It's Not Fear, It's Love

I have probably said this before in one of my posts but I think it bears repeating. When I was younger in the faith and I read in the Bible Jesus saying that the path that led to salvation was narrow and there were few that found it, I used to ask myself what he meant. My reasoning was that how can there be billions of people on the planet and about half of them were said to be "Christian" and yet here was Jesus saying that fewer people would find the road to salvation than those that walked the road to destruction. A few years down the road of faith, I now believe I know what he was talking about.

I read an article by Ed Stetzer a few months back about a survey that was done which showed that the number of people who identified as Christians in America had greatly reduced. He then proceeded to ask whether it was time to start mourning the demise of Christianity in America and the West. In answering the question, he came to a conclusion that I had arrived at some time ago. The conclusion is this, there are many people who go to church but have never met with Christ who think they are Christians. They are not aware that going to church just makes you a regular church goer and not a Christian. From the Bible we understand that to be a Christian you must first be convicted of sin, then believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. After believing, you confess it. Then you take up your cross each day and follow him. It's therefore no surprise when people who have never been convicted of sin or confessed Jesus go back to where they never left in the first place. Then they gleefully tell us how they are no longer Christians. If I had a dollar for every atheist who thought he was a Christian before "renouncing" the Christian faith, I would be rich.

Centuries ago, someone once famously said God was dead but the only person that is dead is him.  The Christian faith is still going strong the only difference is that those who believe are being separated from those who don't believe. Christianity has survived repression in countries like China and is still in existence in North Korea. Even in places like Iran, Egypt and Syria where it is dangerous to be Christians, they still exist. There is nothing man can do to stop it. I read a Tweet yesterday that made me smile. The tweeter was insinuating that Jesus would be dumped after his fear had worn off out of people's lives. I was amused at the people who make comments on things people don't understand. Just because the Christian faith talks about the "fear of God" some think the fear being talked about is literal. For the record, it's not.

I do not believe in God or Jesus because I am afraid of him. I don not believe in God because I am afraid of him, hell or something like that. To paraphrase Peter, I follow Jesus because he has the words of life. I follow him because I love him. Fear is not a factor. I follow Jesus because he has the truth. I follow Jesus because after considering the other gods men chase after like money, fame and fortune, he still is greater. I follow Jesus because I believe everything else is vanity. Whether or not only one person in the west believes in God, it doesn't matter. What matters is that in the end, those that say they're Christians really, truly know what it means.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

One and Half Popes and Doctrine

I read an article on the Fox News website about the ceremony where Pope Francis elevated nineteen new Cardinals to the College of Cardinals, the body responsible for electing a new Pope. His predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict was also present at the ceremony. It was quite an interesting article but there was something that struck me quite powerfully about the article. The writer made reference to the fact that the crowds that were coming to listen to Pope Benedict daily when he was in office were one-third of those that now come to listen to Pope Francis. I believe the intention of that particular piece of information (or was it a fact check?) was to show how unpopular Pope Benedict is in contrast to Pope Francis. This is in light of the fact that the writer in the same article remarked that people present cheered when they saw Benedict.

                        

There is a tendency in human beings for comparison even though the Bible tells us that the people who do this are not wise. One of the most obvious means of comparison is numbers. Therefore a person in an office who attracts more people to his sermons or meetings is deemed more popular and from that position we believe that he must be more effective. However I tend to see things differently. I believe the fact that Benedict drew smaller numbers of people than Francis says a lot more about the people than it does about Benedict.

There have been several reports in the mainstream media about Pope Francis comments. These comments have been analysed, dissected and analysed some more in the mainstream media. From their analysis of his comments one would be forgiven for thinking that he was about to abolish all the doctrines of the Catholic Church. It seems the mainstream media have got this idea between their teeth and their running with it so much so that it culminated with him being on the cover of TIME magazine as their man of the year. And it seems a lot of Catholics seem to have this idea as well. So it seems that while a lot of them see Benedict as a strict and unbending conservative, Francis is the flexible and conciliatory liberal. Hence the great love.

G. K. Chesterton said that the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, rather it deemed to be hard and so left untried. I have always said I do not believe in labels when it comes to Christianity. You are either a Christian or not. I do not believe you’re a conservative Christian or a liberal Christian. I also reject the terms fundamentalist unless by that you mean someone who believes in the Bible. I believe the Bible is the final authority on all things that has to do with the faith Christ gave us. Like C. S. Lewis said, doctrines were given to us as maps by men but these men had deep relationships with God. I believe we live in a fallen world with fallen minds which need renewal in the word.

