Being created in the image of God, with that presumption, comes an enormous amount of responsibility.
Let us just examine the fact that God is Light, Jesus Himself said in John 8:12; “I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life.”
Darkness being the absence of light, should be something that we might examine just to understand the substance of that statement.
Take away all light, every fraction, every speckle, even a single distant star, and all you have left is complete darkness. In this “complete” absolute blackness, it doesn’t seem possible to make something darker then the darkness that is produced from absolute dark, as a matter of fact, you can not add dark upon dark to make a darker dark. If this darkness can not add to itself, then one might suppose it has no substance.
But then subsequently the supposition that darkness flee’s from the light; other things, beings, objects that reject God, sin, all these desire to move away from or flee from the light towards darkness.
All the many creations of God, just like the angels for example, make their choice, and subsequently those angels that rejected God, rejected all light, even in themselves, and move away from it. They being spiritual beings and not physical, when all light is removed, or in this case turned away from light, all that is left is darkness.
As creators we can create in this universe, and our mere words can create. I believe it is in this realm that we have an enormous amount of responsibility.
As we have examined in earlier writings, God created everything in this existence with a Spoken Word. I believe it is this one quality that distinguishes us from all of the rest of His creation, making us above and unique, the fact that we can create. Not merely with just the efforts of our hands, but with our very words.
These creations can then have either a positive air to them, being unto creations of light, or things of darkness. In essence we choose whether these words are seekers of the light, being true, good, uplifting, compassionate, giving, healing, and loving, or if they are designed with other intentions, those that lack any of these qualities.
I also believe if we examine this fact; being that we have this unique and godly ability, ultimately there should come with it responsibility and eventually accountability. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 12:36, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that man shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement.”
This statement has an air of seriousness to it! A tone of accountability. I guess if the President, or a great leader, would say to an individual; “You will be held accountable for your every word, people would sit up and listen, at least take heart!” How much more should we harken to the maker of the President, the absolute ruler of the universe, the creator of everything.
In this world as well in the next, our words have the ability to not only initiate an effect on the environment around us, but also forever alter this environment, by the permanent addition of either good or bad. If change is made with our words, we could assume that either these words are that of light, or darkness.
I believe that words may have more of an accountable effect on us and our environment, then we may realize. When these words are of a sinful nature, they may be even more of a permanent effect then those of conventional sins produced by many of our actions. The physical actions being the ones most people associate with sin.
It is easy to recognize the effects of sin, with our actions, in the natural. Cause and effect. When someone steal’s from, cheats, abuses, uses, even murders someone else, especially when the victim, as visibly evident to everyone else, has clearly been hurt by the offense, it is not difficult for most rational people to recognize the sin in these actions.
But indirectly when someone speaks against someone else, or hates them, especially with their words or merely in thought, seeing the physical application, or natural effect of this sin in the action is a bit more difficult. Is it because the clear effect of these actions are so vague to the direct view?
I have personal experience I would like to share that might form as an example;
Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s had it’s share of enjoyable childhood privileges, many of which my own children may no longer experience, but of course, some not so pleasurable ones as well.
One in particular, not so pleasurable experience, had to do with the fact that for as long as I could remember, when I would read something, my mind would wonder, to the point where as I finished a page or two of reading, I couldn’t remember what I had just read. This situation was extremely frustrating to me and caused me to shy away from anything that had much to do with reading or writing. This situation continued throughout most of my youth. Teachers didn’t seem to understand this phenomenon, nor did they seem to much care about even considering it, let alone presenting a solution.
This resulted in me often being caught having the appearance of either not paying attention, or daydreaming in class, resulting in a further frustration from myself and the teachers, a further systematic result of finding myself first at the back of the class, both in grades and actual physical placement, and then later eventually my desk might even find itself placed directly next to the teacher, as if this constant singling out could have some kind of miraculous effect on my learning capacity, especially when my back was to the board. I even had on one occasion, I believe in first grade, found myself to have my desk placed out in the hall. I guess for that teacher the thought of not having to deal with difficulties, namely me, superseded her own responsibility she had gladly accepted with her career and contractual choice.
Now I don’t necessarily blame the teachers, well except that first grade one!, and if I could remember her name, I would forever canonize her in the annals of teachers recognition for all to view. In those days ADD; “Attention Defficite Dissorder”, ADHD, Ritoline, video game junkies, even the horrors of massive sugar soda intake, were concepts just beginning to find their way into teacher studies.
I’m not particularly sure how far back, but somewhere along the way, I heard the words; “Your not a good student”, “your not as good as the others”, “bad kid”, or just plain “bad”, or maybe even “stupid” being used in one or more sentences not exactly designed to lift me up, or love this small child. The subsequent image or thought that was associated with those words, those sins, stuck in my mind, developing my own inward image of myself, and ultimately manifesting that image in how I portrayed myself to the world, as well as my ability to perform, just as a result of those few words.
