This is one of the many, many, many things I learned from my pastor: The Bible can be considered a map. Because it tells you where you are, and how you got there. But the Holy Spirit is your GUIDE. And it's better to have a guide than a map. Because a guide has a PHD--Physically Has Done it. A guide has been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. A guide knows shortcuts. A guide knows places (and things, and people) to avoid. A guide can keep you out of trouble. That's why I always say, "The Bible is wonderful, but unless you know the author (God, Jesus, Love) it can get you into a LOT of trouble!" So I guess basically what I'm saying in this Rant series is: Follow your heart. Because it will never lead you wrong. Because, "Charity never faileth..." (1 Corinthians 13:8). Here's the key though: You have to know what love (or charity, which is love in action) is trying to accomplish. Because if you have this selfish idea of love, "I'll scratch your back so that you'll scratch mine," then it may very well seem like love DOES fail. But really, love isn't failing. Your expectation has set YOU up for failure. Guys, if you're loving in order to get something... you're not really loving at all. We don't love in order to get. We love because we have. We have something that's too good to keep to ourselves, so we share it. I'm convinced that along with looking for love in all the wrong places, we "love" for all the wrong reasons. And then we look around and wonder how we got to where we are. We dig a giant hole and then wonder how we got in so deep. I even read a quote recently that said, "Your heart is a drunken compass, don't trust it." But that's just bitterness and cynicism. I've said this before, I don't believe a heart can break. It's too strong and too resilient. It can ACHE, but somehow it always bounces back. Somehow it always keeps loving. Especially when you go a little deeper--not into that hole you dug, but into the inner man, the hidden man of the heart--and begin to understand what it really means to love. And what it really means to love... is to give. Remember the old phrase, "You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving." Love IS giving. Giving what you've got. Giving who you are. Laying down your life for your friends. And that takes on a whole new meaning when your Spiritual eyes are open and you see EVERYBODY as your friends. When you destroy your enemies by MAKING them your friends. When you heap fiery coals on people's heads, not to burn them, but to melt their hearts. Let me say it like this, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14). That's my focus for this Rant series: exploring what it really means to be led by the Spirit. Because I don't think it means God says, "Do this or I'll punish you." I think it means, in a nutshell, listening to the still small voice testify of our true identity by testifying of Jesus. Why do you think those who are led by the Spirit are the Son(s) of God? Because that's what the Spirit is telling us! And then, when we do who we are, everything flows from that identity. Not from outside-in, but from inside-out. We don't love in order to get. We don't do in order to be. We love because we have! We do BECAUSE we be!

I want to start today's Rant with a Bible verse. And I try not to do that. So I'm rambling a little bit first, to get you hooked in. Ok. Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Seems pretty simple right? Be pure in heart and you'll see God? No. There are no "formulas" in the Kingdom. Thre are no "if then" statements. There are no hoops to jump through. The pure in heart see God because God is the pure heart! The Amplified Bible renders Matthew 5:8 like this, "Blessed (happy, enviably fortunate, and spiritually prosperous--possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!" The phrase that really gripped me there was, "regardless of their outward conditions." Because our blessing doesn't come from without. It comes from within. It isn't something we earn. It's a free gift. An inheritance passed down from Father to Son. And let me say this, you're blessed when you see God because when you see God you see what you're blessed with! In the same way that Psalm 37:4, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give you the desires of thine heart," ISN'T an if-then statment... (when we delight ourselves in the Lord we find that HE is the desire of our heart)... neither is Matthew 5:8. Jesus is simply saying that you can't see God without a pure heart. You can't see God without looking into the Spiritual realm with Spiritual eyes. But, again, it's not, "I have to make my heart pure so I can see God." It's, "My heart is pure, because Jesus opened the eyes of my heart, and now I see God everywhere I look. Now I'm blessed going out and blessed coming in." This pure heart--this pure river of living water that flows from our innermost being--is simply a heart that's full of love. A heart that knows (and believes) that it is loved, and loves others with that same love! And that's the blessing! Being loved is a blessing. Loving others is a blessing. Hearing (through the Holy Spirit, our love receptor) the truth, seeing (with the eyes of our heart) the truth, and sharing (with every breath we take and every move we make) the truth: That's why we're here. We're here to receive and release the love of God. Not to try to get something, but to share what we've got! Seeing is believing. What you see is what you be. You behold what you become. And faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word about Jesus! So the eyes plus the ears equal the heart. We see and hear, and then we understand. We know, and then we believe. We receive, and then we release. THAT'S the "formula," if I can say it that way. Not looking at and listening to surface stuff. Going a little deeper. Looking INTO people and not judging according to appearance. Listening to the still small voice of the Spirit instead of the screaming and yelling of the world. We have a pure heart. And when we understand that we see God everywhere we look. We hear God all the time. Love becomes the framework of our understanding and everything filters through that wonderful, glorious truth!