I admire Benedict. He felt trapped in a position that was not allowing him fellowship was God which he missed deeply. So he gave up his position and all the trappings and stepped aside for someone else who could handle everything so much better. I do not believe the fact that Pope Francis is drawing bigger crowds reflects badly on his predecessor. I believe some of the people who come to see Francis are already living the liberal lifestyle they want him to endorse. They want him to endorse their own beliefs and make them happy and comfortable by breaking down doctrines that have served the Church for centuries. We’ll wait and see if he’ll oblige them. Although I wouldn't hold my breath.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

God Isn't Into Equality

Joel 2:28-29  "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit."

One of the major buzz words of the present age that we live in is the word "gender equality" and the proponents of this movement tell us that their aim is equal pay for women who do the same work as men. I support this. However I must confess that I have always wondered why the proponents are always looking for the next Carly Fiorina (and now Marissa Meyer) the equality never extends to supporting women who want to be the best carpenter, plumber, electrician or truck driver. Just saying.

The book of Joel gives us an indication of the plans God had for mankind in these last days. He promised that he was going to pour out his spirit upon all flesh and "your sons and daughters" would prophesy". God promised us his spirit so that we would all prophecy. Now if you're looking for someone who believes in equality then God is your man. However I don't think equality was God's main purpose. I believe his motivation was the knowledge that in order for him to fulfil his plans in these last days, he needed both men and women. So when it came to his purpose with regard to ministry, he made men and women equal. Therefore the equality is derived from the purpose intended. I therefore do not believe God has given us his spirit so that we can be less than he meant for us to be. It would be a waste of the power of the spirit.

I have been immensely blessed by the ministry of women like Joyce Meyer, Michelle Hammond and every woman I have been blessed to listen to or read their book including my pastor's wife. I'm sure that I would have loved listening to Katherine Kuhlman or Aimee Semple McPherson if I had lived in their times. I believe women were meant to minister and not just be adjuncts to the men. But I also believe in spiritual authority and respecting authority. While I believe women should be able to preach (I refuse to use to use the word "right"), I believe there should be respect for authority where they do not yet do so. 

I have somewhat followed the arguments for and against the ordination of women in both the Anglican and Catholic Churches. It's interesting to note that those against the ordination of women are mostly men who are in positions of authority. However what has been most disturbing to me are the comments of those in support of the ordination of women. The Church is not a business or a corporation and it does not run on the same principles as the world. Jesus said that we are in this world but not of this world. The main reason given by those arguing for the ordination is that of "equality". I have never once heard the argument that women too should minister because they also have God's spirit. In the end, it always sounds like they want the "right" to minister simply out of good old fashioned ambition. What the Apostle Paul calls the pride of life. I have also been appalled by the way they denigrate the leadership of their churches even as they try to get people in the world to put pressure on so that they can have their way. Romans 14 tells us that if we desire to do or be anything in God's kingdom it should solely be out of love. Love for God and for his people. Not out of love for ourselves. 

I am disturbed at all the the things we want to label as a right. Working with God is not a right but a privilege. It's not not something to be fought for or to vilify others over. I believe it something to be sought for with prayer and discussion. Ministry is about serving other people and not about satisfying a desire for position. If we have a dream of serving God in ministry, how can we as Christians justify the murder of people we claim to want to serve with our words and actions? What would we have gained? What would we minister? What would we minister? God is not as concerned with what we achieve as to how we achieve it. God is mostly concerned with our character, not our results and that is something we should always have at the back of our minds.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

   

Life and the Pride of Life

We live in a world that constantly tells us how we should view ourselves in relation to others. Most and generally, the world tells us that if we are talented, gifted, hardworking or have some gift or have some advantage that others do not seem to have, we should have a high opinion of ourselves. In fact, it tells that us that we should think of ourselves better than the next person. However we are then hurt when others do not seem to have as great an opinion of us that correlates and corresponds with the opinion we have of ourselves.

Let me say that I believe that there is good pride and bad pride although barely separated by a very thin line. Good pride is as a result of knowing and recognising the gifts, talents and blessings that God has given to you and doing your best even while resting in God's grace to make full use of them to bring glory to God. In the first place, it's not about you alone. It's all about God and you. You realise you are not in competition with anyone and you are running your own race based on the hand you have been dealt. It's also not really about the achievements or the accolades but it's about understanding the purpose for which you were born and working with God so that you reach as many people as possible with your gift, talent or blessing and if possible, help change their lives for the better. And in the process we are changed as well. If all we strive for are achievements and records rather than seeking to help change lives for the better and point God out to people, then we have entered the second category of pride.  

