Attack - Coals On Our Heads

In Corinthians 3:16, the Apostle Paul states: Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?"

Yet how many of us take those words at face value?

There is a lot of scripture thrown around today to justify many positions, some of which are unjustifiable by any measure of the human heart.

Yet the scripture above is seldom mentioned nor is Romans 12:20 - echoed in Proverbs 25:21-25: If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.

What are the writers of the Bible saying?

They are saying that everyone - every one of us - has God inside him.

The ideas that allow God to bless an individual - and make an person a gift to the world - may be locked inside a vault of iron strong ideas that promote fear instead of love, but God is still there, waiting.

God is within the terrorist although is not heard beneath the busy and thunderous thoughts of anger and fear within the terrorist's brain.

Likewise, the terrorist's heart is so deaf to God that he or she cannot feel compassion for strangers, for people other than his family or those whom he knows personally. He takes this as proof that compassion is not needed.

But not feeling compassion does not mean God is not within us. It means God gave us free will to acknowledge and listen - or not.

Meanwhile, God waits - within the heart and mind of each of us - for recognition.

God is waiting for recognition that being "right" or "wrong" doesn't matter.

God is waiting for a sincere desire on behalf of the vessel who contains Him to be filled with love, not hate.

God is waiting for us to understand that fighting with others misses the point. When we attack others - no matter who they are - we are really attacking ourselves.

Even more tragic, when we attack others, we attack a piece of God. When we kill another, we kill a piece of God.

It is our obligation to love God - as ourselves.

Not because God will punish us, but because when we turn on God - the essence of our being - it is like the lamp turning off the electricity that powers it.

Our light must go out. In other words, we must, eventually, self-destruct.

Therefore, when we are tempted to judge others, when we are tempted to justify torture or hate campaigns for a political cause or to "keep us safe" let us apply the scripture from Mark 12:31 first:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

If we - honestly - can say it would be okay with us for others to be able to torture us for suspected wrong-doing, then ignoring the torturing of others is consistent with our beliefs.

However, it will never be consistent with God, for God is love and love never tortures.

Dear one, torturing others, attacking others or blaming others will never make you safe. These activities run counter to the God in you that gives you life.

Only aligning with God and His immense love for you - and all people - can make you safe.

Do that and you can always be in the right place at the right time.

Do that and you can reach a place where you need fear no one.

It can take a lifetime to achieve that kind of fearlessness, but that is true safety.

For your own sake, the sake of our children, our country and the world, please start affirming that you are aligned with God's unconditional love today.

God bless and keep you always.