But luckily, or perhaps Godly for me, I had the pleasure of having a teacher by the name of Charles Munn, Frank Borman Junior High, for an eighth grade science class. I’m not sure if he actually witnessed me demonstrating myself in a different way then my reputation had dictated, as much as I believe he was a teacher of either enormous insight, heart, or vision, but most likely all.
All of a sudden I found myself in the counselors office having to take a number of tests including an IQ test, because Mr. Munn said; “this kid is not stupid, he may even be a genius?” Turned out I had an 150+ IQ.
My point is not to toot my own horn, and this information I wasn’t even made aware of until later in that year, but my point is; the minute Mr. Munn started saying this kid is smart, I started believing it myself, and amazingly so did the rest of the teaching staff, and even my fellow students!
They immediately placed me in the most advanced classes, and subjects that seemed to be a challenge, with a boy struggling just to get passing grade weeks before, immediately became someone who other students even asked advice, all of the subjects immediately became something of an ease.
Mr. Munn created with his words a changed life in me! He created confidence, a realization of talent that was surely God given, but until that moment unseen. He delivered good into me. In essence his words made the blind see!
Inject kindness, compassion, love, mercy, and out comes good.
We create with our words, and we are even held to account for every word spoken.
I can not imagine how many lives have been changed either for good or for bad merely by the words that have been spoken at one key moment into a child’s life. How many gangs members that have ended up in prison because of a word of discouragement, or an image of worthlessness that was delivered by some unconcerned parent. I would venture to say, that it would probably be the majority!
Most of peoples lives have been influenced much more by the spoken word into their soul, then any other form of delivery, whether it was action, event, or many other physical forms of sin.
Further examining the children, who are the innocent ones here, they are just starting out, just learning, when that accidental spill occurs and a mother says; “your so clumsy!”, or a small son misses a catch on third base, and the father yells from the stands; “get your head out of your ass!”
A child sees a bauble in a parents room, likes it and takes it to her room, the parent asks in a bit louder, in a more aggressive tone then might have been neccessary, and the child out of fear says; “I don’t know, I didn’t take it.” Mother says; “Your a lier! You dirty little thief!”, forever scaring the child with the image that the very person who conceived her not only considers her a lier and a thief, but also dirty!
A father says to a friend, not concerned his son sits crying in the corner, that his son; “acts like a girl!” A child grows up with the thought his father didn’t want him, maybe didn’t see himself as shown in the eyes of his son, basically the father didn’t see himself in his son, didn’t love him, and the child knew it.
Now if the absence of light is darkness, what is sin? If the absence of any warmth is absolute cold, the absence of any compassion, is absolute rejection, then I would imagine that the absence of good in any act constitutes sin.
If words are produced that have no intent to uplift, encourage, help, love, or benefit the another person, then one would assume they have been produced for darkness.
I am sure this is also, at least in part, what is meant when God said; “the sins of the father can be passed onto the children, for generations to come.” The same things that were said to the father, the mother when they were children, these in turn without thinking blurt out these same insults, resulting in the same images, and ultimately some of the same choices in their children.
We have a tendency to judge each other, and subsequently ourselves based on the actions we engage in.
A person “is a…”, rather then is a person who “happens to have done this or that…”
The world is a cruel judge! A person commits a crime, oh, and by the way gets caught, they can be forever labeled by that crime, at least in word or name. A person “is”; a murderer, a lier, a thief, a backstabber, a murmurer, a child molester, a divorcee, a politician, a….
In the book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, one of the key characters Fantine, a woman who happen to fall in love with the wrong man, and when she became pregnant, was forced to send her child away and work to support her child from afar, as to not risk others finding she had a child out of marrage, sustain a job, and eventually have a chance to raise the child.
The people who care for her child young Cosette, use the child to extort moneys from her mother. When the secret of the child’s existence gets out she is dismissed from her job, out of desperation for not only herself, but also for her child, for nobody will give her work, she is forced to sell herself into prostitution just to survive.
The world portrayed in the book of pre-revolutionary France, viewed her as “a sinner”, “a whore”, but in fact it was those who were judging her, that were truly sinning, sinning with their words, and their constant sin forced her to take the road she found herself on, as her only choice. It was their words that created a hell on earth, and then those same words condemed her, and inprisoned her. Words!
God said; “love the sinner, hate the sin!”
Thank God, He knows the heart, He knows why we do things, He is the only true Judge, and He has found it in His infinite mercy to forgive anything we may have done, all we have to do is repent, be sorry, wish we could change. He sees why we do things, He knows the pains that hide behind our actions, but also sees the spirit behind every word!
Funny, Jesus never said; you will be held accountable for every action, but “for every word!”
The world would have you believe that certain activities even to the point of activities that are bad for us, such as engaging in sexual activities with multiple partners, or cheating on a spouse, same sex relations, are actually a product of who we are, not something that we choose, something we are born with, something we can not help, they have even gone so far to try to prove a gene for a person who murders, molests children, engages in sexual activity with same sex partners, exists.
A poor child sits on death row, because he had been so beaten and abused his entire life, the very thought of a kind word, a compassionate touch, a gentle smile, has never, even once passed his senses. A man who committed a murder, he is called a murderer.
