The Beatitude

The word "beatitude" means "blessedness." The expression held powerful meaning of "divine joy and perfect happiness" to the people who possess these inward qualities.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Is Jesus speaking of our spiritual condition of poverty and the acknowledgment of our need for God?

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Is Jesus referring to "those who mourn" as those who express deep sorrow over sin, or those who repent from their sins. The “comfort” refers to the forgiveness of sins and joy of eternal salvation?

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Is the meek those who submit to God's authority as Revelation 21:7 says God's children will "inherit all things."

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Is "hunger and thirst" speaking of a deep need and a driving passion to fill the soul's desire with compassion?

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Simply put, those who demonstrate mercy will receive mercy. Is this mercy shown through forgiveness and also by offering kindness and compassion toward others?

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Is Jesus referring to the inward holiness that only God can see? The Bible says in Hebrews 12:14 that without holiness, no man will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Reconciliation through Jesus Christ brings restored peace with God. Is God entrusts us with this same message of reconciliation to take to others as in 2 Corinthians 5:19-20?

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Just as Jesus faced persecution, are those living openly for righteousness and their faith genuine followers of Christ, worthy to receive the kingdom of heaven?

Law & Justice

There is a very diverse difference between justice and law. I believe that they have a few similarities but a different part to play in the legal system. Justice is like the ultimate goal that civilization has been aiming towards since the beginning of societies. The law is the tool we use as our process to find justice. Through the evolution of the law, our perspectives have changed. But have we really gotten closer to that ultimate “justice”? Or is it something that will always be just a little bit beyond our reach?

Law is a code that legalizes the behaviour of members of a society. It affects almost everything we do such as buying a property, getting a job, making a will or getting divorced. It also shapes politics, economics and society. It protects people, property and enforces consequences for those who break the rules.

Justice, on the other hand is generally understood to mean what is right, fair, moral, deserved. In addition justice is when a victim feels whole again or when an offender is held responsible for his behaviour.

Law does not always deliver justice but justice can differ according to a person’s point of view. Therefore, there is no way that law could accommodate all the people. The main difference between law and justice is all in the process. Law is the process and justice is the goal; no one escapes the long arm of the law but that does not mean that justice is served. Hence, one cannot afford to compromise when there is no guarantee in the justice system.

Suicide

Suicide is the act of deliberately taking one's own life. People who attempt suicide are often trying to get away from a life situation that seems impossible to deal with. Many who make a suicide attempt are seeking relief from loneliness, rejection, guilt and burden to others etc. Suicidal behaviors may be triggered by a situation or event that the person views as overwhelming such as aging, emotional trauma, substance dependency, serious clinical and mental illness.

Most people who seriously consider suicide do not really want to die, they are calling out for help to no avail. Hence, they see suicide as a solution to a problem and a way to end their pain. People who seriously consider suicide feel hopeless, helpless, and worthless. A person who feels hopeless believes that no one can help with a particular event or problem. A person who feels helpless is immobilized and unable to take steps to solve problems. A person who feels worthless is overwhelmed with a sense of personal failure.

The urge to end one’s life comes to the godliest of us. Both Jeremiah and Job wished they had never been born (Jeremiah 20:14-18; Job 3:1-23). Jonah, Elijah, and Moses not only wished they were dead, they asked God – some even pleaded with him – to kill them (Jonah 4:3,8,9; 1 Kings 19:4; Numbers 11:14). So did Job (Job 6:8-9; 14:13). Jesus feels for everyone suffering this devastating oppression. The exalted Son of God knows and understands. Thus, the question is will God forgive someone for committing suicide? I believe so if He is truly a God of love, mercy and compassion.

Relatives of people who seriously attempt or complete suicide often blame themselves or become extremely angry, seeing the attempt or act as selfish. However, when people are suicidal, they often mistakenly believe that they are doing their friends and relatives a favor by taking themselves out of the world. These irrational beliefs often drive their behavior.

Binding love

Many people are seeking help finding for love. Often they have a track record of failed relationships and bad choices that seems inexplicable.

