My heart cracked –  again, for the millionth time – it broke when I heard a 20 something person say,  “God hates me – I know it.”  He shoved his hands in his pocket and looked down.  “Really?” I asked him, “Why do you know this?”  He looked up at me and said, “Because I’m a homosexual and two churches have told me that God hates me.”  I breathed in deeply and prayed “Lord, give me some words this young man needs to hear, come Holy Spirit and speak.”  Then I heard myself say,  “Oh, Really?!  Then you need to find a different church because God loves you.   “I’m not really interested in the church,” he replied.”

“Well then, you need to call some people or find some who will tell you the truth about God’s love for you. I’ve done the research and there is no where in the bible that tells me God hates you. God loves alcoholics, drug addicts, even dealers and people in prison.  God loves you and you need to find a church that can help you know this so you can be healed from having been told that.”

  He added, “I don’t know about finding a church, but thanks anyway.”  He reached out for a hug which I gave him as I said, “God bless you.”

What about Love?  Why is it so difficult for churches to teach Love first?   Granted I don’t know everything there is to know about those churches or this young man. But if the message he is hearing is that God doesn’t love him, then I’m wondering where He is going to search for a sense of being Loved?

 I remember a time when I believed that God hated me and I had no chance of being with God ‘forever’ and experiencing Heaven in my afterlife much less my life here on earth.  I didn’t feel like going to shop for a church then either.  Thank God for the people who fed me Scripture outside of the church, who wrote me notes, who spoke truths to me about God’s love for me.  People who were able to remind me of that truth.  If it weren’t for them, I might never have returned to the church . . .  interesting that I turned back towards God in Christ before I returned to the church . . .

Love first, judge last . . in fact . . .  don’t judge . . . there is no commandment telling us to judge one another . . . only one that commands us to Love One Another.

– just my humble thoughts on my experience . . .

– June