A woman grows up in a family where work and responsibility have no place in their language, any and all efforts are primarily placed into the tasks that might result in getting as much moneys as possible from any and all sources. When she sees people who work diligently to receives benifits through honest work or action, her own manipulation find its way into her heart, her spirit not only flees from any thought of the other, but she even feels a deep routed haitred for them. That feeling has been apart of her being as long as she can remember and seem’s to also be lining the faces of everyone she not only loves, and trusts, but most of the people she distrusts. She is a selfish woman, sad!
Because your father committed a murder, now your are doomed and destined to do the same, genetically predisposed, and there is nothing you can do about it, so the world says! That is a lie of satan and completely false.
Because a mother spends a lifetime hating those who she believes received more in this life, she teaches her daughter to hate, with not only every word but with the very grimaces of her face. Satan laughs!
We do something so much it becomes second nature, it is easy to say; “maybe it is just the way God created me”, or “if He didn’t want me to be this way, why if He is a loving God would he have made me like this?” Another lie, He didn’t.
We make ourselves the way we are, many times not always completely by our own hand, but certainly molded by the hand of man, or the world which man has moulded around us.
One step further, a young man or woman might say; “I have never been loved by my mother or maybe my father, as a matter of fact I don’t even love me!” Or the young child rests in the bed of her parent, a place of supposed safety and love, yet one night a visiter brings pain, torment and shame! “No the assaillent didn’t seem to even care, as a matter of fact, she was cruel”, or “that drunk of a man even beat me for no reason, while he had his hands on me”. “People always rejected me because I just didn’t conform or fit the standards of others.” “How do you expect me to love men!” or “women have never loved me, how can I possibly love them!”
She might have been a little to tough or heavy, he might have been a little to soft. The only love, or even acceptance they may have ever known, in their entire life, was from one of their friends of the same sex. The friend who understood, who knew them, because they were going through the exact same scenario, the same hell.
Would a loving God want to deny them love?
My answer to them is; “No!!”
A boy or girl who has never known anything but abandonment, pain, hate, and discouragement, could hardly be expected to deliver love, compassion, in a stable environment.
A girl who has only been used, told she is ugly, fat, worthless, would have a hard time recognizing those qualities in themselves even when some young man tries to tell them.
We are all but small children locked up in cages of flesh and bone, ever being filled from the moment of our birth with dark, worldly, poisonous stuff. Building walls around us of darkness in an ever increasingly dark place. More vice in the eyes, more lying, hateful words in the ears, more garbage, chemicals, foul polluted water in our mouths, ever packing sin in and on our bodies, to the point where its so clear for everyone to see, and loath. One layer at a time, one morsel at a mouthful, a dark ungodly idea, another demon, one more bruise, one more unforgiven transgression.
God if I could just have a nicer car, a bigger house, another more loving spouse, more food, more respect, if I could just fill this void inside, maybe another pill, another trip to the mall, a piece of strange.
Your Father wants you to experience all the good, happiness, love, compassion, acceptance, gentleness, light, pleasure, this life has to offer. He wants you to first know; you are not defined by your actions, and no amount of negative actions, no matter how self destructive or selfish, will keep you from His love.
We are children of the Most High! We have the ability anytime we chose to wash ourselves as clean as the purest clear water, as white as the whitest snow. We are to but ask.
The world, the enemy would say we “are”; lier’s, thieve’s, adulterer’s, divorcees, child molesters, loser’s, jerk’s, bitches, rapist’s, ugly, fat, murmurers, worthless, ordinary, an accident, a random spontaneous creation from primordial soup, narsassist’s, lesbian’s, homosexual’s, but I say only we can give our selves those titles. Because if we believe it, and speak it with our mouth we have the ability to create it in ourselves.
Jesus would have all return to the Father that would come, we are all children who happen to sin. And He would forgive all who would reach out and but accept that forgiveness, He puts no limit on it, we do that by ourselves.
We are all children who happen to lie, who happen to steal, who happen to cheat, commit adultery, commit perverse acts, who happen to do, say, and act in a selfish manner, who happen to stuff, who happen to make mistakes, who happen to be less fortunate, who happen to boast, who happen to abuse ourselves and others, who happen to develop feelings for the same sex.
There are no loser’s, there are no murderer’s, there are no divorcees, there are no criminal’s, only those that place that title on themselves and can not let it go.
There is no such thing as a Homosexual.
By Peter Colla
“Father God open my eyes to see the children in each and everyone around me, allow me to look through the layer’s and pieces of sin that have enveloped Your children and made them into the image that stands before me. Let me see and love the sinner, while forgiving and disregarding the sin, in everyone around me, in my enemies, and finally in myself.”
The rush of the day, the passing of endless souls, brushing by in the speeding carriage’s of their lives. 
Rocking My Son to Sleep
“And Jesus asked him saying, what is thy name? And he said Legion; because many devils were entered into him.” Mark 5:9
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