All one has to do today is turn on the news and watch what is happening in the middle east to know what hatred causes. We also need to look closer at ourselves. Do we have the ability to learn? I think yes... Please read this:

          All of life is a learning process.  Something that often escapes us though is that we do have some control over what we learn.  For instance, if Mom and Dad learned to hate that doesn’t mean I have to carry on the tradition.  God gave me a mind of my own.  I can accept or reject what they teach.

          My parents taught mostly love but I was raised in a church which taught love but it seemed it was only for people who think like they do.

          Too often we learn to hate.  The horror of it is that we often learn it from places that should be teaching love and forgiveness.  Unfortunately, that is not the way of the world.  Jesus once told his disciples, “You think I came to bring peace but I came to drive a sword between brothers.”  I honestly do not believe he came for that purpose.  I think he simply know human nature.  He knew we would see anyone different than us as someone inferior.

          It may be the color of their skin, their religious background or simply because they don’t have the same taste in yard work as we do. 

          We hate people because they are Jewish or if you are Jewish maybe you hate them because they are not.  Why not keep in mind that we all serve the same God.  We look down upon Muslims or those who worship Buddha but we need to know about these people.

          The greatest of all the tragedies is when one Christian hates or thinks down on another Christian simply because they don’t worship the same way.  Do we not need to love one another and realize that God and his son Jesus are more forgiving and able to read the hearts of each of us?

          That means you and I share one thing in common.  We are all in need of his love and forgiveness.

          The color of a mans skin or his or her ethnic background is not as important as what is in his heart or what is in my heart.  We all need to be saved.  We all are imperfect man.

          I once had a lady say she was made perfect in the Lord.  I believe he actually forgives our imperfection and thereby see us as perfect even though we have not always earned it.

          That lady once said she had nothing against black people as long as they knew their place.  I ask you, is that a Christian way of thinking?  We all need to know our place.  We are all dependant upon the love and forgiveness as well as the leadership of our Lord and Master.  Without this, we are all doomed.  With it, we take on the wings of Angels.

          The bottom line is this:  Don’t judge your brother for when you do you judge yourself.  Don’t allow yourself to learn hatred, it is destructive.

Learn love, compassion, forgiveness, and be the person our Lord hung on that cross for.

          God is watching.