I have found that Jesus has revealed to me a God of such enormous grace, that I am freed up to love those who are different than me, who think differently, look differently, even believe differently. I do not feel compelled to convince them to change. My only compulsion is to follow Jesus and he is leading me to the joy of discovering a life of acceptance, kindness and love.

Is there a criteria by which we may judge our actions and the actions of others?

I believe there is, and it has nothing to do with our heritage, our language, our political systems or our religious doctrines.

It has everything to do with compassion.

Where you find compassion, you find the God of Jesus, the God of all creation.

I remember reading a story from Leslie Weatherhead of a Hindu man, bright, caring and devout, who, when he heard the story of Jesus said, "I have known him all my life and now you have told me his name."

Jesus is our means for sharing the Good News of God’s love. To exclude others for using other means is to ignore the very message of Jesus.

"He had compassion," Luke tells us and calls us to do the same.

We must never let our words, symbols or doctrines about compassion replace our acts of compassion.

We must remember we worship Christ and not Christianity.

How could we ever exclude, demean or eliminate anyone in the name of love?