There are three things that dictate how we perceive our world: Our eyes, our ears, and our heart. And really... it's just the heart. The eyes of the heart. The ears of the heart. Seeing and hearing love. But the problem comes when we don't follow our heart. When, as Jesus said, "...in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them" (Matthew 13:14-15). Guys... there's seeing, and there's SEEING. There's hearing... and there's HEARING. We can look AT people, and we can see their actions, and we can judge according to appearance. Or we can look IN people and we can see the same Jesus--the same light, the same LOVE--inside them that's inside us. We can hear the wind, and the earthquake, and the fire... or we can listen to the still small voice of the Lord. It's all about going a little bit deeper. Not getting stuck on surface stuff. Not judging according to appearance, but judging righteous judgment. Knowing the truth--That the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand... that Daddy loves you--allows us to use that truth as the Rock that we build everything else on. Love is the filter that allows us to perceive things correctly. The heart is what allows us to UNDERSTAND things. And probably the biggest thing we need to see, and hear, and understand is, "...that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). With Spiritual eyes and ears we can see the bigger picture. We don't have to get crushed when things go "bad." Because we know that even if it looks "bad," or sounds "bad," it's working together for good. We can move out of the appearance realm of good and evil and into the invisible, eternal realm of LIFE. Jesus is the visible face of the invisble God (who is love). Jesus is what God really looks like. What LOVE really looks like. And when we can SEE Him--everywhere, in every situation and every person--then we can see things clearly. When we can hear the affirming voice of our Father telling us that we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased, then we can stop running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to be someone we're not. We can stop looking for love in all the wrong places when we can SEE the source of love. And then we can boldly approach the throne of grace to find grace to help in times of trouble. Where else could we find grace but at the throne of grace? In the EYES of the Lord. In OUR eyes, and in the eyes of each other! It's inside. And when we know (and believe) that it's inside... it comes out naturally. It overflows out of us because it's too big for us to contain. With understanding--which is what the heart does--comes manifestation. The heart beats with love. And that's why we can see love and hear love everywhere we look and everywhere we listen!

I'm not saying this is the only thing that having Spiritual ears--the ears of the heart--does. It's simply my favorite, and possibly the most important. Revelation 2:17, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." Ok. First things first. I don't think everybody who overcomes--and how do we overcome? By believing that Jesus already ovecame!--gets "a" new name. Like, it's not one new name for me and another new name for you. I believe that the overcomer gets THE new name. Jesus. Our TRUE name. The new name of the new man, or new creation. And I believe that's why nobody knows it except him who receives it. The name of Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body--doesn't mean anything until you can HEAR it. I still bring up a time when I was saying something... saying something... saying something, and the person I was talking to said, "I hear you, but I'm not moved by what you're saying." This is what happens when we try to shove Jesus down people's throat; they choke on Him. The light shone into the darkness and the darkness comprehended Him not, right? You have to have Spiritual ears. The ears of the heart. Seeing with the heart, hearing with the heart, thinking with the heart. Comprehending with the heart. KNOWING and BELIEVING with the heart. Eating the hidden manna. What was manna? Bread from heaven. Who is the true bread from heaven? Jesus. We are given the hidden manna--the name of the inner man, or the hidden man of the heart--written IN a white stone. Not written ON a white stone. Not from outside-in, but from inside-out. The still small voice inside of us testifying of our true identity as it testifies of Jesus! And when we hear our "new" name, our REAL name, we hear it like this: "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). With Spiritual ears... we hear the voice of our Father. Remember King Solomon? He didn't have to fight any wars because his father, King David, had defeated all of the enemies. Solomon wasn't a conqueror. He was more than a conqueror. And WE are, "...more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). Jesus did it all, so we could get it all. He gave His life FOR us on the cross, fighting and winning the war to end all wars. And He gave His life--His name, His nature, the white stone--TO us when He rose from the grave and made us partakers of the Divine Nature. I believe the Spirit is always speaking. But the Spirit doesn't yell. It doesn't try take our attention away from anything else. It simply presents the truth in a still small voice. The ultimate truth of the universe as found in John 3:35, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." This is the truth of who we are, and who God is, and what we have. And when we know what we have we don't have to try to get anything else. When we know who we are we don't have to try to be anybody else. And when we know who God is, we can stop trying to earn His love and rest in His loving arms!

