A hot favourite?

Imagine a meeting. With all the words about courts and judges, James is probably picturing a kind of court room, a place where disputes are sorted out, maybe even between fellow Christians. So, picture the scene, the church has gathered to sort out a disagreement between two of its members. The first one arrives, looking very fine. He is wearing his best suit, and his heavy jewellery shows that this is someone to be reckoned with. He is given one of the best seats, so that everyone can see him and he can command the room. The second arrives, he’s not washed for a couple of days. His clothes are tatty and he needs a hair cut. He’s made to sit on the floor at the edge of the room. What do you think the chances of a fair hearing are? How confident would you feel if you were the rich man sat, with everyone admiring you? How much despair would you feel as the poor man, crouching in the corner, overhearing the muttering of rude comments? What are the chances of a fair hearing? They don’t seem to be great, do they?

James then goes on to give three reasons why favouritism is wrong, why it is not to be practiced by those who believe in Jesus and follow him.
1) God has chosen the people you are discriminating against for special blessing. So you’re setting yourself up against the will of God.
2) The ones you are fawning to are the very ones who are attacking you and blaspheming against Jesus.
3) It breaks the law that has been acknowledged as the heart of the law, a status that was reaffirmed by Jesus – love your neighbour as yourself.

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Welcome, Travel, Message

I don't know if you have noticed but we have had a special visitor to the UK during the last week. In fact there have been lots of special visitors. The leaders of the G20 nations, the 20 richest, most influential countries on earth have been in London, with their ministers and advisors. But the one that everybody talked about most was the new President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Everybody wanted to welcome this man who has been hailed as a breath of fresh air, a new hope for the western world.

Even Radio Stoke got in on the act. Stuart George on the Breakfast Show yesterday said this about him, “Everybody loves him and he's going to solve the world's ills.” Now, I think that his tongue was in his cheek, but there is that kind of slant to a lot of the coverage of Barack Obama, expectations of what he can achieve are very high. Anyway, in order to mark the occasion of his visit to the UK, Radio Stoke are planning to send him a hamper of things to let him know about Staffordshire and South Cheshire, because he never really made it out of London. They invited people to ring and text in with suggestions of what could go in this hamper. They decided that they couldn't send food because that wouldn't get through customs. But in the end this was the list of things that they decided to send: a recipe for Oatcakes, a piece of pottery, a calendar with views of the Staffs moorlands, postcards showing views of the area, a model train, and two t-shirts for his daughters with a Staffordshire knot design on them. That is the list of things that it was decided represent this region and would be our welcome to Barack Obama to mark his first visit to the UK as President.

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