No. 02 - THE POWER OF AN IDEA By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, February 23, 2002 Down through time, what were the most powerful forces to impact mankind? What forces, once discovered, changed the course of history in our minds? What would you think is the most powerful force to ever effect mankind? Was it the discovery of fire by early man? Was it the use of warfare? Now there is a big case to be made that warfare has been absolutely the driving force in the history of mankind; and in warfare itself, you can look at the development down through time from simple things like clubs up to the Greeks who came up with the phalanx. The Mongols, who came up with cavalry. Rome, who invented strong armor. Naval power that Spain then Britain and now the United States possess. Or, would you look at the life of Alfred Nobel and say, no, it was the discovery of dynamite, explosives, and that led to artillery and bombs. Or, would you say, no, it is nuclear power, fission. Look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Well, none of those I mentioned were the most powerful forces to effect mankind. Think of this, the power of ideas. The concept of city, state and nation. The concepts of governance: despotism, monarchy, democracy or a republic like we have. These were all concepts that mankind came up with in their mind for the implementation of law. But, I tell you there are still more powerful ideas: all the “isms” that have driven the governments in the wars of the past. The “isms” starting from simple barbarism, anarchism, Confucianism, Mohammedanism, communism and now the world-triumphant capitalism, which is the power behind our republic and the democracies of the world. These are the directions of mankind’s implemented thoughts. Implemented ideas by human beings - aren’t they what really has driven war, conquest, profit, riches, gain? Some good things, too, like freedom, freedom of the press, freedom to meet like we are here and freedom of religion. But, what has driven the “isms” that drove history? Human reason: the ability to think and the freedom to come up with the concepts and the ideas that draw from what? The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For 6,000 years mankind’s reason has been coming up with concepts that pick from good and from evil and come up with the “isms” in the forms of governance that have effected the history of mankind. So we see these thoughts that drove the wars that led to ethnic cleansing, hatred, greed, envy, all forms of lust, including the lust for power, all came from human intellect: the wonderful gift that God gave us in our heads, in our minds, in our hearts, to come up with thoughts, reasons and implement them. Implement those concepts for good or for evil and so often in history they have been used for evil. But, often time man has come up with very noble thoughts like the one that we are availing ourselves here - freedom of assembly, freedom of religion. These are very noble thoughts. Noble thoughts drove the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Powerful thoughts that led to the founding of the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. What made those thoughts so powerful? Because they were based on the thoughts of the Creator. It was stated right there in that statement. The most powerful thoughts that mankind can think are based on the thoughts of God. Far more powerful than weaponry, far more powerful than all the “isms” that have ever existed are thoughts. The most powerful thoughts are the thoughts of God and that is why God says, “My thoughts are so high above your thoughts.” When we reach to that level of thinking, mankind can accomplish tremendous good. God’s thoughts are based on His law. We must be able to comprehend that law to implement any good idea and have true good come from it. That is why it is the source of good Christian thought. God’s law is the source of good Christian thought and the more we deviate from that law, the worse our thoughts and the worse the end result. So we must comprehend God’s law. It is the source of good Christian thought and it is the foundation for good governance. It is, in essence, the constitution that we should live by. God’s law is the perfect constitution. Guess what? There is still something more powerful than God’s law. The most powerful thoughts ever imagined and the most powerful intellect that ever will exist wrote those laws with His finger. So they were the product of His thinking and He existed before the law. God wrote the code to live by. Turn to Exodus 31:18. “And, when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mt. Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.” What drove the finger of God - His mind, His thought, His reasoning? That is why the Ten Commandments are so perfect. The Writer of the law tells us that now we must interpret that law to understand the spirit of that law and apply it in our lives. Does He say that law is the most powerful, the most potent force in our lives? No. There are aspects of that law that are actually closer to God’s intent. I want you to turn to Matthew 23:23. This comes with a warning. Christ says, “‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.’” The law is driven by the thoughts of God that are of justice, mercy and faith, and the law is what He judges by. But He had to think of that law. He has always been just, full of mercy and completely faithful. I would like to look at these three concepts for a minute. Faith: wouldn’t you like to have