It's all about love. Which means it's all about the heart. Because God's heart beats in our chest... with love. So when we're talking about the way we perceive things, the way we see and hear things, we're STILL talking about the heart. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that, "...as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..." We think with our heart, hear with our heart, see with our heart. Remember the doves' eyes in Song of Solomon? The dove representing the Holy Spirit. Seeing through and with the Holy Spirit? Open the eyes of my heart, Lord? Well, that's exactly what Jesus came to do. "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Acts 26:18). Before the cross we were under the power of darkness. The creation (the heaven and the earth, the mind and the body, YOU) was dark and void and without form. The surface stuff was all we could perceive. But then the Word of God (which is Jesus, which is love) entered the scene. God spoke. And He said, "Let there be light." And it's His life that is the light of men. He didn't just shine ON us, He shines from WITHIN us! And that's how (and why) WE shine! Jesus came to show us the Father. He came to open the eyes of our hearts so that we could see things clearly. And He opened our eyes by shining the light that He is. I've said this many times: The light shining doesn't "change" anything. It simply reveals the change that took place on the cross. And that's so glorious because it means nothing needs to change. We don't have to force things to be different. We simply have to look at things differently. Instead of judging according to appearance, we can judge righteous judgment. Instead of saying, "This is bad and I need to change it to good," we can SEE that all things are working together for the good! Because the light is shining and we can see things clearly. We can see the bigger picture. We can see with our heart. And guess what the heart sees: It sees itself. It sees love. The light in me connects to the light in you. The Jesus in me connects to the Jesus in you. The LOVE in me connects to the LOVE in you! But if I'm looking at the surface--circumstances and actions--then I might miss what's underneath. If I'm too caught up in the wind, and the earthquake, and the fire... I might miss the still small voice of the Lord. What you see is what you be, right? See love... and be love. Become what you behold. Keep your affection on things above and not on things on the earth. Don't look AT people... look INTO people. Because our true identity is what's inside. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. And we can only see the hidden man of the heart, by looking with the heart. The doves' eyes. The eyes of the heart. God translated us out of the power of darkness and into the Kingdom of His dear Son by letting the light shine and opening our eyes. By showing us a more excellent way. By giving us something (LOVE) to believe in and thereby destroying the works (the lie) of the devil!

In order to truly understand the way things are, we need to go a little deeper. The Kingdom of God is within us, so we need to go past the surface stuff. I know that surface stuff is right in your face. The world is screaming at the top of it's lungs to try to get you to conform. But watch this: "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:11-12). Now this blows me away, because in the Bible the wind represents the Holy Spirit. And when Jesus died on the cross there was an earthquake. And God IS a consuming fire. So it was seem that God was manifesting Himself to Elijah. But God wasn't in any of those things. Because He's in us! I think He was trying to show us that it's not what's without, it's what's within. The still small voice of God's heart beating with love in our chest. The Holy Spirit leading and guiding us into all truth by testifying of Jesus... by TELLING us all truth, which is, "The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands." And with that revelation knowledge--that we are loved--everything else flows. With that revelation knowledge we can see and hear clearly. Deuteronomy 29:4 says, "Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." That "day" was the day that the people of Israel entered the Promised Land. JESUS is the Promised Land of rest! The "day" is the perpetual sabbath day that we are in right now! The work was finished and now we can rest in our true identity of God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. We don't have to try to earn Daddy's love because we know (and believe) that He already loves us! That He always has and always will love us. Not because of what we do, but because of who we are. And because of who HE is. God IS love! There's nothing else He can do. Nothing else He would even consider doing. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Because God lives in us. And when we turn our attention to what's on the inside... that's when it starts to manifest on the outside. When we stop looking at the wind, and the earthquake, and the fire, that's when we can see what's really there. That's when the light of the world shines, and reveals the truth about the situation. And the truth is, it's not bad and getting worse. It's good and getting better! "...the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). That's the "day" that we're in! And the more we SEE it, the more we BE it. The more we HEAR it, the more we BELIEVE it. On the cross Jesus gave us His mind, His heart, His eyes, and His ears. He opened up the heavenly realm so that we could experience it on a daily basis. The days of heaven on earth! See, we're in the world, but not of the world. And really, if you dig a little deeper, you'll see that we're not IN the world at all. We're in the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom is in us!