Now the other other pride which the Apostle Paul refers to as pride of life is not really something we are aware of. It's actually quite subtle and insidious. While the good pride corresponds with the relationship between us and God, the other pride normally shows up when we think of our talents and abilities in relation with others. In other words, pride shows itself with regards to our opinion of superiority in relation to others. Pride normally shows itself in situations which are perceived as negative by the person with pride. Pride is usually revealed by the question "Why?". I said usually because "Why?" could also be as a result of introspection with a view to correcting what is wrong. When a man is laid off from work and he asks "Why?" he could be asking with a view to finding out what went wrong and correcting it so that it doesn't happen again. However, when a man asks "Why?" and he is thinking "Why was I laid off since I was the best worker, the most hardworking person, the first in to work and the last person to leave?" he doesn't really need to ask the question since he already has an answer. He has shown that he is someone who takes pride is his abilities in relation to others and just maybe he lets others know what he thinks of them. The Bible asks us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

The question "Why me?" usually denotes that we think that there is something special about us so that life is barred from happening to us. As long as we live in a fallen world, life will happen to us. The secret is not being to attached to this life and the things in it. Life will bring disappointments, pain, hurt and sadness. Things will happen that we will not be able to understand this side of eternity. Therefore our focus should not be on what we can do but on what God can do. When we focus on us, we get lost in a myriad of feelings and emotions but in him we find clarity of purpose. The Bible says when we behold him, we are changed to be like him. That should be our desire, to be more like Christ and less like the world.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

There's Really Something About Marriage

I once came across a blog post where the writer was talking about her experience at a wedding she recently attended. According to the writer, the pastor who officiated the wedding ceremony kept making reference in both his remarks and sermon to how great marriage was. According to her, he made her feel less of a person because she wasn't either married or with a significant other who she was thinking of marrying. The way she saw it, there was nothing wrong with being single and she didn't particularly like being put under pressure to get married as she didn't think that being married was any more special than being single. From the comments made to the post, most people seemed to have that view. Personally, I think they miss the point.

In the book of Genesis, after God created the Heavens and the Earth and he had made man, he looked at the man and declared that it was not good for the man to be alone. He brought all the animals to Adam so he could name them all but amongst the animals, there was none that Adam could relate to or with even after he had named them because there was none like himself. So God made the woman who was like the man. Therefore God made the woman for the sake of relationship, communion, agreement and help. If you've read enough of the Bible, you will understand that the scriptures contain some very funny mathematics equations when it comes to marriage. For example it tells us that one plus one gives us one. It also tells us that while one will chase a thousand, two will chase ten thousand. Even the Apostle Paul tells us that there is a mystery about marriage. According to him, the unity in marriage between a man and a woman is like the unity in the Godhead itself. In Genesis, we see the unity of the Godhead where they declare to themselves that they should make man in their own image and after their likeness. We even understand that that marriage is a hounourable institution.

The question then is, is being married better than being single with regards to living a full and fulfilling life with regards to finding your purpose and doing it? No. I do not believe that being married is better than being single. It's a choice. The Apostle Paul even said it was better to remain single and serve God with a focus that would not be distracted by a husband. However, do I believe there is something special about marriage? Absolutely. I do believe that marriage is a special institution ordained by God that he takes great pleasure in. This is especially true when that marriage produces children who are then taught God's ways by their parents.

I believe one of the great things about marriage is that it teaches us about caring deeply and wanting to please someone other than ourselves. We have to come out of our selfish zones and bend over backwards to express the love of God to this person we are bound to. Also, we have the powerful opportunity in our marriages to model the love and unity of the Godhead and that, I think is something pretty special.Therefore rather than denigrating marriage or thinking that it doesn't matter or that there is nothing special about it, I honestly believe it is something we as Christians should look forward to as it gives us a peculiar opportunity to show people the Christ that lives in us.

Therefore when next we go to a wedding ceremony, those of us who are single should not think that because we are not married, God loves us less or we are less spiritual. It's just that two people have decided to share their lives together to the exclusion of everyone one. (Not totally true but you get my meaning). It is something we should be happy for them for instead of grousing about how we feel excluded. We should wish them well and pray that some day, we also will have the grace to find that one person we want to give up everything for, let down the walls we have built and share a love filled life with.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

Everything Is About Love

The book of 2 Chronicles 25:2 tells us about a king called Amaziah who did right in God sight but not with a perfect heart.He was a man who did all the right things he was expected to do in relation to worshipping God but he did all he did with the wrong motives. (I wrote a blog post earlier about motives which you can see here (http://herstheword.blogspot.com/2013/10/we-all-have-agenda-whats-yours.html). Technically that means that everything he did not meet with God's standard. If Paul were the one referring to him, he would have said that his works were put on a scale, burnt and all that was left was ashes.