Although whom we fall in love with and why are unfathomable, all too often a pattern emerges. For when we searching for that special something in someone else, we are often looking for something very different: a missing part of ourselves. Of course, finding the missing capacities in someone else can be massively relieving and allow you to glow in pseudo-spiritual state of being madly in love. As time goes by, reality begins to set in. the rest of your beloved’s personality comes to the fore and you find that maybe they are not such a match for your missing bit after all. When the passion dies away, you are left with what you started, still missing that essential element of yourself than should be part of you, not projected out onto someone else.

Many times, part of the mystery of love is that we do find a part of ourselves in the ones we love. However, if we depend on someone else to feel whole and without them, something vital is missing from our very being, then we are indulging in a thrilling, romantic and all consuming fantasy that will remain incomplete. What more, it is always in a grave danger of being shattered.

Bibliotherapy

Bibliotherapy is a kind of therapy achieved through the use books or other types of literature. Self-help books are the most common form of bibliotherapy and the obvious value in that it provides the opportunity for the participants to recognize and understand themselves, their characteristics and the complexity of human thought and behavior. It may also promote social development as well as the love of literature in general and reading in particular. It reduces feelings of isolation that may be felt by people with problems. It generally refers to the use of literature to help people cope with emotional problems, mental illness or difficulties in their lives and produce affective changes.

By providing literature relevant to their personal situations and developmental needs at a suitable time, bibliotherapy practitioners attempt to help people of all ages to understand themselves and to cope with problems such as separation and divorce, child abuse, foster care, and adoption. The use of literature can be used to help people cope with emotional problems and mental illnesses that have occurred in their lives. As a result of the change, it promotes personality and developmental growth. Reading related books often helps and the discussion and follow-up activities are what makes bibliotherapy commanding. The key is to find quality literature where the main character is experiencing problems similar to those of the participants.

The underlying of bibliotherapy is that clients identify with literary characters similar to themselves, an association that helps the clients release emotions, gain new directions in life, and explore new ways of interacting. Quality is important because if the story is not credible to the reader, neither will the solutions be. Whichever is the approach, bibliotherapy requires careful planning as it seeks to help clients respond directly to the materials they are given, so that change is effected through catharsis, insight, provide information, stimulate discussion about problems, communicate new values and attitudes, create awareness that other people have similar problems and provide realistic solutions to problems.

However, the effectiveness of bibliotherapy may be limited by the availability of materials on certain topics, as well as the lack of client ability, readiness and willingness to read. They may also project their own motives onto characters and thus reinforce their own perceptions and solutions.

Why are we stressful?

Every one of us is familiar with stress as we experience it in varying forms and degrees every day. In small doses, stress can actually be beneficial to us. It is only when the stress becomes too great that it affects our physical or mental functioning. In small doses, stressors gives us increased energy and alertness, even helping to keep us focused on the problem at hand. This is likely t be a pumped up type of stressful feeling. However, as the level of pressure gets too great, stress may eventually surpasses our ability to cope with it in a positive way resulting in severe burned out or at our wits end.

Everyone reacts to stress differently. Each of us has a different level of pressure threshold to handle a bad outcome. Only we ourselves can assess our level of tolerance to stressful situations and seek the best treatment prevent it from getting too overwhelming. However, this is not always possible because the external stressors may often be beyond our control.

If we are able to identify the source of our stress and remove it or address the situation, that may significantly resolve some negative vibes and anxiety. Even if we are only able to get away for a few seconds or minutes, the break is important and can help you on the way to a more permanent solution. The break may well stop a provoking situation or mentally removing yourself from the stressor through a mental distraction. The point of these actions is to allow us a moment to relax and formulate a plan for dealing with the problem at hand. Just having a plan can be a great stress reliever. It gives us a set of positive steps that you can work on to get yourself back to your baseline and out of the stressful situation. Well, but it’s all easier said than done. Why are we stressful? Sometimes we wonder why too....

Rainbow after the rain

After the rain, water molecules reflect the sunlight and the effect of the colour raising up to the sky is a rainbow. Rainbow after the rain is often used to describe the positive result after going through tough and difficult times. In hard times of hurt, frustration of life, discouraging experience and life with full of adversity, struggle everywhere and unending passage of different stages of life battle. How long can it go on in life? I came across this poem below and indeed, no life is in vain for there is always rainbow after the rain.

