I feel like this is going to a post of hodgepodge thoughts, so here we go:

• I don’t like when people use JUST the argument the “bible says so.” I get it. It’s in the Bible. But what you pulled out of it was just a small section to further validate your thought. I say this because talking to someone who was using the Bible to justify his negative feeling towards immigrants. I’m sure he was referring to illegal immigrants, though he never clarified. But he was talking to me… an immigrant… anyway, I forget what passage he used to justify his reasoning, but he said “it’s in the Bible.” So I offered my own weak response, in Deuteronomy 24, where the Israelites are told to leave some harvest behind for the fatherless, the widows and the aliens. His response? “That stuffs in the Old Testament!” Me: “…..”
• History only describes us. It does not have to define us. We shouldn’t let history define who we are. Quoting John Mayer “who says you can’t be free from all that you used to be?” Local churches: your history describes you, tells you how you got today, but it does not have to define you. People: don’t get caught up in your past mistakes. Your history is only a story of how you got here today. It is not a formula of where you will be going. It does not have to define you.
• Jesus says that there is no greater love than laying down your life for a friend. Let that sink in for a minute, because I don’t think I behave that way, nor do many other Christians. Instead of a greater love, we look for the easier love, which is, in the name of love, in the name of protecting what we love, we take lives. We fight. We want to believe that Jesus came with an iron fist, but Jesus ruled with a towel and a basin. Billy Graham once said “It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict. God’s job to judge. And my job to love.” I think we like it this way: My job to convict. My job to judge. God’s job to love.