power of even a grain of mustard seed of faith? Don’t we often say I wish I had just a little bit of faith because we see what Christ says what a little faith can do? Turn back to Matthew 17:20. “So Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’” Wouldn’t you like that kind of power? Now that is power! That is a real force. That comes from the mind of God - the power to move mountains. Let’s turn to the faith chapter, Hebrews 11. In verses 1 through 3 we are told in Hebrews 11, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” We have faith when we just believe that everything we see out there came from nothing and that the All Powerful did that. That is faith to believe that. True faith, even a little bit of it, should give us tremendous power. Let’s take a look for a moment at judgment. Judgment - now that’s powerful. Go back to Exodus 12:12 - “For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.” Now wasn’t that a fearful night? An awesomely fearful night, when the firstborn died because of God’s judgment. Now that’s power! Go to Ecclesiastes because if that is a scary thought, we must all realize we come underneath that judgment. God judges all. Ecclesiastes 12:14 - “For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing. Whether it is good or whether it is evil.” Every secret thing we have ever thought or said or done will come under judgment, and we just saw in Exodus that God’s judgment can wreak incredible havoc in a very short time. It is a fearful thought. Go to Hebrews 10:26 - “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” Now that is a fearful thought! None of us want to end up in that situation yet we will all face judgment, but what does God say? God says we will help Him judge. Now that is power! We thought faith was powerful. We are going to help Him judge the world. Now that is power. Give me that rod of iron, right? I will help you God! Revelation 2:25 - “‘But hold fast what you have till I come and he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations, “He shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the potter’s vessels shall be broken to pieces.”’” Now that is power! That is the ultimate. The ultimate power - to be given that rod of iron by God so we can help Him dash the nations to pieces. Put the fear on everybody else. Let’s stand and condemn the world and let’s get on with it. Let’s bring on the Day of the Lord. Let’s bring on that tribulation. We will help God smash this earth. Is that the ultimate power? Have we reached the zenith now, the maximum power that we could ever be given - that rod of iron? No, brethren, we have not arrived at the ultimate power yet. We have not arrived at the maximum source of power yet. There is still something, so powerful that judgment cannot stand up to it either! Isn’t that something? Love, mercy and compassion are the most powerful forces in the universe, without a doubt! Turn to I Corinthians 13, the love chapter. Verses 1-3, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” Verse 13: “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Now we have often heard, God is love. A lot of times human beings tend to think love, compassion, mercy is a weakness. Love is not weakness. Compassion is not weakness. Those are the most powerful forces in the universe. What is rooted in love and compassion that is so powerful is mercy. Mercy trumps them all! Mercy trumps judgment. Mercy trumps faith. Mercy trumps hope. Compassion is what unleashes mercy. Being moved to compassion is what unleashes mercy and that erases judgment! Exodus 25: We will take a brief look at where Christ will rule from and where He ruled in the Old Testament. Do you know that He ruled from the mercy seat? Christ ruled from the mercy seat. Was it because He was a wimp? No! We saw what judgment had done in Egypt. Christ is not a wimp. Exodus 25:17 - “‘You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.’” That is the law, so mercy is above the law; and Christ rules above the mercy seat. Verse 22 - “‘And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.’” Above the mercy seat dwells He who judges and He judges mercifully and under that and within it is the law. God’s mercy contains the law. It holds the law. Mercy means to cover, to expiate, to placate, to cancel, to cleanse, to pardon or to reconcile. So that is the seat that covers and expiates the sin, the seat that placates the Father, the seat that cancels our guilt, the seat that cleanses, that pardons and reconciles us. Now that is power! Mercy as we see triumphs over justice, because what is true justice? Isn’t it Romans 6:23 - we are all under a death penalty. “The wages of sin is death.” So if you want judgment and I want judgment, the answer is we are doomed! Thank God that more powerful than judgment is mercy! Thank God that His plan is full of mercy and that His plan is to redeem mankind or else we truly are pitiable. Now if we desire God’s power, we need His character. We want true power? We want to rule, we want to reign? Well then we need His kind of love. We need love for God and love for mankind and we demonstrate that by developing compassion and dispensing mercy in this life. You are going to see how important this is. If we want to reign and we want power, this is a lesson we must learn. We must practice it in our lives. Compassion is what moves God to mercy. When He looks down here on human beings and He sees us in our pitiable condition, He is moved to mercy; so much so that God the Father gave His only begotten Son