God never promise us a good life on earth; but He gave the assurance that there will always be a rainbow after the rain.

Life on earth is not always what we expected and wanted it to be. But if we can put our trust in God, He can sail us through definitely.

God never let us bear what is impossible; and He makes sure what we bear is thelimit that we can take without much difficulty.

After the rain, things will be changed; everything on earth seems to be new and clean. With these renew scenario, we should be:

a more positive and courageous person as indicated by the RED of the rainbow;

a creative, thoughtful and joyful person as indicated by the ORANGE of the rainbow;

a confident, intelligent and logical person as indicated by the YELLOW of the rainbow;

a renewed, generous and practical person as indicated by the GREEN of the rainbow;

a peaceful, sincere and responsible person as indicated by the BLUE of the rainbow;

a relaxed, devoted and wise person as indicated by the INDIGO of the rainbow;

a spiritual and idealistic person as indicated by the VIOLET of the rainbow.

Peace on earth by U2

Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain I'm sick of hearing again and again

That there's gonna be peace on Earth
Where I grew up there weren't many trees
Where there was we'd tear them down
And use them on our enemies

They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you
And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you
And it's already gone too far

You say that if you go in hard
You won't get hurt Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth

Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth

No whos or whys
No one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth

She never got to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he's in the dirt
Peace on Earth

They're reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won't get to know Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda
Their lives are bigger than any big idea

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line Peace on Earth

To tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth Jesus and the song you wrote

The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth

Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth
This peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth

Why do people gossip?

There isn't much to be seen in a little seminary, but what you hear makes up for it. Gossip has no value except what lies in the activity itself and the achievement of external ends in hurting others. People who indulge in gossip do not ponder deeply on the content or consequences of what they say. Do these people use their brain? Most of the time, it is talk for the sake of talking. Aldous Hugley described a gossip as a “professional athlete of the tongue”.

Since the typical content of gossip is usually behind-the-scenes, intimate information, it is indeed hard to verify it. With the lack of substantiation, the element of gossip is a byproduct of the confidential nature of the information conveyed. This unsubstantiated characteristic then become more typical of rumors or slander. Moreover, gossiping and spreading rumors is essentially a derogatory connotation of hearsay and by large due to the failure to distinguish the truth.

Gossip satisfies the basic need to acquire information about the personal and intimate aspects of other people's lives although one may be ignorant about how difficult it works in others’ lives. Gossip satisfies a tribal need, namely the need to belong to and be accepted by an uncharitable group of people. The sharing of intimate and personal information and the intimate manner of conveying this information contribute to the formation of an exclusive group with intimate and emotional ties between its members. They enjoy gossiping because it revolves around information not yet widely known and therefore “intriguing”! The negative information, generally concerns people who are not there to hear it, much like criticizing people behind their backs.

Gossip and rumour express insensitivity toward other people and indifference toward their feelings. The enjoyable and interesting elements in gossiping stem not merely from acquiring novel information but also from the content of this information e.g. the sexual life of a priest makes for juicier gossip and more intense sensation than the exploits of a prostitute!!! In most cases, gossiping and slandering exaggerate or distort information. It also shows the emotional intelligence of those who loves to gossip. How sad when gossiping and slandering is part of a person’s life. Indeed, how fruitful and authentic can his life be?

Providence of God

The providence of God does not alleviate us of any responsibilities. God works through means such as integrity, hard work, obedience and faithfulness of the people. The providence of God does not relieve us of the need to make wise judgments or to be prudent. On the other hand, it does ease us of anxiety in God’s promise. “If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?” (Mt. 6:30). Rather than being a cause for self-indulgence, compromise, rebellion or any other sin, the doctrine of providence is actually a sure ground for trust and a spur to faithfulness. Amen

Dealing with disappointment

Career, education, relationships, friendships, family, finances, health... there are so many area of life that we are bound to experience disappointment at some time. What exactly is the cause of this apparent universal phenomenon? Is it something in the outside world or something within us? Why do some of us seem to bounce back quickly from disappointment while others descend into resentment, anger or even depression? Most importantly, how can we use disappointment constructively to learn more about ourselves and life?

