“Yes” was the answer! 

That is, we will be kind and compassionate to each other. Great! We are all made in the image of God, so all of us have the capacity to be kind and compassionate. No one group has the sole copyright or monopoly on this ability.

However, the back narrative is seen in the picture from the market with the Bible verse:  “… just as in Christ, God forgave you.” 

That really is the ultimate in kindness and compassion – Jesus coming to love us and give himself for us, so that we can be restored and reconciled to God.

This is through God forgiving those who have accepted Jesus as their substitute. Forgiven for their ignoring and previous rejection of God. And then changing, because they want to please their wonderfully kind and gracious God!

Great news!

Self-absorption or self-sacrifice? 

Another way of putting it – serving self only, versus serving others?

If we are self-absorbed, do we recognize it?

Self-absorption is only concerned with self, and the importance of self.

If we are self-sacrificing, do we recognize it?

Self-sacrificing probably is other person-centred, and doesn’t ‘blow its own trumpet’.

Most people chose ‘Both’. That seems realistic. A bit like in a plane. The cabin crew advise us to first put the oxygen mask on ourselves, then on our accompanying child.

Jesus was amazingly different. His actions  showed no self-absorption, but rather self-sacrificing. Ultimately, at great personal cost, he willingly gave his life for us. Three days later, showing the truth of his predictions, he came back to life again.

“… I have not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 6:33 (NIV)(http://www.laridian.com)

There are some things we really want – like tattoos!

Then we research them, chase and nail them. It’s all a bit of fun. However, to get a tattoo takes time, a certain amount of pain, and money. It is also fairly permanent!

Those who choose tattoos, have their own good reasons for getting them.

That’s what I thought, anyway!

The day in the market with that question was enlightening. 

Some loved their tattoos; others just hated theirs…

One thing in common was that they all had a story to tell about them.

It’s a bit like the way we all have a story to tell about each of our individual lives…

Some parts are happy, some are sad, and others are just confusing or embarrassing.

There are many contenders for this ignominious category!

Things like Marxism, Climate change, trafficking, Covid, alarmism. The list could go on.

Something even more wrong than trafficking

I am thinking about something even more foundationally wrong than trafficking.

It would be reasonable to say that none of us are ‘angels’, wouldn’t it? In other words, a bit like asking a bunch of friends together, “have you ever told a lie?” The answers would range from “everone does”, to “no-one’s perfect”.

We get the idea that we all do and have done wrong. To expand that, we could say we have all rebelled against God, and some way or other, have hurt other people. It would be a brave, if not deluded person, who would claim they are different to the rest of us in this.

That would be my choice 

We need to have a deep think, turn around and turn to God.

Jesus put it like this:

For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Matthew 15:19 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

What is your opinion?

‘Pro-Choice or Pro-Life? 

Does being pro-life mean that society is more civilised, or does being pro-choice mean that?

You can see from the blackboard result opposite that the majority of respondents in the market thought the latter.

I do find that difficult to accept

It is hard and inappropiate to call abortion anything other than the process of killing a baby in utero. It cannot be honestly sanitised to an alternative definition. Baby is the special word we have come to call the living human in the pregnant mother. We never hear a pregnant mum say her ‘foetus’ is kicking, or ‘just some tissue’ is starting to move, or has a heartbeat.

Once we know about the process of abortion, and especially if we see it on a live video, there is also no way we can think of the baby as anything other than living, and abortion as anything other than the killing of it. The reality is that the process is truly horrible to watch.

A mother’s love is normally accepted as the most exemplary of all forms of human love, isn’t it? Maybe there should be more forms of support for an expectant mother, so that she is more able to support and carry her baby to its birth?

I like that saying I heard somewhere – “Love them both.” They both have rights.