while we were yet in our sins. That is an incredible sacrifice. We need to be moved with compassion for the rest of the world and for God’s Church, and we need to learn the empathy that teaches compassion - the old Indian proverb of walking a mile in someone else’s moccasins. Put on their life for a little while before we judge. Let’s cut each other some slack. There is a little time left, brethren, to learn to bear this fruit. But, I think it is much less time than what we realize. So if we want to rule and serve and we want to be in the Kingdom of God and we want to dwell with Christ over the mercy seat, it is high time we gain mercy, we grow in compassion, we grow in love. Let’s look at the scriptural evidence. Let’s back this up with God’s word and then let us believe it and act upon it. Let’s go to II Samuel. We are going to prove these things so that there is no doubt in our minds that this is something we need to do and we need to work on; and we better get busy, because there is not a whole lot of time left. II Samuel 22:26. This is an eye opener right here. “With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless.” We want mercy? We better be merciful. We want kindness from God? We better be kind. If we want compassion? We better be compassionate. Because with the merciful, God will show mercy. Turn in your Bible to Luke 6:27. “‘But I say to you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.’” Verse 35 - “‘But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest.’” We want to be God’s sons? We want to rule? We were just told what to do and how to act. “‘For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.’” God is kind to people who don’t thank Him and to people who are, yes, bad! Didn’t He die for us while we were in our sins? Of course, He did. He did not demand that we get good first. We are to learn, of course, not to continue sinning; but He died for us while we were bad. Let’s take a cue from that. Verse 36 - “‘Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.’” We want power? We want to rule? Be merciful! God cannot give power to the unmerciful. Can you imagine? I shudder to think of power in an unkind, harsh person. God would never do that to His creation. That would be the ultimate cruelty. That is what we have now. We are underneath Satan and his government. Much of the world is underneath tyrants. We would never want to be part of a system like that and God will not allow it. So we want mercy, be merciful. We want to rule, learn to love. There is a very sad element about harsh judgment. We hear a lot today about blindness. A lot of people are pointing at people calling them blind. The surest way to blindness is no compassion and no mercy. It is the surest way to blindness. Let’s just keep reading here in Chapter 6 of Luke. It tells us exactly that. Verse 37 - “‘Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.”’” Verse 4l: “‘Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,” when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.’” Judge harshly, and you have just jammed a sliver in your eye. Condemn and you have just jammed a sliver in your other eye. I do not know how many of you have had a sliver in your eye, I have. You cannot see anything. You shut that eye because of the pain. You can see nothing, and Christ is saying if we judge harshly and do not have mercy, you are blind. This is all part of the same chapter here, we did not leave the chapter. The subject is mercy here. Without mercy, we are blind. Why? Because we cannot see God for what He is. We cannot properly understand His plan. We cannot give hope to the world so the blind lead the blind. The world is full of blind people leading blind people and they all fall in the ditch together. We have to break that cycle. We have to ask God to give us His love, His compassion. Give us all we need to grow in mercy so we can see to take the beam out of our eye before we help other people take the speck out of theirs. Before we condemn the world to destruction, we better make sure we can see so we can help them, so we can give them hope. Take that beam out of our eye. Then we will know how to dispense mercy, then we will have true compassion; because then we can see the pitiable people that God sees. When God looks down on the earth, there are things that make Him angry but mostly He is moved with pity. He is moved with compassion, so much so that He gave His only begotten Son to give us hope. To give us a way out, to reconcile us with His blood; so we can have mercy dispensed not judgment, otherwise we are all doomed. If we want fair justice, we are doomed. If we want a gift of mercy, look to the loving Father and Jesus Christ and then we will know how we are supposed to act toward our fellow man. This is incredibly important and it is important to learn fast because there is not much time left. Turn to Revelation 3:17. This is talking to us in our time, the Church in this day in age. “‘Because you say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” - and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.’” These are spiritual conditions. Look at God’s Church. Aren’t we a miserable bunch - miserable, wretched, but mostly blind? We just saw what causes blindness - a harsh attitude, an accusing attitude, an attitude that is quick to condemn, to point out others’ faults without removing our own. This is blindness and it shuts us off from seeing God’s plan, His way of life and even what we are supposed to be doing at this time. Look at the condition of the