The chief cause of disappointment may well lies in having unrealistic expectations. Has optimism in some way become the flipside of expectations that reinforce inconsistency with external reality? How can we keep our desires consistent with external realities? Everyone wants good health, radiant look, pretty face, excellent grade, great relationship and strong financial security but only a handful actually has all these stuffs. It is easy to develop certain expectations based on characteristics that supposedly run in the family like being academic achievers, sports-orientated, genetic good looker and so on. Can these really instill a sense of entitlement that generates into disappointment when reality does not measure up? I believe so, because I am disappointment with failure that others simply may not dwell too much in it but I am until I bounce back into reality….. sigh…..

Someday it might

Read this article and found it thought provoking... someday it might... someday it might... and when that day come, it will be a sad day indeed.

Not long after Rich Salazar moved to DeKalb, Illinois from California, he found himself knocking at the door of St. Mary's Church. The then-college student had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was in crisis mode. Unable to reach his mother at work and not knowing where else to go, Salazar told himself, "I have to go to church."

Father William Schwartz answered his knocks and although the parish was closed for the evening, invited him in. This priest called his mother and told her he could stay at the church as long as he needed. "He talked to me, calmed me down," Salazar says. "He was very kind. I told him the church has never let me down."

That's when Father Schwartz responded, "Someday it might."

It is time to look inward

While many of us would like to change the world, few of us see the need to change ourselves. If we cannot see the world through the eyes of others, how much less are we able to love our neighbour as ourselves. Until we understand each other, we will never make common cause. Peer into the New Year and we cannot help feeling a little queasy for the world is losing its capacity for empathy and is easily influence into compromising all wrong causes. We have much to be thankful for but as we head into 2010, can the lessons of faith, hope and love guide us to change our ways to become a better person? Are we willing to improve ourselves individually and then become a better nation collectively. Perhaps becoming more empathetic and compassionte is the first step to put us on the right path of the New Year's resolutions...just start by being kind to others.

Able bodies

Fact from Monocle: A country of able bodies is better than a land of layabouts

• A mind for winning hearts
• An ability to maintain a cool head
• A keen eye for detail
• A tongue of multiple languages
• Broad shoulders for nation building
• A heart for winning minds
• A strong arm for carrying a big stick
• A stomach for a fight
• A helping hand for offering assistance
• Legs for a long march

Predisposed to prejudices

A bias is an inappropriate tendency leading to rash decisions or discriminatory practices. Is it true that only narrow-minded people stereotype? The disconcerting truth is that all of us use stereotypes without knowing it. With bigotry, stereotyping is a much bigger problem than we can ever imagine. How progressive a person seems to be on the surface bears little or no relation to how prejudiced he or she is on an unconscious level.

A more startling phenomenon is that our minds are more accustomed to making opinionated associations and thus process them more rapidly and allowing underlying assumptions to show through. These biases are shown towards many different social groups such as the mentally ill, criminals, homosexuals, women, dysfunctional families, elderly and even the poor. The cognitive approach made the simple but profound point that we all use categories or associations to make sense of the world around us to be the judgment of people within a particular situation or may be a set of independently unverifiable facts. Many of these are based on behavioural biases such as framing effect, bangwagon effect, bias blind spot, mere exposure effect, selective perception etc affecting belief formation.

Stereotyping is too much of a good thing. When we use stereotypes, we take in the gender, age, race, and our minds respond with communication that say hostile, stupid, poor, pathetic etc. These qualities are not the reality per se. Some researchers believe that the automatic activation of a stereotype is immediately followed by a conscious check on unacceptable thoughts in people who think that they are not biased. This internal censor successfully restrains overtly biased responses. But there is an overflow of danger which often shows up in our words, expressions and body language.

