???

I am trying to work through things in little baby steps here. Well actually I have been finding convenient ways of avoiding and slowing down the process of accepting what God is trying to tell me. A convenient, but important, delay tactic has been asking questions. Here are some that have come up as I try to come to terms with this loving/witnessing to perverts who rape and sell children.

How do I know if I love them? Love is tangible when people are around you, but this is a group of people that are impersonal to and far away from me.

Can you love someone and still want them to be burned at that stake? Okay, okay, not burned, but at least punished for what they are doing? Jail maybe?

Is there room in God's justice for our criminal justice system?

As a Christian is it okay for me to want them to be put in prison for what they have done, even if they have repented and turned to God?

Right now I am having difficulty accepting the new covenant. I want an eye for an eye, although I realize their are implications for myself under the old system of the Law. This is quite distressing for me. You don't get to chose when you will follow God, and when you will not. You can't pick and choose which rules you want to follow, well I suppose you could but then it wouldn't really be Christianity. Scripture says much about giving your life to God, "giving yourself as a living sacrifice", so this is a big deal if I can't get though this and accept what God is saying. If you are lukewarm He will spit you out, it's an all or nothing deal. So if I can't do "all", then that only leaves one option. I am not throwing in the towel, I am fighting, but I am getting tired. And no one seems to understand how hard this is and how much I want to help the victims not the offenders.