Jesus took the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses and distilled them into two new and distinct commandments which said love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength and love other people as yourself. We understand that the central story of the Bible is all about God's love for and search for mankind and about how we are to receive his love and share it with others but at times we seem to forget that. I was struck by this this thought recently while going through some of the chapters of the book of Corinthians. As an aside, most times as Christians, we take a verse of Scripture in isolation that corresponds with our feelings and we ignore the the rest of the verses. At times, we need to read more than one verse or the whole chapter to be able to get the meaning of the verse.

Church historians and theologians tell us that the books of the Bible were only recently divided into chapters for easy understanding. I was reading 1 Corinthians 14 and I found out that if I wanted to fully understand it, I needed to read Chapter 13. Then I found out that Chapter 12 was also needed as well. In a nutshell, what Paul was saying in those chapters of the Bible is that not only is love the most important thing, your motive for doing anything must be love. Therefore it's not enough to believe that something is a calling or that it's your purpose in life. You must be motivated by a love for God and a love for people.

Therefore it's not enough to want to be a pastor because you believe you have a pastoral calling. You must be motivated by love. It's not enough to join the volunteer workforce in your church because there are not enough workers or because you want to give something back to your spiritual feeding place. You must be motivated by love. It's not enough to desire to speak in tongues or prophesy, your desire must be backed by and propelled by love. If your desire is not as a result of love then the motive is fuelled by a selfish desire for self aggrandisement or duty. God is not looking for people bound by duty. He is looking for those moved by love.

The Bible tells us that our works will be tried by fire. I believe that when our works will be tried, it is not the quality of the work we do that will be judged but the heart with which we do it. When our works are tried by fire, I honestly believe that what will determine whether our works survive will be determined whether or not our hearts were moved by love or a sense of religion or duty. The Bible tells us that love is the evidence of being perfect, of being mature. We should grow up and leave duty and thoughts of the praise of men behind and focus on love. I believe therein lies our salvation. Doing anything else, like Amaziah, we might find out too late that we didn't walk before God with a perfect heart. Today when the world celebrates a love that is different from that which God says, we need to let them know that there's something more.



JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

Our Attachments Tell The State Of Our Heart

Like a lot of Jews at that time, James and John thought that Jesus was going to establish a kingdom in Jerusalem. There was the expectation shared by most that he would declare himself as a king and the people would have the Jewish kingdom they had long sought and hoped for. James and John therefore decided to meet Jesus and get first dibs on the political appointments in the soon to be established kingdom.They wanted to be the people that would seat on his left and right hand side signifying that they were his most trusted advisers.

Jesus was at pains to explain to them that his kingdom was not of this world. At his resurrection, he set up the kingdom he had been talking about and invited us to take up positions in the kingdom. Our positions in the kingdom are not determined by an appointment or by how much we do. Our positions are determined by the depth of the relationship we have with the king of the kingdom. Being a member of the kingdom is voluntary. However, once we declare allegiance to the king and bow the knees to him we have to live according to the rules of the kingdom. But the great thing about the kingdom is that there's something called grace that offers us forgiveness for our mistakes.

I believe that when we say we are Christians, our first allegiance is to the kingdom that we say we belong to. However there is a tendency we have to try to force other people who do not belong to the kingdom into living by our terms. However, people do not get converted into a new way of thinking or living by force. If you had asked me last year whether legislating was the best way to get people to change I would have said yes but I changed my mind after a conversation with my brother. While it is right to speak out when unrighteous and man made laws are being drawn up, we really have no right to try and force a form of fake godliness down other people's throats. That's why I worry when like James and John Christians seem to think that one political party or the other embodies our vision of Christ's kingdom.

Following Christ is a choice we decided to make and no law we make in this world can legislate righteousness. Christianity is a choice and there can't be a worldly version. Also righteousness is a state of the heart. It cannot be forced. While we should seek to make the world a better place we shouldn't be too attached to the things in this world. When we get more attached to Christ, we grow more like him as we grow in love, grace, truth, peace and joy. When we grow more attached to the things of this world we grow more like the world. We grow angrier, we are less graceful and grow more entrenched in the things we do. We get more entrenched in our position and we are less filled with the love of Christ. And we are more likely to try and force people to our own way of thinking. And we are less like Christ. The things we are attached to tell us who we are. And what we are. Our focus should be on Christ and him alone.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

We Come And Go Empty

The other day I was listening to one of my favourite songs (I have many of them) when it got me thinking. The song is There Will Be A Day by Jeremy Camp from his album Speaking Louder Than Before. The song talks about the fact that there will be a day when things like death, sorrow, pain and tears will be no more because they would have been defeated. But then at the end of the chorus it talks about how even as we wait for that day, we hold on to God always.

