If you are a Christian....your words and actions will do one of two things; draw people to Christ, or push them away. We're all, as Spurgeon said, either missionaries or impostors.

You think calling people names, telling them they have no worth, mocking them will bring anyone to the foot of the Cross and the arms of Christ? How many times did you want to do what a bully told you to do? How many times have you enjoyed being mocked or called names? How much do you love being despised and hated?

When a person, claiming to be a Christian, behaves in such a way...they're not doing the will of Christ, but of the enemy.

For there is no love in such actions and words. And isn't love what we are to be known for?

"Wait", you say, "stop", you cry out....."We're supposed to judge and discern good and evil." Yes, that's fine...but no one put you on the God's throne of Judgement, no one gave you the power to damn or redeem a soul. No one elevated *you* to Savior.

If you're a Christian, you're bought and saved by the blood and love of Christ alone; you have no right to feel superior to the worst person on this earth. You were drowning in your sins before Christ rescued you; it was by His love and His doing that you are on a firm foundation now. You have nothing to boast in except the love and grace of the Lord who saved you and who loves you.

And that same Lord loves the people you might not like. The people you might think aren't good enough, the people you might secretly like to watch God punish. God loves them too....and you are no better than they. For what were you but a wayward sheep before you were brought back into the fold? Should not the Shepherd seek after them as well? And if you love that Shepherd, that good Lord and Master, should you not want the same as He?

How can we presume to know how God will use a life, how He might redeem a soul, or to what lengths He will go to call the prodigal home? We can't even fathom the love and mercy of God, so we certainly shouldn't be trying to impede His work!

Don't be a Jonah. Don't desire to see others punished.

Don't be a mocker, like the 3rd guy on the cross, challenging God's plan.

Don't be a Pharisee, so eager to pick up and throw stones.

For we all deserved punishment, yet we so freely are given mercy.

Mocking others, and mocking the plan God may have for them, will only inhibit your path to the Kingdom. The third man died on the cross unsaved because mockery hardened his heart to the truth.

And none of us deserve to pick up a pebble to throw at anyone.....so put down the rocks, and offer a hand, a kind word, and a loving prayer instead.

Be known for your love, and let people see Christ through you.

--Beth Haynes Butler