Is it A LOT of work to care for a person with DS? Yes
Is that good enough reason to end a human life? No
What then should we do? Build churches, families and communities that share the burden of care and make life more bearable for those facing significant challenges.
The Christian answer has never been to eliminate the vulnerable because caring for them is costly. The Christian answer has been to bear one anotherās burdens.
When Christians remained behind to care for the sick during plagues, they were not choosing the easiest path. They were choosing love.
So what we need is not fewer people who require care, but stronger communities willing to share the burden of care.
please normalize letting people eat their lunch alone if they want and decompressing for 30 min without the pressure of being considered antisocial in the workplace.
When Jesus warned about āblasphemy against the Holy Spirit,ā he was not speaking in vague or generic terms. He was responding to a specific event unfolding in front of him. In Matthew 12, Jesus healed a man who was blind and mute because of demonic oppression. The miracle was public, undeniable, and powerful. The people who watched it knew something divine had happened, and some even began to wonder if Jesus might truly be the Messiah.
The Pharisees saw the same miracle, but instead of acknowledging that God was at work, they made a deliberate claim: āHe casts out demons by Beelzebul.ā In other words, they attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. Jesus immediately corrected them by explaining that he cast out demons by the Spirit of God, and it was this contradiction that formed the basis of his warning. Their statement was not made out of confusion. It was a conscious rejection of truth. The miracle itself was an open demonstration of the Spiritās power, yet they insisted that the Spirit had not acted at all. They said the power was demonic. That is the essence of the blasphemy Jesus described.
Understanding this in context shows that Jesus was addressing a hardened, willful resistance to the Spiritās testimony about him. The Holy Spiritās role is to reveal Christ, convict hearts, and draw people to salvation. When someone sees that revelation clearly and still chooses to deny it, replacing truth with a lie, they are cutting themselves off from the only pathway that leads to forgiveness. It is not that God becomes unwilling to forgive. It is that a person becomes unable to repent because they are rejecting the very light meant to lead them to repentance.
This pattern appears elsewhere in scripture. Pharaoh repeatedly witnessed undeniable acts of God in Egypt yet hardened his heart each time. The Sanhedrin in Acts 7 were accused by Stephen of always resisting the Holy Spirit even though they had received repeated prophetic witnesses. Romans 1, Hebrews 6, and 10 describe people who have tasted the Spiritās power and still turn away willfully. In all these cases, the issue is not ignorance or weakness. It is the rejection of clear revelation after the truth has already been fully presented.
This makes it clear that Jesus was not talking about ordinary struggles, doubts, or moments of confusion. Throughout scripture, anyone who came to God sincerely, even in weakness or failure, was received. The Phariseesā problem was different. They saw the Spiritās work with clarity and insisted that the Spirit did not do it. They ascribed Godās work to the devil. Jesus called this a line because a heart that repeatedly denies the Spiritās witness cannot receive the forgiveness the Spirit brings.
Now Iāve seen the conversations on the timeline⦠Iām reminded of something important about the Church.
Jesus never policed people into holiness. He welcomed them, taught them, walked with them and trusted the Holy Spirit to do the deep work. We must do the same.
Some people who attend our church shared their opinions online. Some of those opinions I agree with; some I donāt. Some of the tweets were unwise; some were deleted; some doubled down. That is the human journey. Growth is rarely neat.
But let me say this clearly:
They are still our people.
We donāt deny them. We donāt discard them. We donāt treat them as PR problems (I mean, we are not a company, we are a church) They are all members of our church, (from the one whose video started it, to the ones that were annoyed by it), and we love them.
In the Corinthian church, there was zeal, confusion, immaturity, and even clashing ideologies, yet Paul didnāt abandon them. He taught them. He corrected them. He walked with them until truth was formed in them. The only person he removed from fellowship was someone living in open, unrepentant sin. Thatās not what this is.
And even then, he brought him back into fellowship in 2 Corinthians.
Most of what you saw online is not ārebellionā; it is discipleship in progress.
Opinions shaped by culture will be reshaped by truth. Ideologies will be submitted to Christ over time. We donāt throw people away because their sanctification is still unfolding.
CCI is not a museum for the perfect. It is a church. A church for people being transformed into the image of Christ.
And all of us, every single one, are in that process.
So yes, they belong here.
And yes, God is still working in all of us.
At the end of the day, itās Reboot SZN and God is set to make an unstoppable move out of us.
If you donāt care about your reputation, at least consider your church and your pastor.
You say you love Apostle Iren, yet you act in ways that make outsiders question what he teaches. You give people room to disrespect your church. Have you no caution?
Like Moh said, he had to hold himself back from saying ugly thingsāIām doing the same.
Why are you like this? Because of feminism? That was enough to ignore Pastor Bisola when she corrected you. Enough for some of you to quote her disrespectfullyāyour own pastor.
Itās enough to turn you against fellow church members. Do you not see what this ideology is doing to you?
Itās even enough to make some of you defend abortion. And youāre all heading to Reboot Campāfor what exactly?
James said:
āIf anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue⦠this personās religion is worthless.ā ā James 1:26
James also said:
āOut of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.āā James 3:10
I have seen several of you tweet some very concerning things these past few days. In fact, someone quoted and said, "This one is going to Rebooth Camp like this oo."
Guess what, he was right to. No point to going to Reboot Camp when you are not acting like Christians.
Paul said:
āPut away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and malice.ā ā Ephesians 4:31
Outsiders have watched many of you behave in questionable ways these past few days.
It seems you love Apostle Iren because itās socially trendy, and you follow CCI as a kind of social badge.
Nothing in your actions reflects the doctrine, character, or values he teaches. You drag your churchās name into the mud every time you spiral into these online feminist outbursts.
You quickly disregard Scripture, abandon the brotherly love CCI is known for, and throw respect for your pastors aside.
You are not acting like Christians. Love is what defines a church. That is shown in giving, forgiving, and forbearance.
Bearing the burden of one another and being slow to be offended. That was completely absent yesterday.
If I were your pastor, I'd be sad knowing I have to start laboring all over again.
Are you the only church members who do this? It seems so, because 8 out of 10 times when something like this happens, people can guess itās CCI membersāand theyāre often right.
I rarely see other churches doing this publicly to their own.
And honestly, thereās no point going to Reboot Camp with hearts like this. Jesus said:
āFirst go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.āā Matthew 5:24
Please honor your church and your pastor. Honor Apostle Irenāhe deserves it. Even we who are outsiders can see that. He is really trying.
Behave in a way worthy of Christians, so no one has grounds to speak against you.
Paul said:
āSo that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.āā Titus 2:8
I pray God helps and guides you all. Amen.
Your disposition as a Christian in the face of evil and it's consequences should be one of radical humility. If not for Jesus Christ, your fate would be the same.
Again, you have no right to boast or to be prideful, it is Jesus that saved you, not your works, not your goodness.
Might be a long shot, but if thereās any woman whose boyfriend/fiance is a person living with sickle cell disease, and youāve been praying for a miracle, please dm me. Kindly RT for reach.