So where exactly do these stealth bias come from? Though the connections of the conscious mind which eventually become unconscious and subsequently surface again when our mind are split on subjects such as race, gender, sexual orientation, illnesses and mistakes etc. Society talks out loud about justice, equality, and egalitarianism but at the same time, such equality exists only as an ideal. Why did we allow certain knowledge or association to affect our attitude towards others? We create stereotypes e.g. Indians are lazy, women are emotional, school dropouts are useless, criminals are sinner and low life people etc to explain why things are the way they are or rather how we want to perceive them to be. Why can’t we see that stereotyping do not have to be true to serve a purpose and yet can destroy someone’s dignity or even life? Why do people play God when they may not be even aware of what is happening or had happened in another person’s life?

Prejudice is an external expression of imperfection memories that do not necessary have a connection to reality. To eliminate prejudice we have to change our thinking that may influence our behaviors and attitude towards others. According to some researchers, people can weaken the mental links that connect minorities to negative stereotypes and strengthen the ones that connect them to positive conscious beliefs through practice and awareness. Suppose you are at a party and someone tells a racist joke and you laugh. Then you realize that you should not have laughed at the joke. You feel guilty and become focused on your thought processes. Hence, all sorts of cues become associated with laughing at the racist joke i.e. the person who told the joke, the act of telling jokes, being at a party and drinking. The next time you encounter these cues, a warning signal will go off with greater restraint so that you may behave in a more appropriate and charitable manner.

It is clear that the way to get rid of bias is by the roots, by where they come from in the first place. The study of culture may someday tell us where the seeds of prejudice originate while the study of the unconscious shows us just how deeply they are already planted.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Yesterday I was involved in the Elderly CARE project organized by CADC. By sheer chance, we met up with a few elderly folks from way back when we were volunteers at Nazareth Centre. After many years with them, building up trust, relationship and bond, the elderly activities was terminated and taken over by another NGO. We moved on to serve in other voluntary areas such as battered women, children and youth. Since then, many of the elderly had died but occasionally we still visit the handful left and those who went on to live in nursing home.

Time passes so quickly, that it seems like only not too long ago that I visited this particular family. The husband suffered from a stroke and the wife was the caregiver. They had a son who was then a medium, drug addict and mentally unsound. I remembered how fearful I was then whenever I visit them because the old man was physically handicapped and the old lady was fragile. Their son would always hide at a corner and peeped at me and I often wondered what would happen if he attack me but that did not stop me from visiting them. One day, he spoke to me and talked about how Christianity has changed his life. He was a living testimony on how God works in our life. He found a job and all seem well… a life changing experience that was extremely encouraging. I felt very happy for them and that was the few last times I saw them before my other commitments took over and there were lesser and lesser time for the elderly visit.

Yesterday I was told that the wife had committed suicide 5 years ago, jumping from their 13th floor flat. The husband is now in an unknown nursing home while the son is back to drug and serving a 7 years jail term. As I looked back to those days, I knew the tiring endless demands and stress the wife was facing but never did I expect that she would reach a point of actual burnout emotionally and physically that took her life.

It was sad thinking of them and wondering if I could have done more. Unfortunately although epidemiologic data can help to identify those at risk of suicide, it remains impossible to predict suicidal tendency in any individuals. No one who has never been under those heartbreaking circumstances cannot explain and convince the suffering that there is a precious ray of light in the midst of the dark night. When the going gets tough and the tough gets going, one can literally be overwhelmed to the point of total despair seeing no light at the end of the tunnel. Some things are easier said than done and many things are just not comprehensible at the human level.

Faith, hope and love

FAITH is believing in your heart that good can overcome evil, that the sun can shine in a rainstorm and there is rainbow after the rain. Faith is believing in something you can't see or hear, something deep inside that is difficult to fathom. Faith is trusting in God and yourself enough to know that no matter how things turn out, you will make the best of them. Through faith, we grasp God; promises. Faith allows you to know in your heart before you see with your eyes. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7

HOPE is not closing your eyes to the difficulties, sufferings or failures in life. It is trusting in a future that is filled with God's promises. To look forward to with confidence that God knows what is best for you. "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

LOVE is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. Faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love. "Greater love than no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

We who carry the name of Christ

Alexander the Great, one of the greatest military generals who ever lived, conquered almost the entire world with his vast army. One night during a campaign, he couldn't sleep and left his tent to walk around the campgrounds.