Church. There is a dearth of compassion. Above all people on the earth, the world should look to us in how we deal with one another and how the church groups deal with one another; and they should be able to say, I know who they are because of their love for one another. I know that has to be the true Church of God, look how they love one another! Is that the image we portray? I am afraid not. We are a body that is so broken, that is so accusatory one to another, and I mean brethren to brethren, church group to church group, minister to minister, that nobody can recognize us as the true Church of God right now. How could God bring an innumerable multitude into this mess? That would be cruel and we are told that is the condition of the Church today - poor, blind, wretched, naked and miserable. Shame on us, because we should know better. We need to act mercifully and compassionately in our families, to one another in the Church and from church group to church group. If we are ever going to heal the wounds in the Body of Christ, we need to put on compassion. We need to stop blaming, stop accusing, stop slandering, stop maligning. This has to stop. We are the only ones standing in the way of the bride being ready for Christ’s return! We should see the enemy for who it really is and it is us, brethren! Of course, Satan has his finger in there; but the power of love would kick Satan right out of here if we had it. So shame on us. We have brought this about. Let’s look at a few more scriptures regarding mercy, love and compassion. Turn to Psalm 147:11. “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy.” When we respect Him, stand in awe of Him and give Him proper fear, He will show us mercy. Go to Psalm 119:64. “The earth, Oh Lord, is full of Your mercy; teach me Your statutes.” God wants to be merciful to the whole world. Ask Him, beg Him for help; so that we can have the same attitude. Have a merciful attitude toward the whole world. Consider them the family of man, the potential children of God - brothers and sisters of you and I for eternity. When we look out their at those people, pity them for the condition they are in, as God pities them for the merciful will receive mercy. It is a law! Let’s continue in Psalm 119:77. “Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your law is my delight.” Let Your tender mercies come to me God so that I may live and God says extend tender mercies to those around you and you will have My mercy and you shall live. That is how it works. Psalm 119:156 - “Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord; revive me according to Your judgments.” Revive me it says. We do not want God to be fair with us. We do not want to be judged justly. We want to be revived, brethren. We are a weak and pitiable group of people in the Body of Christ and we need to be revived. We will be revived by His mercy. The sooner we learn compassion and mercy, the sooner the Body of Christ will get revived. We need this and it is incumbent upon you and I to work on this. We have to. Turn to Micah 6:8. “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” So what does God require of us? To do justly and to love mercy and live humbly - that is what God requires of us. That is what we will get from Him - mercy. This is the ultimate fulfillment of the spirit of the law; when we can live merciful lives, justly toward other people in humility, walking with God. That is His character. Love, kindness and mercy - when we have these in our character, we are walking with Him. Two cannot walk unless they be agreed; therefore, if we wish to condemn the world, we cannot walk with God. If we wish to be harsh and rule those harshly that we are to serve eventually, we cannot walk with God. We cannot rule with Him because two must be agreed. So we must be agreed on compassion. We must be agreed on mercy or we will not be above that mercy seat. We will not be ruling with Jesus Christ. He cannot do that to the world. Turn to Matthew 5:7 (the Beatitudes) - what are we told here? We are all familiar with the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” We are learning slowly brethren but we need to pick up speed on this. We have to use the time that we have left to put on God’s mercy. We have to. We are told we must. Turn to Colossians 3:12. “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies…” We want to be part of God’s elect. “…put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” This is God’s instruction to the Body of Christ. If we want to be part of the elect, we have to be this way toward one another. Colossians 3:14 - “But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Those are our marching orders, brethren. That is what we must do, then we will get rid of blindness. We will see ourselves for what we are. We can take the beams out of our eyes and then help the world take the specks out of theirs. Sometimes I think we are like the servant mentioned in Matthew 18. Turn to Matthew 18 about the unforgiving servant. It is a parable we have all heard many times. Let us put ourselves in this position. We know we have been forgiven a big debt. We were all doomed to die - Romans 6. God forgave us, a huge debt and He will give us life. He will be merciful to us. Matthew 18:21: “Then Peter came to Him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” You know what that means? For their entire life span because seventy is the life span of a man! We are to keep forgiving for as long as they live! Matthew 18:23: “‘Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.’” We