To affirm someone is to acknowledge them. To let them know that they have value. That they exist, and are important. As able bodied minsters of the New Covenant--the Government of Affirmation--that's our "job." That's what true ministry is all about. It's not about being on a sin hunt. Not about point out people's flaws and condemning them for every screwup. It's not about telling people what to do. It's about telling people who they are. Telling them who they are in Christ by telling them who Christ is in them. And guess what: If we stop condemning people and start affirming them, maybe they'll stop running FROM God and start running TO God. Hypocritical condemnation is not attractive. And, listen, I'm not saying we preach just any old thing to get people to come to church. Not at all. What I'm saying is, the TRUE Gospel is so attractive that people will see it and want it. They want it already. Because the true Gospel is love. And that's what everybody wants. But it's a rare thing. Especially when we present this angry, distant, taskmaster of a God who demands things from us that we can't possibly do and then strikes us down when we fail. THAT'S NOT GOD. God is love. The only way to accurately present God to people is by loving people. Not condemning them, but affirming them. Not kicking them when they're down, but helping them up. See, in the Old Covenant--the Government of Condemnation--everything was based on what WE did. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Love, and you will be loved. But in the New Covenant it's all about what JESUS did on the cross. Forgive, BECAUSE you are forgiven. Love, BECAUSE you are loved. Receive the gift of God and release it to everybody in your path. Don't try to change people--because that will only lead to frustration. People are going to do what they're going to do and you CAN'T change them--but instead just love people. Remember Paul said he was all things to all people? Which doesn't mean you put yourself in a bad situation, but it does mean you find a way to connect with every and anybody. That connection, in a Word, is love. Love is the glue that binds us together. Love is the true affirmation of life. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other. You can't do one without the other. You have to love someone in order to affirm them, because if you don't you'll get stuck on the surface stuff. Guys, love isn't blind. Love sees clearly. It sees PAST the surface stuff. It sees PAST what you do and into who you are. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. The true you. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. That's who you really are. And when you stop trying to be someone else and just rest in the truth of who you are... that's when people see something better. That's when they see a more excellent way. That's when they stop running from God and start running to God. When they know He loves them. When they know YOU love them. Affirmation: You exist. You have value. You're important. I like you just the way you are. It's you I like, not the things you do. I love you.

Dictionary.com defines "Affirmation" as, "the act or an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed." Which isn't super helpful. But it also defines "Affirmation" as, "the assertion that something exists or is true." And that's what I'm talking about! To me affirming someone is acknowledging them for who they are. Not trying to change them, or force them to be what we think they should be. And that word "true..." Come on. That's easy. We affirm people by telling them the truth. Not by telling them what to do, but by telling them who they are. Jesus--the Way, the Truth, and the Life--is our true identity. So all we need to do is the same thing the Holy Spirit does; Lead and guide people into the truth by testifying of Jesus! See, we don't stick our head in the sand and ignore the facts of the matter. And we don't put ourselves in bad situations if we can help it. But we do understand that truth is higher than fact. And if I can see the light in you--the Jesus in me connecting to the Jesus in you--then I can see the TRUTH in you. You may have lied, but that doesn't make you a liar. You may have failed, but that doesn't make you a failure. You may have stumbled... you may have even fallen flat on your face. But, "...a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again..." (Proverbs 24:16). And if I see you fall (but I understand that everybody makes mistakes) then instead of kicking you while you're down I can help you up. I can affirm you. I can say, "You exist. You're a person. You're thoughts and feelings are valid, whether I agree with them or not." I read somewhere that it's more important to be kind than to be right. And I absolutely agree. Because a lot of times in my life I've been RIGHT, and it hasn't mattered in the slightest. I think people who try the hardest to be right are some of the lonliest people on earth. But people who can connect with people on all sorts of different levels, those are the people who can make a difference. The Apostle Paul said it like this, "To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22).  The Message Bible says it like this, "...I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ--but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view..." Walk a mile in someone else's shoes, right? Don't dismiss them as "wrong," just because you think you're "right." Let people have opinions. Let people have the room, and the grace, to try stuff out. Affirm them. Validate them. Love them. It takes all the parts of the body to make this thing go. Because, again, there are some things I can do that you can't. And some things you can do that I can't. But if I try to stop you from doing what you do just because it's different than what I do, then I've cut off a piece of the body. I've amputated something that was healthy and productive. I've condemned something that I should have been affirming. You exist. You are true. And what true about Jesus is what's true about you. So don't try to be anybody else. Just be you. (I think I sound like Dr. Seuss so I'm gonna stop for today... just know that you are valuable, and unique, and loved!)

As able bodied ministers of the New Covenant, it is our "job" to affirm one another, rather than condemning one another. But I want to make it very very clear that I'm NOT saying we should put ourselves in bad situations. For example, if you have a problem with alcohol, and your friends want to go to the bar... don't condemn them for wanting to go, just don't go with them. You don't have to "fix" their problem just because you have the same problem. But you CAN take care of yourself. And you SHOULD take care of yourself. There's a big difference in letting people be who they are, and going along with any and everything. Because even while you're letting them be who THEY are, you need to be who YOU are. And, continuing our example, even if you have a problem with alcohol... that's not who you are. That's just something you have to deal with. And, really, that's just something that you have to see that Jesus dealt with it on the cross. I'm absolutely convinced that we don't need to change. We don't need to be someone we're not. What we need is to SEE the change that took place on the cross. To SEE that Jesus overcame the world, and because HE overcame we are MORE than conquerers through Him that loves us. So instead of trying to change... instead of trying to get others to change... instead of struggling with things... we need to start resting. Start flowing. Start ENJOYING the gift (of eternal life) that we've been given! Look at Philippians 4:4 in the Message Bible, "Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him!" This should be our mindset. What's the old phrase? An attitude of gratitude. And watch this: How do we love God? By loving each other. How do we serve God? By serving each other. How do we celebrate God? By celebrating each other! I know it sounds a little hippy dippy to say that we're all unique snowflakes... but guys, we're all unique snowflakes. We--each and every one of us--are fearfully and wonderfully made. We all have strengths and weaknesses. And here's the glorious part, "...yea, he is altogether lovely..." (Song of Solomon 5:16). Jesus is altogether lovely... and that means all together WE are lovely! Different parts of the same body, right? Some things I can do, you can't. And some things I can't do, you can. So when we come together--celebrate together, share what we've got and who we are--then we can do anything! So let's shake this idea of condemnation. Let's stop trying to get everybody to be exaclty the same. "If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?" (1 Corinthians 12:15). We're all parts of the same body--the body of Christ--but we're all DIFFERENT parts of that body. By design. So that together we can do anything. So that by bearing one another's burdens, and esteeming one another higher than ourselves... by celebrating and affirming one another... we can all learn and grow TOGETHER. Again, you don't have to put yourself in a bad situation in order to accept someone. You simply have to let them be who they are, and you simply have to be who YOU are. That's true acceptance. And then, when you focus on their strengths, and complement their weaknesses, that's true affirmation!

The New Covenant is the Government of Affirmation. And I'm convinced that affirming each other is the best way to accept each other. Focusing on, a celebrating, what makes us unique, instead of trying to force each other into some impossible standard of what a Christian is "supposed to be." And, listen, I'm not saying everything everybody does is acceptable. I'm not saying we should affirm "bad behavior." But it's not our job to fix it, either. So rather than condemning people--the Old Covenant is the Government of Condemnation--we need to simply love people. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. Isaiah 38:18 says it like this, "...the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth." Death cannot celebrate thee. But life can. Life should. Life DOES. It always amazes me that when Jesus was involved in His three and a half year earthly ministry... He went to a LOT of parties. He went to church a lot too, but He got right down in the midst of where REAL people were. And He didn't get all religious on them either. He just hung out, and talked, and partied. He accepted people. He let them be who they were. Nobody saw Jesus coming and ran the other direction. But in this day and age, that's the response that "church folk" seem to get. You say, "Christian" and people either get mad or stop listening. Because they think we're hypocrits. We condemn them while doing the same things that they're doing. "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest theyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things" (Romans 2:1). And isn't it always the case that the thing we judge the harshest in someone else is the thing we struggle with the most ourselves? That's why it makes us so mad. Because we have to deal with it in our own lives. So rather than condemning others (OR ourselves) what we really need to do is, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2). Stop looking at the stuff that would trip you up. Realize that it's UNDER your feet anyway. Realize that just because someone else is struggling with something--especially something YOU struggle with too--that's not a reason to condemn them. That's a reason to help them. To let them help you. To, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). And guys, come on, if someone's struggling with something, they probably know it already. What they DON'T need is for you to kick them when they're down. What they DO need is for you to help them up. To let them know that it's ok. That THEY are ok. What they need is a little affirmation. A little bit goes a long way. "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grevious words stir up anger" (Proverbs 15:1). I ask myself this question a lot before I do something, "Helping or hurting?" And if it doesn't help... why do it? Helping people is important work. Maybe the MOST important work. But condemning people doesn't help. Only through love, and mercy, and grace, and acceptance, and affirmation can we truly help someone. Not by telling them what to do, but by telling them who they are. And who they are... is Jesus!