And really, folks.
I’ve had reason to ponder really GUTSY Christianity over the last several weeks, and it’s hit me like a ton of bricks. (Not pricks, bricks.)
Christians today couldn’t preach their way out of a wet paper bag marked “Satan.” They drama-queen about situations that are way less than how bad they could get. Are we Beirut yet? If not, there’s hope. Now can we get that hope out of that wet paper bag?
It has to begin by being able to talk on the level of your audience. We’re just too doggone POLITE, dog our cats. Oh, we’ve got a body and that fallen grody thing still might have honorable uses? You mean we don’t have to be embarrassed about it anymore?
Well news flash. That’s why there was an Incarnation. That’s God saying with irrefutable example that you can be blessed right down to your guts.
And if you know Jesus you can even talk about how it FEELS.
We don’t have a bless-you-right-down-to-your-guts Christianity any more. That’s why we can’t do a bit of good. You think the hellfire makes any impact? They’ve heard it a zillion times, do you think the zillion and first will change anything?
The problem with the fall is that folks stopped being holy beings (granted a derivative holiness, but who would claim otherwise?) and became merely moral.
The body of death isn’t this Eeeeeevil thing ... it can be a moral thing. Usually is. Indeed, the flesh aping the fruits of the spirit is one of the problems even true Christians (blood bought saints) can have when they try to do “good” in their own strength rather than out of obedience to the Spirit.
Or, as one old salt was to have once asked a young just out of school preacher: “Were you sent or did you just went?”
The problem with the body of death is it wants us to obey it, and not the Holy Spirit. And it’ll be a good, religious little body of death if that’s what it takes.
Telling the difference between obeying and “look at me” need not be hard ... but remember when Paul wrote that his concern was that the Gospel was proclaimed and not that he always got worked up about who was proclaiming it?
The odd thing to me is that you have reached the point of thinking me ludicrous NOT because I’ve been writing gustily about difficult matters, where there is reasons one might actually have differences and discourse thereafter arise (with no guarantee of any settlement, mind you) but because I have posted about what should be considered low hanging fruit, things beyond contention.
Like the need for homosexuals to repent, that they CAN repent (or else Paul was inaccurate to say and such were some of you), and in fact that they should be told to repent even if it means they fell put upon.
To say those things isn’t to ignore sexual immorality in general, but to address a very specific form of sexual immorality that is doubling down on unholy.
Nuance is all fine and good. But if, as you say, they’ve heard it all before then it doesn’t hurt them to hear it again. It’s on their heads if they refuse Christ. No one will be thrown into the lake of fire because of what is written in the books but because their name is not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. That includes homosexuals who didn’t repent.
What am I to do? Shut up and wave as they merrily pass by?
My words ARE weak and useless! I don’t pretend that they are powerful and persuasive! But if I’ve got this talent in my hand I’ve got a choice: either TRY to do business with it (even if that’s just depositing it for the interest gained) where I have a forum or bury it in a handkerchief for later. That’s MY choice and I’m responsible for obeying.
God can make even weak and useless things to bring forth fruit.
Good thing too because weak and useless describes His people pretty well.
And me very, very well!
So, yep, I’m ludicrous. Actually, I’ve a silly streak that’s a mile wide and not a bit shallow, when it comes to it.
What’s your excuse?
Intense - “High Impact Weather Event” Underway - AUSTRALIA
There are now fears three months of rain could fall in just a few days across Victoria with 300mm mooted in some areas as a front powers through southern Australia aided by tropical moisture further north. “It is an event that poses a threat to life, there will be a massive amount of lightning, there will be roads cut, flood waters,” he said on Thursday. “Those thunderstorms will gradually all weld into a massive, great rain band, and that band will spread down across the state on Friday night and Saturday morning. “This is a vast, intense, high-impact event for this state. I think this event will turn farms into lakes.”
Of course, this has nothing to do with the referendum on Gay Marriage! Right!