Been Hurt?

It is always breaking heart to see dogs that are abused and forsaken. I met two of them that one of my friends adopted from the animal shelter of this area. They were small dogs. When I saw them first they looked trembling all the time. They were just sitting quietly on their mats in the living room. I could read their fear and tension from their little wavering eyes. It is a little longer than a year since they were adopted. In the course of time, I visited the friend’s house several times. The puppies have been changed a lot. Now, they look normal. They bark and wave tale. They go around inside and outside the house. They are now happy dogs. It is great to see them doing good job as normal ones because I know they got out of a bad time of their lives.

There is a thing that breaks my heart more than seeing abused dogs. I have met some people who departed churches. As I heard their reasons for that, it was because they were hurt by churches they were going to, and sometimes, by their own Christian parents. Churches or their parents hurt them for the sake of their religion. They were hurt by them so badly and finally, as they had a chance, they departed their religion. Some of them had very harsh hatred or bitterness to churches and church people—not only those who hurt them but also all church people. Seeing these people breaks my heart much more than seeing abused dogs. It cuts my heart, and true Christians’ too, I am sure.

It is wrong—absolutely wrong—to abuse and forsake dogs. I don’t know whether animals have legal right to claim to human beings; but it is an ethic for human beings to respect nature including animals, plants, and planets. Abusing dogs does never go along with nature. It is against nature, and finally it is against the natural law. Hurting people is also an abuse that is against law of God. It does not make any difference even if it is for the sake of religion—rather it could be worse. God has not given anyone any right to abuse others by any religious reason. Religion is a matter of freedom of a person. If religion is a thing that could be forced to a person, God would have done so to people to accept his love. Even God, who is the origin of the true religion, has not pushed or pulled anyone to himself.

God does not hurt any one for any reason; in fact, God cannot. It is because God does not have any evil nature. God’s nature is all love, absolute, unlimited, and everlasting love. Out of his love, he let his only begotten Son sacrifice himself for sinners. And his Son, in the Spirit of his Father, was bullied, tortured, and finally killed by the severest death on the cross to bear sins and guilt of all sinners forever. God and his Son Jesus, the source of our religion, therefore, never hurt any person and even any puppy. Not even a bruised reed would they break (Isa. 42:3). God is just love.

It is people, who, in their wickedness and ignorance, misunderstanding God’s will, themselves also being abused by false teachers, hurt others by pulling, forcing, and compelling them into a direction which they falsely believe is right. The direction, however, is exactly opposite to that which the Son of God taught us and showed us. The Son of God taught and showed God’s absolute love and harmony; but what they are pouring out is hatred and dissension. Therefore, it is not God and Jesus his Son who hurt us but those, ‘so-called-Christians’ who are in error, falsity, and ignorance. In their ignorance false churches and false Christians are not only hurting people but also severing them from God’s love.

However, our God does not give up his people, so pure in heart, so poor in spirit, but so rich in love of truth. God commanded those, who realized truth and got over the hurt, to go all around the world to spread the pure gospel of truth and of love, to call the abused, hurt, and forsaken. We are their messengers—Jesus’ disciples. True Christians, disciples of Jesus, who have been being hurt, do not hurt others but serve with godly love.

Some of them may be around you. They may not be many. They may not church leaders. They may not preachers, deacons, or elders. They even may not active in church programs. They even may not be able to speak very well. They may be those who are cast out by the society. However, they, true Christians, must be loving, kind, gentle, sincere, serving the needy, even sacrificing themselves. They must be bearing fruits of the Holy Spirit in their everyday lives (Galatians 5:22-23), walking in the steps of Jesus Christ who is their Lord (1 Peter 2:21). What they want to do to you is not to pull you to their own churches to fill up the pews but to serve you with truth and love. The way they love you is not in word and talk only, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:17). They do not love you by merely saying, “I will pray for you” without sacrificing themselves or anything that belongs to them; but they use their time, money, and body to serve you in need in sincere love (James 2:14-17).

We also are here as Jesus’ messengers to offer the pure gospel of love and truth to anyone who has been hurt or who are hesitating to come near him because of fear of hurt. We are here to serve you with love of God and of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we are here as a deliverer of a cure from God for the hurt that you may have been hurt. Take a loaf of bread and a fruit of vine from Jesus’ hands (metaphorically speaking) to get over the hurt, restore yourself to him, who is love, and dedicate your lives to his will.

As we are walking in Christ Jesus, there will be nothing that can sever us from the true love of God (Romans 8:31-39). Even while we were struggling with hurt in our lives, God never forgot us. He prepared his messengers and cures and waited for a time to send them to us. Now, we, who got over the hurt, are sent to you in turn. It may now be the time that you have to listen to this message and obey to his calling. It is not our own love that will cure and restore you but love of God, Jesus, and the Spirit. We are mere messengers of Jesus, who once were hurt but healed by his wound, to help you be restored, as the abused puppies were restored to happy ones.