Job was the one that said that naked we came into the world and naked we leave it. We come into the world and people and circumstance try to shape the way we think. The world tells us that one of the secrets of happiness is the acquisition of things. Like I tweeted yesterday, I read a terrible article by the British comedian, Russell Brand in the UK Guardian where he blamed addictions and the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman on other people. I'll write about that some other time maybe but there was something in the article that caught my attention. He talked about how even the addiction men get themselves into can fill a void in the soul. I believe addictions cannot fill the void in men's souls because only God can fill it. But men like Russell Brand are too caught up in themselves that they do not consider that just maybe God can fill that void.

We can try to fill our lives with possessions, position and power but they'll always come up short. The fact is nothing can take God's place. The world tells us that we can only be happy when we make those things our lives pursuit. In other words, the world is happy if we are consumed by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Rather than possessions, fame and position, God wants a relationship with us. Then he wants to develop things like patience, love, joy and peace in our lives. He wants to develop our character so that we can stand up tall against the world and it wiles as it tries to conform us.

When we think of living for seventy years and we think that is a long period of time and maybe we wonder what we are going to do to fill those years. It's not and there's plenty to do. I don't know if it's because I'm growing older but I have begun to feel that time keeps moving faster. I can still remember when the year started now it's almost the middle of February. Anything we do with our time is something we are doing with our life. Anything you spend time doing, you are exchanging a portion of your life in pursuit of that thing. Rather than exchange our lives for inanimate things that will perish with this world, the best we can do is pursue and seek to exchange our lives for things that have eternal significance.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

We All Need Grace

It all started with a tweet by Bart Millard the lead singer of the Christian group MercyMe in which he described Bruno Mars half-time Super Bowl performance as "awesome". Immediately there was a backlash to his comments on Facebook. I must confess that I didn't bother to go check out the comments because I didn't want to get depressed reading the nasty comments by people who say they are Christian about another Christian. So I generally left well enough alone. However I did read his own comments after the whole thing where he talked about how we all needed grace and it should be something we as Christians extend to each other. From his comments I would assume people questioned how a Christian could think a secular musician who sings about sex and drugs is awesome. I also guess some questioned his faith in Christ and his ministry.

I'm not a musical person but I do love music. Unlike normal people like us who only listen to the lyrics of a song, musicians enjoy other things like arrangement, the tune, performance and so many other things about a song. Therefore to people listening to the same song, when a fellow musician irrespective of what genre of song he sings, describes another musician as "awesome", there is tendency on our part to not only think he is endorsing the musician and his song but also his message and his lifestyle as well. Which is when I remember a song like "It Wasn't Me", you're not going going to hear me describe Shaggy as "awesome". For those who never heard the song, it was about a man who cheated on his girlfriend and then when he was caught, he told he ....., you get it. It Wasn't Me.

Like I said, musicians see things differently from the way we see things. Also, I think we should give everyone the benefit of the doubt and at times be able to separate the good from the bad. Michael Jackson had a lot of legal problems but I would be lying if I said I didn't like his songs. Songs like Man In The Mirror will always be great songs. Is it wrong to like his songs? Personally I don't think all his songs are bad unless they were promoting sex or something awful. I think we should be able to separate the good messages from the bad. Also, while we might have a problem with a secular artistes music, I do not believe we have to take it out on somebody who expresses his appreciation of another musician. Do I like Miley Cyrus or her music presently? No. But there's a possibility that along the line she might have a message that I might like in one of her songs. Should I disregard it just because of her past record? I think not. Some might argue that we have no business listening to secular music and I will concede to that. But you will agree that we mostly live in a secular world and unless you live in a cave, you will come in contact with something secular sooner or later.

As Christians we have a nasty habit on getting on our legalistic high horses and from the high altitude attacking other Christians and we call it correction. Correction without love is simply an accusation followed by punishment. God has extended grace to us all and we should extend it to each other. Impeaching a person's faith and belief in Christ just because he expressed appreciation of another musician's performance is just wrong and the people that did it should be ashamed of themselves. Christ did not die just for us to accuse each other. He asked us to love one another. Even to the point of death. He said that's how people would know we are his. By love. Not hate and criticism.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal