.
• Churches can be loving or they can destroy love.

But one great truth remains. 

Jesus is with you if you love Him and He is very powerfully present when two or three believers come together because they love Him.

• I pray that you will know the love of Jesus.

• I pray that you will find a loving church.

• I pray that you will enjoy loving family life.

• But even if you do not find a loving church or family, I pray that you will discover the blessing of believing friendship.

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20 (NKJV)

A Time for Courage

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.' Isaiah 41:10 (NKJV) 

Many times in the Bible, God says to His people: “Fear not” or “Do not be afraid.”

• In some texts, God is telling His people their fears are imaginary, that there is nothing to be afraid of at all.

In Matthew 14, the disciples were in a boat in rough weather. When they saw Jesus walking on the water, they thought He was a ghost.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid." Mt 14:27 (NKJV) 

When the angel Gabriel came to Mary, he reassured her.

Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Lk 1:30 (NKJV) 

God’s people have nothing to fear from supernatural manifestations of heavenly glory.

On the other hand, there are situations where we have real reasons to be afraid but God calls us not to be afraid anyway.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Mt 10:28 (NKJV) 

Here Jesus is saying Do Not Fear even though you face savage persecution and possible martyrdom. It is a call to courage and faith in God’s salvation. 

• It is also a warning to remember God’s punishment for cowardice.

God Is Love

As we read the Bible, we see again and again, that there are two essential aspects to the love of God. 

These are comfort and challenge.

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  

Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Mt 4:18-19 (NKJV)

What a blessing, to be invited to live full time with Jesus and to be given the power to get men and women saved, to rescue them from damnation! 

• But what a challenge to leave the security of a successful family fishing business and to live by faith in God’s daily provision!

I have a friend who was once a committed Muslim in Saudi Arabia. 

• Muslims have no assurance of salvation. They live in the hope that they might be good enough to escape hell fire. 

When George came to know Jesus, he had the comfort of knowing the God who really loved him as His dear son. 

Some Muslims desire such a personal relationship with God but their sacred writings offer no hope for such a fulfilment.

• But it was a challenge to be rejected and persecuted in his own country. It was a challenge to flee to Australia as a refugee.

God called him to study for a doctorate at an Australian university where there are a lot of Arab Muslim students. Not one of them escapes Georges personally targeted preaching of Jesus.

Once George spoke to an Arab Muslim missionary on campus, one of many militant Muslim missionaries sent around the world financed by oil rich Arabs.

“Why do you preach Islam?” asked my friend.
“Because I want to go to heaven,” replied the Muslim missionary.
“That is very selfish!” said George. “I know I have a home in heaven. I preach Jesus because I want OTHER PEOPLE to go to heaven.”

We have the comfort of knowing God has prepared a home for us in heaven.

We have the challenge or reaching others with the Good News of God’s kindness.

Do you want to see with the eyes of God?

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." John 8:12 (NKJV)

• If we have the light of life, we can see clearly.
• If we know our bible but are not changed by the love of God, our knowledge is worthless.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8 (NIV)

"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. John 3:16 (NIV)

• If this love does not dominate our thinking, we are living in darkness.

Very few people are really blind. Most of us can see with our eyes but what do we see in our hearts? How do we understand what we see?

Three men looked at a prostitute.

• One man looked and desired her. He was looking for sexual excitement.
• A second man looked and saw a bad woman. She was evil and she was under God’s judgement.
• A third man looked and saw a woman who had suffered much. 

He thought of his own little daughter, his wife and his mother. He looked at the prostitute and wondered what suffering and confusion led her into this life. No little girl dreams of a future in prostitution. He saw a woman in need of real love and the mercy of God.

• Jesus of Nazareth thought like the third man and Jesus is the same today. 

• Sadly there are some Christians who think like the second man.

In the same chapter of John’s Gospel we read how religious men brought a woman to Jesus. 

They had caught her in the act of committing adultery. What kind of man would stalk a woman to catch her in the act? But these men thought God would approve of their zeal for morality.They challenged Jesus and demanded the death penalty for the woman.

Jesus was not happy. He loved justice but where was the man she had sinned with? 

• Why should he condemn the poor woman to death while the man went free and the accusers were rewarded for their cruelty and pride?
• Jesus was not only full of love but also full of wisdom. He had the perfect answer.

So when they continued asking Him, He … said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." John 8:7 (NKJV)

The accusers all retreated in shame.

• If we live in the love of Jesus and let God lead and teach us, we can also think and react like Jesus.

John Dawson was the leader of Youth With a Mission in Los Angeles. 

Like Jesus he did not despise anyone but his heart was set on introducing everyone to the love and mercy of God.

He wanted to reach a man who owned a sex shop, so he made friends with him and met him for breakfast every Wednesday morning. 

• When Jesus did things like this, the religious people in Israel called Jesus a friend of sinners, and it was not meant as a compliment.

John Dawson explained the Good News of Salvation to the man and he understood the message completely but he was still not willing to put his life into the hands of Jesus. 

• Then John had an inspiration from God. He saw the man with the eyes of Jesus and he told the man how God saw him.

This man had the gift of mercy but he was not using it right. He was selling pornography, a kind of comfort but a false comfort. 

Jesus was offering to change him, so he could give true mercy and goodness to people in need. First he needed to receive mercy and forgiveness for himself.

The man changed his mind and asked Jesus to turn his life around.

• Are you ready to see people as God sees them?

• Are you ready to see even yourself through God’s loving eyes?

• God knows about your failures but he sees your potential.

• With Jesus we can even look at bad people with the eyes of love.

HOW DOES GOD FEEL?

If you are a mother or a father with a heart for your children, you know what it means to be vulnerable. 

• When your children suffer, you suffer. 

• If your son or daughter has ever run away from home, been addicted to drugs or gone missing, you know what anguish can be. 

Jesus is respected by millions around the world as a great teacher and prophet but this is not what Jesus said.

Jesus said he was sent by Father God to show us what our heavenly Father is like. 

God is not a remote creator and judge, as Mohammed taught. Mohammed taught Allah is NOT a father and Allah has no son and no children. The Qur’an pronounces a curse on all who believe Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus taught something quite different.

Jesus prayed to God as his Father.

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

• For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
• Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:1-3 (NIV) 

The ancient Greeks, like the Hindus of today, believed in many gods. Like the ancient Greeks, Hindus believe some of these gods have visited the earth in human form.

But Jesus was different. 

He was born as a human baby but claimed to be the only son of the one and only supreme God.

No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father’s heart. 

He has revealed God to us. John 1:18 (NLT) 

Only Jesus revealed God as the supreme creator who is also a supremely loving Father.

... the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. John 16:27 (NLT) 

The Father in Heaven gave his only son to reveal his love and truth to his lost children, including you and me.

Jesus always acted with love and compassion for suffering men and women.

The Apostle Peter summed up the practical love of Jesus in these few words.

You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 

 You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached-- 

 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. Acts 10:36-38 (NIV)

If you are a heartbroken mother or father, God understands your pain because it is also His pain. 

• He wants you to know Him as your Father who also loves your children. 

If you are a young person abandoned by your parents or a wife rejected by your husband, God wants you to know He watched His son Jesus dying in agony on the cross, a victim of cruel religious leaders.

God is not the supreme puppet master who determines everything. 

• He has given you and me freedom to choose. 
• That is why this world is a mess, because of the bad choices of  men and women, including you and me.

You must choose what to believe and who to trust. 

• Will you decide to trust in the Father in Heaven who loves you enough to sacrifice His only Son Jesus for you?

Jesus suffered and died on the cross but he did not stay dead.Three days later he returned from the grave. Death could not defeat the eternal Son of God.

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

• and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 (NIV) 

GOD IS INTENSELY INTERESTED IN YOU

God wants nothing but the best for each person, and that includes you. 

• God made you for His purposes, and His purpose is always good.

...God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (NIV) 

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good...Genesis 1:31 (NIV) 

But Adam and Eve messed up God's plan by listening to lies and choosing the wrong way. 

You and I followed the wrong way and messed up a lot of God's plans but that did not change God's heart towards us because...

... if a person isn't loving and kind, it shows that he doesn't know God—for GOD IS LOVE. 1 John 4:8 (TLB) 

When we are not loving and kind, it does not change the character of God or the heart of God towards us.

• God is love and he made you because He loved you.

• He loved you before the creation of the world. 

• He loved you when you were conceived and when you were born,

• and He loves you now.

But what if you were conceived in the back seat of a car after your parents had too much to drink?

• That does not change the love of God for you.

What if your parents brought you up in witchcraft, and you were demon possessed as a small child?

• That doesn't change God's love for you. He doesn't blame you for what was done to you.

One of the most amazing characters in the Bible was a man with a terrible past. 

• We don't know his name but when he first met Jesus, he was running around naked and cutting himself with stones. He was possessed by hundreds of devils, but he still had a human soul. 

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 

He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" Mark 5:6-7 (NIV)

He was so confused, that he could not distinguish his own thoughts from the thoughts of the demons who controlled him, but he responded to Jesus with faith when the demons left him.

For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!" 

Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." Mark 5:8-9 (NIV) 

After Jesus drove out the demons with a word of power, the man was restored to sanity and begged to be allowed to stay with Jesus.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Mark 5:18 (NIV) 

But Jesus did an astonishing thing.

Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." Mark 5:19 (NIV) 

But the man did far more than tell his family.

So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them. Mark 5:20 (NLT) 

After Jesus healed a totally insane and demon possessed man, He immediately commissioned him to go and tell his story to a whole region. 

• He became the evangelist for ten towns.

Before this man began to preach, the people asked Jesus to leave them.

• When Jesus returned later, great crowds followed Him and many people came to faith in the Son of God.

It may be that you have also been rejected and bullied. You may have been tormented by illness, depression or even demonised by involvement in witchcraft, drugs or sexual abuse.

Whatever your story might be, you are important in God’s eyes. He wants to give you a future and a hope.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)