Police woman Kim Potter had a work place accident for which she has been convicted of two charges that may see her jailed for up to 25 years. She had been doing her job when a convicted felon had gone berserk and was threatening the lives of her work colleagues. She yelled "Taser, taser,taser." And then reached for her gun, which resembled the taser and waited a few beats and fired. The dangerous felon died soon after. Footage of the incident reveals Kim crying as she realises she is going to jail for her mistake.

At trial it was revealed that Potter was within her remit to have simply fired her gun at the felon. However, despite her clean record as an officer and no evidence of malice, a presumably biased jury convicted her. Meanwhile press are working overtime to manufacture a public image of her guilt.

Social media is coming under greater scrutiny following a strategic admission in court that fact checking sites they rely on for editorial control of their content do not check facts but proffer opinion. Opinion which social media then use to censor those they disagree with. The legal protections that social media rely on to not get sued rely on them behaving like town squares, where free speech rules, not like publishing houses where their content is filtered. So why is President Trump deemed unworthy of Twitter, because of community standards, while terrorist organisations are accepted?

Professionally, I’m a math teacher. But I’m here today because I love God, wish to serve God and God is moving in my life. I’m rich, but I don’t have monetary wealth. I’m not here for myself, but I hope that I can show you who God is in my life, and who He may be in your life. I’m going to ask you to read the letters from John, in the Bible. Not right now, but later. Maybe you will read them prayerfully on your own. Maybe you will read them and share them in fellowship. As you do so, I want you to remember an often misunderstood statement: “God is love.”

God is love.

I was raised as an atheist by parents who trained me to distrust God and spit in His eye. People could tell me about God and I could tell them why they were stupid. God cannot build a bridge He could not cross. That is a language creation designed to exploit ultimates. An infinitely strong deity who can create all things, must be able to create anything. Including a bridge that cannot be crossed. And be able to cross that bridge, meaning they could not build that bridge. Such a God could not possibly exist.

God is love.

God is love is an expression used by God’s enemies to discredit God. The puritan Cromwell, leading his Ironsides as Lord Protector of England over 400 years ago had a siege cannon at Ireland’s town of Drogheda with those words on the cannon’s lips. The cannon broke the defences and Cromwell ordered no quarter given to the inhabitants.

God is love.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian who stood up to Hitler’s Nazis and policy. He wasn’t violent. He spoke persuasively. He was faithful to God and so Hitler ordered him killed. Dietrich could have recanted publicly, and kept his views private, like others did. But Dietrich stood on conscience.

God is love.

God is love. I cannot tell you precisely what those words mean to you. I can share a bit of what they mean to me. I was weak after I first became a Christian. I was angry. I achieved much with hubris. And I found enemies, because I looked for enemies, not for friends. In anger, I made enemies at work, and at home. But there are things I wanted in my life I could not get from enemies. I had not understood God is Love.

God is love.

There are things I wanted in my life and they never happened. I could point the finger at others, but it was because I was so angry. I wanted family. I wanted a career. I wanted to build things and to be able to look back with satisfaction at my personal achievements, or those of my family. And every opportunity passed.

God is love.

God is love. He gave me things I wanted. But, not in a traditional order. After I lost my career, I was using social media and happened on a foreign girl wanting help with English. I worked with her online, encouraging her to come to Australia and go to university here. She needed a little help, and someone to share her journey. And for a time, I could call Tammy ‘my daughter.’ And now she has a degree, a good man as a husband and she has started her family. God is love.

God is love.

I had wanted to raise children, to be there when they were vulnerable, and point the way to God. I was living in a share house and an Ice addict went berserk and wanted to kill me. A stranger I met on social media invited me to rent a room in his home. I spent some five years with his young family. I did not have skills I needed to work with young kids. But they taught me. And now I dream of the day I can share stories with them when they are adults.

God is love.

After reading the bible, I read it again. Then I read it aloud and shared the video on Youtube. Then Rumble after Youtube shadow banned me. Then I found 365 common bible quotes and wrote about the background and history to them. I wanted to find out about God.

God is love.

Nothing works in the world. People mean well but can't do their jobs. Everything becomes too hard, overwhelming. When we are lucky, we have ordinary tragedies, like losing our parents. And our pets. But, every year, things get better. More are lifted out of poverty. We network better. How can that be? How can things get better while everything falls apart and gets worse? I believe it is because of God's grace and love. Although I failed at my task, I'm forgiven and can persevere again. Although my day ended in tragedy, He gave us a new sunrise. God is love.

God is love.

I was driven to understand who God is after a dream I had had as an atheist child. It was one of those dreams where you feel you can fly or float. And I felt beset by evil. But, I entered a sanctuary, stone cave. I found a throne room and behind the throne room I sensed loved ones from my family I had never known, and a sister who had passed a year earlier. I begged God, whom I realised had authority, to stay. And he said I had not yet known him, but he would send me back for when I would know Him. God is love

God is love.

My sister, Pam, had died of natural causes, but as a younger girl I’d hurt her terribly. Dinner was being cooked in the kitchen. Pam was allowed to stand on a stool and stir some potato we were boiling. I had wanted to help too, but I felt she would never let me. I grabbed the stool from beneath her, and she fell, spilling the scalding water over herself, including her foot. Doctors needed to cut away her shoe and sock and Pam had permanent scars from that tragedy I caused. What had I done to Pam? Years passed, but she got sicker from kidney disease. She was twelve years old when she was offered a transplant in 1977. In 1978, her body rejected the transplant and she knew she was dying. She asked my mother for permission, and wondered what would become of her. Mother told her she believed she would be reincarnated in a better body, that she deserved. I remember thinking that my mother did not believe that. Pam died in the evening of Valentines Day 1978, age 13 at New York’s Albert Einstein Hospital. A year later, in a dream, I felt her in heaven with God. God is love.

God is love.

God gave us life. During that time, we can choose Him. We can choose life. But our life is our time to choose. When we die, our choice is fixed. There is a bridge God cannot cross. Yet God gave us his son, Jesus. Jesus has crossed that bridge God would not. Now we live in a time where we are God’s chosen, thanks to Jesus. Our task is no longer to lead blameless lives for His salvation, but to accept Jesus into our lives and through our embrace of Jesus, our choices become possible to obtain salvation, which is eternal life with God. Not that God welcomes our sin (a bridge he will not cross), but God will accept that which Jesus allows through his sacrifice on the cross.

God is love

I do not know what that means to you. But, I exhort you to read those three letters from John. And remember, God is love.