HATE

And a time to hate; (Eccl. 3:8b)

The reverent fear and worshipful awe of the Lord [includes] the hatred of evil; pride, arrogance, the evil way, and perverted and twisted speech I hate. Proverbs (8:13)

Yesterday I saw something quite interesting.  I saw a reflection of myself in my daughter during a basketball game in a way that I don't think I noticed it before.   They were playing a team that came focused and ready to play.    Some of the key players on her team had essentially lost their cool, and began to turn on each other.  She wasn't apart of the off the court confusion, and the coach put her back in, and as she played "focused" things got worse on the bench, and to the point the ref called the game.  She so busy, so focused on trying to do well noticed things falling apart and wanted to fix it all, but I called her to myself and began to encourage her for being a good team member.  She began to drift into weeping and I noticed how she loved this team, this game called basketball but HATED CONFUSION, HATED PEOPLE GIVING UP, and HATED NOT BEING ABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, because she was willing to give her love to the success of the team.

As weird as it may sound to say it....Christians are permitted to, encouraged to Love what He loves, and hate what God hates.  So let me try to keep this short:  You will find in scripture that GOD hates (Psalms 11:5, Proverbs 6, Malachi 2:16) acts, not His people.   Search yourself....I mean that, really search yourself.....Have you allowed your heart to hate certain people?  Seriously....how do you feel about homosexuals, blacks, whites, republicans, democrats, liberals, rich, poor, homeless, affluent, Bosnians, Russians, Africans, Catholics, Baptist, Pentecostal, Drug Addicts, Drunks, pedophiles, murderers, ex-convicts.....you get it???!!!?!?!

The only way to truly WORSHIP GOD is learning to LOVE HIM and ALL OF HIS PEOPLE (ALL THE one's HE CREATED...and since SATAN isn't, can't, and has never been a creator...this means every breathing soul) and hate behaviors.  Proverbs challenges our thinking....do you really hate evil?  Do you discourage pride & arrogance when you see it budding in yourself or others?  Do you encourage bad jokes or back biting (talking behind peoples backs- gossipping)  or do you love them enough to tell them to their face your feelings regarding their actions?  SATAN wants to pervert GOD's way and His Word.   He wants you to HATE PEOPLE...instead of ascribing your hatred towards their actions that are prompted in part by him.

Here's my parting encouragement: (John 4:20) If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?  LGLP