are His servants, Christ is the King. “‘And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.’” Now that is you or me. “‘But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying “Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.’” In comparison to ten thousand talents, these are pennies. “‘And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe!” So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?” And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.’” Do we want to find ourselves in a position where we beg God for forgiveness for all of our life’s sins and turn to a brother or sister in the faith or another church group or another minister somewhere and say, you so and so, why are you doing that? I am not going to put up with this. I am not going to forgive you for that. I want an apology. You have offended me. Get out of my sight! Are we going to have schisms in the body of Christ and then turn to the Master and beg forgiveness and expect it? Are we going to be unmerciful and expect to receive mercy. That is hypocrisy! Now extend that to the world. Are we going to say we are the Church of the forgiven, God forgave me so I am going to the place of safety; but you are all condemned to die, because you are thumbing your nose at God. You will not listen; you are not behaving, therefore, cruel punishments are coming on to you to wake you up! I have been forgiven so I do not have to worry about this earth. I do not think anyone of us want to be in the position of trying to explain that attitude to Jesus Christ when He was willing to die for us while we were in our sins. We are going to talk about that more in an upcoming sermon but that is an incredibly important thing to get through our thick skulls. We are told how we judge we shall be judged; and if we want mercy, we are to be merciful. These are lessons we have to learn and we have to learn them very, very quickly. As God was merciful to us, He fully intends to be merciful to the world. I guarantee you that. He will destroy the wicked without a doubt, but He will make sure they have had every opportunity to repent. It will be the wicked who get destroyed. We cannot look at that world out there, at those people, who do not know their right hand from the left, just like Nineveh and condemn them like Jonah wanted to do. God says just that, they do not know their left hand from their right hand. I have not called them yet, they do not have My Holy Spirit, they cannot comprehend the things of God. We know that (I Corinthians 2) the mind of God - His Holy Spirit, allows us to comprehend His thoughts. His thoughts are so high above our thoughts, His force, His power, so high above our humanity, our human nature; that how can we, who can barely comprehend God’s mercy and His love, expect poor pagans to do it? They cannot! It is impossible! To hold them to the level of behavior that we are expected to hold to, is cruel. They cannot do it. Soon that is going to change because merciful people will begin teaching them, and there will be an innumerable multitude. God will redeem this world. We read scriptures to that effect. We want to be among the teachers, but we must have love, mercy and compassion if we are ever going to be able to be a successful teacher or judge. We do not want God to judge us on our “merits” because we know we are doomed. Why do we want to do that to the world? We should not. We should pity them as Christ pitied us, then we are putting on the mind of God, we are becoming like Him and we are growing in love and compassion. We are getting Godly character, which is the one thing God cannot create by fiat. He wants to see that in us; because that is what will make us like Him, truly in His image, when we have that kind of love and compassion for the family of man. Pity the state of mankind and understand that soon we will have a part to play in helping to fix their situation, to release the captives. Let’s learn not to be too quick to judge, not to condemn, especially starting in the body of Christ. Forgive our brothers and sisters, forgive the family in the household of God, forgive our personal families, treat our families gently. Treat our husbands and wives and our children the way we want God to treat us. We want mercy, we better be merciful within our families. We better be compassionate and understanding where it is close to home. Learn it first there. Practice it in the Church. Soon the world will look at the Church of God and say, “They must be God’s people, I know them by the love they have for one another. Look at those people!” If we want to convert the world and teach them, we will do it best by example. We will be tapping into the greatest thoughts, the greatest forces, the universe has ever seen. The force and the power of God and of His higher order of thinking, the ultimate, the maximum power and the power of love will overcome all. It can contain nuclear weapons. It can contain anthrax. It can contain calamity. It can change the course of history and it will. God promises it will. Do we want to be with Him or against Him? Do we want to be part of the solution or part of the problem? Do we want to get with the program or be an obstacle? Do we want to get the bride ready, or keep adding to the spots and the blemishes? The choice is really up to us. If we want to, we can be part of God’s plan and His family that will change the course of history in unimaginable ways - in beautiful ways! This is going to happen much sooner than you and I realize!