They have turned My love affair into a lawsuit.
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Apple's new bags when you buy something in an Apple Store are biodegradable. The old bags were thick plastic and threaded with a rope dr...
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Love won't be held hostage. Love takes no prisoners.
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Did you ever know anyone who seemed to have no trouble making choices? The thing I'm thinking about now is that we all make choices ever...
7 comments:
ok...been waiting for you to clarify the ambiguity...but since you haven't...I'll just say... huh?
What!... that's too deep even for me to fathom!!!!
MJ, I am with you. Huh?
However, knowing the depth of this man, I will just go ahead and say, "Wow!"
I really believe this is God’s word for the West.
But it will take a bigger prophetic voice than mine to deliver it. Certainly bigger than any of the sellouts de jour—these Christian superstars behind microphones and pulpits. If I were that prophet, I would elaborate something like this.
Go to your churches, those who say you believe. Go to your town halls, your online forums, your bookstores, your great halls that bear My Name. Are they filled with graceful words, with art, with poetry, with music, with dance, with passionate acts, powerful healing gestures, sacrifices born of love too pained to remain proud and composed?
Go again to your churches, those who say you believe. Go to your town halls, your online forums, your bookstores, your great halls that bear My Name. Are they not filled with debates, with proofs, with points and counterpoints, with witnesses and testimonies, with opening and closing remarks? You who call yourselves My children and not My jury, do you not expect the one behind the mic to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Do you not weigh carefully all the evidence presented to you? Do you not sit behind closed doors together to deliberate and reach decisions?
Go to your mentors, your teachers, your guides, those who say you believe. Go to the ones supposedly showing you the way. Are they weak with love, or strong with conviction? Do they wisely fight for what is right and just and fair, or are they eat up with foolish notions like gifts and love and romance and fierce, dying passion? Do they wear the garb of lovers in heat, or the suits of lawyers trying cases? Do they carry flowers beneath their arms, or briefcases? Do they find themselves unable to eat, unable to sleep, unable to focus on mundane tasks, or are they fat from eating the ordinary and drinking the reasonable? Do they pine away for hours wondering what their Lover thinks, or do they etch My words into clubs and march with them as to war?
Go to your leaders, your defenders, those who say you believe. Go to the ones supposedly shepherding My beloved flock. Do they lift one finger to help? Is My flock not plundered? Is it not food for every wild animal? Do they strengthen the weak and the young, heal the sick, or bind up the injured? Or do they not concern themselves with explaining why the shepherds are strong and mature, well fed, well clothed, and well drunk? Do they not claim their only responsibility is to tell the truth instead of using it for My flock? When they talk about how there is little difference between My people and the rest of the world, do they weep and mourn, repenting in sackcloth and ashes for their sins of neglect? Or do they not shake their heads in disgust at these pitiful sheep gone astray? When they see other sheep not of My fold, dirty sheep, rebellious sheep, do they woo them gently? Do they fight their predators for them? Or do they not fight against them, kill them if they can, eat them, or leave their bodies for the birds? And while they attack, who cares for My sheep? And who is reassuring My sheep when they themselves feel dirty or unworthy or rebellious, reminding them of their Lover’s heart for them?
I am tired of My love affair being turned into case after case of debate and proof and decision and sentence and proclamation. You have lost your tingles and traded them for tribunals.
Well, like, um,...amen to that, man. I wrote a poem a long while ago on my blog in response to LOTR and the coronation of Aragorn. I had wondered at myself loving God in the sense of true fealty and willingness to really, literally die if called to...and also the idea of deference to a king because I have never experienced that kind of love in this here western society. What I came to is the thought that perhaps all this wonderful democracy, that we so love and enjoy, has killed, for us, the concept of true lordship and love of a lord the way Aragorn is loved by his people.
We elect everyone... We think we can elect Jesus too. "So and so made a "decision for Christ" this past week" No she didn't!!!!! He chose me, he pursued me...I didn't elect him and truthfully, I probably wouldn't if I knew what it all entailed...just being honest.
He has me in his grip and he holds me and if I try to go away he chases me down and drags me back to him (thank God) And as terrible as I am...he won't leave me even if I push and balk at him and you know, I didn't decide for that at all. Nope, has very little to do with me or my deliberations (careful and thoughtful as they may be)...If it doesn't hinge on him and his verdict, we're all very, very screwed.
So here's to storming the courts and raiding the juries chambers. May he flood those places and wash out all the loveless bickering and foul hearted banter and cut these cold and calloused hearts down to flesh once again.
May it be.
And there are so many faces to this.
Evangelical Christianity has evolved into a very moot religion. We the people of the jury. Very proud seat to sit in. You would almost guess that Protestantism was begun by a lawyer.
Try and find a conversation between Christians that doesn't wind up deciding whether ______________ is a sin. Fill in the blank: abortion, speeding, drinking, smoking, masturbation, divorce, lying, dancing, joining the army, skipping church service, not tithing, declaring bankruptcy, extramarital sex (hetero- or homo-), cohabitation, flirting, and on and on and on.
None of us is supposed to decide anything about sin.
We are not even supposed to decide anything.
"Decide not, lest ye be decided on." - Jesus (Matthew 7:1)
When you decide something, you have promoted yourself yourself away from it, on top of it. You have removed yourself from the arena of life, and taken up a spot in the stands.
Christ didn't save any of us so we could be like he's not. He jumped in the arena. He refused to be outside of it. He refused to render a decision. And he wanted us to follow him.
"I decide on nothing." - Jesus (John 8:15)
But people say, "We have to decide what is and is not a sin so we won't sin."
No.
You don't.
You just have to live.
Sin is possible for God to deal with. It's impossible for you and me. We were not designed to decide. We didn't even have the ability to decide about sin until sin entered our world. And we won't defeat sin by deciding.
It's like Paul wrote in Romans, "Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help."
Our Lover can handle it.
Lovers don't spend time making decisions.
Decisions are quite the nuisance to good loving.
Lovers spend time being in love.
They spend time acting in unexplainable ways. Ways that don't add up. Ways that those in the jury stands decide are unreasonable.
I'm not wasting any more time on deciding. I'm tired of the jury stand. I'd rather be with my Lover.
me too
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