Recently someone wrote me and told me that they could watch the news and see all of the ugliness of the world (especially politics) on their TV, and that I should write Words for the Day about the niceties of life instead of the nasty barbaric mayhem in our country.
“After all”, this person said, “you are located in a beautiful setting of serenity and peace at Honey Lake Plantation and that is what people need to hear about each day in order to encourage them”.
I have pledged to do so and will do so (at the end of this devotional)…
The pastor of the church that I attended Sunday promoted a line of thinking yesterday morning that I think is…well… ridiculous! He admonished those of us who supported Chic-fil-a on Wednesday, intimating that we were acting like the “self-righteous” Pharisee who complained about the prostitute for washing the feet of Jesus with her tears, drying them with her hair, and putting precious perfume from an alabaster container on Him.
The pastor stated that church members had no more business being judgmental of the sin of same sex marriage than the self-righteous Pharisee Simon had for Mary the prostitute. He shouted from the pulpit, “We are ALL sinners and we should not get too far from remembering that in humility, and we should stray away from being self-righteous”.
And then for good measure he added that church members also had no business voicing an opinion concerning free speech issues.
Yikes! Does that mean that because we are Christians we should keep our mouths shut? Aren’t Christians Americans too? Is that what free speech is all about? Keeping our mouths shut?
Christians are being ridiculed and persecuted in this country for no other reason than they believe in Jesus Christ and the Bible. Muslims don’t believe in same sex marriage either, and yet nobody is railing against them. In fact Rahm Emanuel stood arm in arm with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan shortly after denouncing Chic-fil-a as not having Chicago’s values. I suppose Farrakhan’s values of not believing in same sex marriage and that white people are demons are just fine for Chicago because he is a Muslim and not a Christian.
Rahm’s former boss Obama said he didn’t believe in same sex marriage until it became advantageous to do so for his re-election hopes 30 days ago, but nobody criticized him when he held Dan Cathy’s belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman “near and dear”, (Gag, puke, vomit…) to his heart…
He stated on national television interviews more than once that he did not support same sex marriage and only “evolved” to being the big supporter later, when it became obvious that big Hollywood donor money would pour in if he dumped his belief system in favor of the gays.
Our pastor further stated that “buying a chicken sandwich did nothing to advance the cause of Christ”. He went on to state that it would have been better if we had gone to the gay sponsored kiss-in held at Chic-fil-a on Friday and told all of the participating homosexuals there that we love them.
Huh?
Ok I believe in witnessing to anyone and everyone and agree that we should pray for those participants and witness as led, but I’ve read the Bible so many times I don’t remember, and I cannot for the life of me see where it states that Christians should not stand up for their belief system as defined in the Bible.
What is the definition of a martyr?
Noun: “Somebody who chooses to die rather than deny a strongly held belief, especially a religious belief”
Reflexive verb:
“To bring difficulties, suffering, or hardship on yourself for something…”
Transitive verb:
“To kill somebody for refusing to deny a strongly held belief, especially a religious belief.”
Okay now that we all know what a martyr is did you know that numerous martyrs are mentioned in the Bible? In fact in Revelation it speaks of their being in the presence of God near His throne and petitioning Him to hurry up and avenge their deaths.
I would think my pastor and others with a similar belief system would realize that the disciples of Jesus were martyred for speaking out as were many other men of God such as John the Baptist. The Romans and other civilizations did not want to hear what Christians had to say. They ridiculed them, persecuted them, fed them to lions, imprisoned them, tortured them, and crucified them upside down for speaking out against the immoral lifestyle of their illustrious civilizations; and yet they would not shut up.
Thank God for their courage and their refusal to be silenced!
They preached that it was wrong to have orgies in temples and worship idols. They preached that it was wrong to heat up the arms of idols until they glowed orange and sacrifice and kill children on them, they said it was wrong to have sex with male and female prostitutes in temples and worship idols, and practice homosexuality, and engage in corruption.
They believed in the laws written in the Bible and they stuck to their beliefs by speaking out against immorality, even when persecuted and eventually martyred. John the Baptist was beheaded because he spoke out against an adulterous affair that King Herod was engaged in.
I think it is un-American for anyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, not to speak out against infringements against our rights such as freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, free speech, and other important constitutional issues. In addition to being a Christian, I’m an American and will continue to speak out at every opportunity and highly encourage you to do so too. I urge you to become a part of the political process and don’t let those who ridicule our constitution and/or God’s laws ruin our once great country by voting them out.
As a Christian I also intend to speak out as led by the Holy Spirit, especially against murdering 52 million babies using abortion. I don’t care what anyone in society has to say about it; I know abortion is wrong and I believe God will punish this nation for it. The same is true for promoting homosexuality as a healthy acceptable lifestyle, especially in children books; also I intend to speak out against pornography, legalizing drugs, parents not being allowed to discipline unruly kids and the same for teachers and other pseudo “societal improvements”..
I believe what the Bible has to say about these matters; don’t get mad at me, because I’m not the Bible’s author, God is the author; I just happen to believe what He’s written. And yes the Bible states that we should hate the sin but love the sinner. We can pray for them and witness to them, but we can speak out against sin too. I see nothing wrong with that course of action and everything right about it.
And please don’t anyone call me self-righteous, or accuse me of being too far from my sins to understand forgiveness and the need for it. I have sinned unspeakable sins too black to ever sneak or squeak into heaven on my very best day… If it were not for the sacrifice of Jesus I know I would bust hell wide open! I hate it but I continue to sin most every day and I ask God to forgive me for it every day and I know that I need the blood of Christ covering those sins just like the abortionists, murderers, thieves, et al. need theirs covered. I appreciate it very much!
However, think about it; if only some God-fearing Christians would have spoken out against Hitler and his demonic ideals and stopped him, we might have averted a war where fifty million human beings were slaughtered. If only enough Christians would speak out against the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East, Africa, China, and other godless countries maybe it would do some good…Maybe babies would quit getting slaughtered if enough Christians would rail about it.
But according to polls the only thing that really matters in the upcoming election is the economy. People will be voting with their wallets.
Geez…
Martyrs are screaming through our very consciences for us to yell from the highest rooftops. Don’t let anyone, tell you to keep quiet. Don’t you dare keep your mouths shut. Stand up and go forth boldly! Don’t listen to those in the pulpit or elsewhere that tell you to go as lambs to the slaughter with your mouths shut. Don’t allow there to be a silence of the lambs.
And for the niceties today: It is amazing to me how much I love to hunt and fish. I go fishing nearly every day and sometimes several times a day. I have my rods and reels located in the bed of my pickup truck and cannot seem to drive by one of our ponds without wheeling in and making some casts. I seem to never tire of catching the plentiful huge bass in our ponds; that is until hunting season opens and then I exchange the rods and reels for bows and guns and I’m in the woods every single day watching sunrises, walking through the mist, and hunting whitetails, quail, doves, ducks and spring Gobblers. It’s nice to enjoy God’s blessing and I appreciate Him giving mankind dominion over all of the creatures of the earth.
Hmmm…I don’t suppose bunny huggers and PETA believe that for a minute; seems I just can’t be nice enough to please anyone. Okay no more Mr. Nice Guy…
Rev. 6:9
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.