There are always victims

Prince Arthur and Hubert

[The picture is a scene from Shakespeare's King John:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_de_Burgh,_1st_Earl_of_Kent#Captor_of_Arthur]

There are always victims. There is sin in my world, and it is a world that is meaningful - where actions have consequences - and so sin has consequences: there are always victims. It is your task to alleviate the suffering, and this is most actively done when you introduce people to me, and they find true hope and purpose and are saved from the fires of Hell. But you, as a body, should also act to bring relief to the specifically suffering - for such is to show true love. But this love must be wise, and remember the eternal context and consequences: never say 'Peace, peace' where there is no peace. Never affirm the sinner in his way, but ensure that your view is known - but then be sure to be there for the outcast, the reject. You should never say 'It's alright, it doesn't matter what you do' for sin is sin, and those whom I seek to save will not be healed if you do not seek to cleanse the wound of sin in their lives.

And yet they should experience your love, your concern, your empathy for their state. Is this easy? But such should be your vision.

And remember, there are always victims: if the sin in the land has become acceptable to many, then they are enslaved, and are acting as recruitment agents for others to fall as well. Do not be deceived: for them to listen to the enemy is to fall, and one day their choice will be become permanent.

Despair

(His only friend)

In quiet desperation

or true despair?

You live in a society suffering the consequences of its folly – for the pillars are being worn away as so many seek comfort by living by the beliefs that they have been taught – but which will lead them nowhere. They have little idea that there is an alternative, because they lack models by which to live, because they have been taught contempt of the old ways. “All is new” is the cry: “humanity can ignore the wisdom of the past and live in 'freedom' “.

But such is the way of destruction – for the world does not forgive sin, and one day there will be a reckoning, for I am not mocked.

My church must model a better way, a way that does work, that does provide true love, support and encouragement to people living as I desire.

At the heart of that model is trust and dependence: my people must be open to calls on their lives from their brothers and sisters. But now you take on too much – and so are stretched beyond such availability – and so the true needs are unmet.

And so in quiet desperation, in deep loneliness amputated by rejection, my body lies in pieces and the world sees a striving after the wind because you seek to keep the show on the road, not to be my body.