As he was walking, he came across a soldier asleep on guard duty - a serious offence. The penalty for falling asleep on guard duty was, in some cases, instant death; the commanding officer sometimes poured kerosene on the sleeping soldier and lit it.

The soldier began to wake up as Alexander the Great approached him. Recognizing who was standing in front of him, the young man feared for his life.

"Do you know what the penalty is for falling asleep on guard duty?" Alexander the Great asked the soldier.

"Yes, Sir," the soldier responded in a quivering voice.

"Soldier, what's your name?" demanded Alexander the Great.

"Alexander, Sir" he whispered.

Alexander the Great repeated the question: "What is your name?"

"My name is Alexander, Sir," the soldier repeated.

A third time and more loudly, Alexander the Great asked, "What is your name?"

A third time, the soldier meekly said, "My name is Alexander, Sir."

Alexander the Great then looked the young soldier straight in the eye. "Soldier," he said with intensity, "either change your name or change your conduct."

We who carry the name of Christ and call ourselves Christian must live up to the name.

It is a simple story, easy to relate to but difficult to live up to. sigh......

Love & Eschatology

Mitch Albom, author of the Five People You Meet in Heaven wrote about Eschatology in such simple yet profound manner. What would heaven be like if it is a place where some of the people we impact on earth explain our life when we meet them in heaven? Is it likely that we will be proud of what we have accomplished in life or regret for the many things that we have done that have a domino heartbreaking effect on others whom we do not know?

Albom’s book gives an insight to how we may unintentionally affect others’ lives during our lifetime and those encounters will also include accountability for the life we live on earth. We won’t know who will be the first five people we meet in Heaven. Hence, it is imperative that our existence touches lives… love we freely impart, gratitude we always remember and understanding we cheerfully tender. We must always remember that the measure of our love is what we are willing to give it up for… the willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect others than the needs of self. If we cannot sacrifice simple pleasure, don’t EVER or EVEN talk about LOVE for we have fail miserably as Christian for St John said “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. John 15:13

What did Jesus say?

Did Jesus say feed my sheep or slaughter my sheep?
Did Jesus say love your neighbour or persecute your neighbour?
Did Jesus say when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing or to parade your uprightness in public?
Did Jesus say not to observe the splinter in your brother's eye or to notice the great log in his eye but not your own?
Did Jesus say treat others as you would like them to treat you or to treat others like trash?
Did Jesus say not to forgive or to bear every grudges?
Did Jesus say to gossip and make false accusation or to speak the truth?
Did Jesus say to condemn and throw the first stone or not to judge?
Did Jesus say eye for eye and tooth for tooth or go two miles even if anyone requires you to go one mile?
Did Jesus say love only those who love you or that love know no boundary?
Did Jesus say to give someone a snake when he asks for a fish or to give like the poor widow?
Did Jesus say to break and harm others or to save and heal them?
No wonder He says many prophets and upright people longed to see what we see but never saw it ; to hear what we hear and never heard it. How pathetic that will be...

Didn't Jesus say we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul,with all our mind and with all our strength?
Didn't Jesus say we must love our neighbour and enemy as ourselves?
Didn't Jesus say be compassionate just as our Heavenly Father is compassionate?
Didn't Jesus say those who honour Him with lip service while their hearts are far, their reverence is worthless and their teaching are nothing?
Didn't Jesus say the ones who love money and pass themselves off as upright in people's sight is loathsome in the sight of God?
Didn't Jesus say make a tree sound and its fruit will be sound, make a tree rotten and its fruit will be rotten?
Didn't Jesus say good people draw good things from their store of goodness, bad people draw bad things from their store of badness?
Didn't Jesus say do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven?
Didn't Jesus say mercy is what pleases Him not sacrifice?
Didn't Jesus say have pity on your fellow-servant just as He had pity on us?
Didn't Jesus say the words of the mouth flow out of what fills the heart?
Didn't Jesus say if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be in darkness?
Oh.... how awful to have a wicked heart and what darkness that will be!