Hard Rock Corporate – Histrory

I was digging through some old stuff that I had from when I was kid and found some papers, a menu, and a button from the first time I ever went to a Hard Rock Cafe. While I was parsing through those items and trying to determine if these little trinkets of my past were worth holding on to, I ran across one of the Hard Rock Cafe’s Corporate philosophy statements – “Love All – Serve All.”

As these words uttered in my head and in my Spirit, the Holy Spirit reminded me that the same philosophy was owned by one person over 2,000 years ago – Jesus. Regarding loving all, Jesus said the following in John 13:34-35:

Regarding serving all, Jesus said the following in Matthew 20:26-28:

It is clear from these two scriptures that Jesus already had the simple concept of “Love All – Serve All” before the Hard Rock Cafe came along. As you look at the ministry of Jesus, it becomes VERY clear that He did indeed Love ALL and Served ALL! Everything that Jesus did during His earthly ministry, as well as why He came and what He accomplished on the Cross was done through His love and serving of what God called Him to do. In fact, we are told in John 3:16-17 the following:

How unselfish! How full of love! Who would EVER sacrifice their only child for just one person, let alone the whole world full of people? Have you ever met anyone in this world that has had so great a love for people as this? But yet, it is clear from what Jesus taught us in the scriptures before this that when we love as He has loved us that the world will know us as Jesus’ followers and TRUE Christians if we love with His unconditional love. It won’t be through Christian music, or the little “Jesus fish” on the back of your car, or the WWJD necklace you where around your neck. It will only be through the love that you receive from God through our Lord Jesus Christ that they will know. This is why it is so important to Love All. Here at Herald of The Truth we have talked about this before and for further reading on loving all, be sure to revisit the article, “Love All!”

What about this serving of all? Look again at what Jesus said – he said we are to be servants to one another. In fact, he says that you are to be a slave to one another! A slave? That means surrendering all your rights, all your wants, all your desires, and all your comforts, to serve those things for others! You may be thinking, “Wait a minute! You mean Jesus wants me to give up my wants and desires to help provide the wants, desires and comfort by serving others? That sounds a bit unfair!” Well, isn’t this what Jesus had to do? Think about it for a minute – before Jesus came to this earth, where did he reside? Did he not reside in heaven with God? And if He was there, don’t you think that He lives in heavenly peace and did not know pain, bruising, bleeding, cutting, or any harm to Him? Do you think it was His desire, personally speaking, to be nailed to a cross and go through the torture and pain? Recall what even Jesus went through hours before being handed over to the Jews so that God’s Will may be fulfilled – Matthew 26:38-39:

Jesus prays to Father God about not having to endure what He knew He was going to have to do, but yet what prevails here? Jesus’ prayer is not His will be done, but that Father God’s will be done. What was Father God’s will to be done? We mentioned it earlier in John 3:16-17. Doing the will of the Father is being a servant. Jesus was serving the need also of all of humanity too! Had He decided not to do what His Father willed, we would never have the salvation that He completed through completing the will of God! And we have MUCH to be thankful for Jesus being obedient, even unto the completed work upon the cross! That is serving unselfishly and without thought of Himself – PRAISE BE TO JESUS!

Loving all and servant hood should be at the heart of every Christian and should drive us in all that we do. As we do these two things and step out to “Love All – Serve All” only then will the world see who Jesus is in and through us!

And that is The Truth!
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Reuters News Article: Kathy Griffin’s Jesus remark cut from Emmy show

Proverbs 18:20-21 states:

The Book of Proverbs is not the only place that we hear this sort of instruction from God’s Word. Jesus had clear instruction about what you say as well in Matthew 11:23-24:

Now, I can understand that as Christians many people look at situations like this and state, “You Christians can be so prude. Can’t you take a joke? I mean, she is a comedian and is entitled to her own comments. What’s the big deal?” And for a portion of those comments, they are right. Each person is personally responsible for his or her own words and life, for that matter. They are personally responsible for their own beliefs. And they are definitely responsible for their own actions in everything they do.

What is clear here is that Kathy Griffin has used her platform of “worldly fame” to take responsibility for all those things. She has made it abundantly clear by the words out of her own mouth where she stands and what she believes. As the Word says in Proverbs 18:21-22, she is satisfying herself with the fruit or words she produces out of her own mouth. She is creating the very death or life that her life will live and consume. Be it a joke or be it a fact that she was serious about what she said, does not mean a thing. Notice that no where in these passages of scripture does God make place for people to have some gray area that He says, “Jokes are great and I’m so glad when they make fun of the greatest sacrifice I’ve ever had to make for people and individuals just like Kathy. Please continue to make jokes about the person who has The Life and The Way to me!”

Instead, what does Jesus say – the very person she clearly has claimed she will not worship and is no longer her god? In Matthew 11:23-24, Jesus says that if you have no doubt and unbelief in your heart and believe what YOU SAY, then whatever YOU SAY will be done. Sounds very similar to what the scriptures said in Proverbs. For us as Christian – as believers in Christ and in the Word of God – when the Bible mentions something in two or more places, then God must have been trying to get our attention regarding this topic, or otherwise He would not have spent so much time being redundant.

While what Kathy has stated may have been a joke, may have been something that she thought was a great idea to spark more media attention about her, may have been her way of poking fun at her beliefs, or whatever, the reality is that she allowed her words to produce life to something for her life. The fact that the power of death and life are in what you say should bring all of us to an awareness in the things we allow to come out of our mouth. It’s not enough to say, “Well, can’t you take a joke?” Back under the Old Covenant, people would be stoned for blasphemous talk such as this. But why? Because they offended people? No! Because the people of God understood the power behind a corporate agreement and in saying and believing the same as what God’s Word said.

While the power to create death and life can affect one individual, that same power, when released through words spoken, can create so much more. Words can divide or they can bring together. Words can give or they can take. So when we say that life and death are in what you say, you can quickly see that we must become more aware of the words we release into our life, our families, our church family and the world. Everyone and everything is listening. Will the rocks cry out and be louder than the voice of the righteous? Will the redeemed of the Lord say so? Or will the voices of death and blasphemy rule? If you have spent anytime reading the Bible and know what the “end” holds, you know the answer. What we must do as Christians is line up with that and be reminded to not side with talk like this and let the Truth of God’s Word prevail!

And that’s The Truth!
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