Jesus stated to some that the Kingdom of God is at hand.Some, He stated, were not far from the Kingdom.When we think of a kingdom we naturally think of a material, two dimensional places that we can drive to, walk to and live in.What if what Jesus was talking about and what we think are different?Wouldn’t be the first time, would it?
I bring this up because recently my attentions have been turned toward “Social Justice” and what that means.I will first state that I have no issues with offering tithes so that widows and orphans are taken care of. Next are the aged and infirmed and there are reasons existing as to why those people are not able to enter the work force to provide for themselves.After that, my compassion begins to wane as I look upon a full able bodied individual who is in possession of their mental and physical faculties but yet refuses to work.It is stated in scripture that if a person wants to eat they are to work (2 Thess 3:10-12).In Genesis our God is very clear that we are to sweat and toil for our existence (Gen 2:15).We can debate till the cows come home if it was about Adam and Eve’s sin, mankind’s sin, or sin in general.The fact remains that the God of creation deemed that we as His creation would toil for our existence until we are naught.So why then are we made to feel guilty if we hold back from giving our hard earned bread (money) to someone who has all reasonable means to make it themselves? (Eccl 2:24)I want to talk for a moment about something that smells like smoke, and I believe comes from the pit of hell, guilt.Not the kind of guilt we feel when we have done something offensive to God and to ourselves.This guilt is thrust upon us by society when they try to convince us that we are not being a good person (in their eyes).That society has created a standard possibly and most likely different from God’s standard (Jesus), and when they feel we have not measured up, we are chastised for it.This is what God tells us is not of His doing, but it is of the devil.
The devil, Satan, the lord of the air was allowed to roam this world while God has rule over the Kingdom of Heaven (Job 1:1-12, 1 Peter 5:8, James 4:7).Going along with scripture and taking it at face value because if we do not then we run the risk of devaluing the sacrifice of Jesus himself and then where is our salvation; looking at scripture we see Satan is still God the Father’s worker, he is still toiling for his existence.He is in this world and it is not Heaven.Jesus states that He saw Lucifer fall from Heaven, so that shows us they are separate places and wherever Lucifer is, it is not Heaven, Jesus told us so.
Why the push then to create Heaven here?I would say it is because that is where Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit are, and there is light and love there.But I put to you this question, why do we think we can create Heaven in the midst of Lucifer’s world?People, we are being sold a bill of goods and it didn’t come from Jesus.Jesus stated to us what the Kingdom of God looks like through the Sermon on the Mount, the story of the protocol son, His examples of kindness, gentleness, acts of healing and words of Godly wisdom.All those are right and good and do make us feel so good, and we have our mountain top moments.And just like Peter, James and John we want to build tents and never leave (Matt 17: 3-5).We come away from those mountain top experiences and want to re-live it, recreate it, we want Jesus to be so close, and we want Him to call us good.So when we hear another “believer” call us something other than good, we start to worry about getting to Heaven.
So when looking at all of this with the mindset of “social justice”, it is not conscionable to believe we can create Heaven when we are in the devil’s kingdom.I am not saying that we should not help the poor and orphaned, the aged, and the challenged of our society, of course not.What I am saying is that while we are fixing a sandwich or dishing a bowl of soup for someone, clearing out our closets of unneeded clothing, there is someone in my church or yours who is telling us it is because the evil, mean and greedy farmers that those people are poor.It is because the laws of our society that those poor people exist.It is because of the consumer mentality of our society that we want and use these people for our own gain and do nothing to better their circumstances that is making us “bad” people.
This type of talk my friends is class warfare and it smells like smoke, and is from the pit of hell.The devil always has a way of taking what Jesus starts and puts a twist on it to distort it.That is what he does in this world, and it keeps us on our toes to discern God’s truth from the rest.We are not to hate or dislike someone else because of their house or boat or the fact that they have neither.We are to live the gospel, which is the message of good news that Jesus was born, is real, and made a way for us to be with Him and The Father for all eternity.That is the true message of love, and we are to carry that message in our hearts and share it with not only the poor of material wealth, but the poor of heart and spirit.
My issue is that there is bad theology being spread in our churches and has been for decades and it is false teaching.The concept that if all were given equal amounts of food, clothing, and money, that there would then no longer be starvation or poverty in this world.That to me is short sightedness and not of God (Mark 14:7).Whoever presupposes this is fooling his or her self into thinking that they can correct God’s creation.That somehow they can put mankind back on track after the incident in the Garden of Eden.The Garden of Eden is proof that sinfulness lives in mankind’s heart even when surrounded by every good and perfect gift and is kept company by the One who is all love and all charity.True charity is sharing from the abundance of God’s blessings to you and offering it to others.Who are the poor?Are they always depicted by the type of car they drive or the type of house they live in?Jesus found true friends and believers in the house of Lazarus along with Martha and Mary his sisters.Scripture does not say they were wealthy in goods but I do believe Jesus saw their wealth in spirit.Zaccheus had goods of wealth but was humbly poor in spirit and revealed that to Jesus (Luke 19).
The next time you hear someone speak about the goodness of “social justice”; when you hear them depict that there are good players and bad players, good characters and bad characters think back to how Jesus taught.He did not set one group of people against another. He only pointed out their lack and what was needed to be done about it and from what source they would find the answer.He lives to point us toward our Father not an IRA, 401K or new Lexus.Jesus does not seek to show us how to harbor ill feelings toward those God our Father has blessed with the ability to create wealth.How those individuals divide up their spoils is between them and God, and they are answerable only to God just as we are answerable only to God about the gifts we have been endowed with (1 Cor : chapter 12).If a person gains through thievery, then they should answer to the law.If the laws are bad, then we need to work in our government to create better laws that are more in alignment with God’s law.It is not our place to sit in God’s seat and cast judgment over someone because of what we see on the outside.Thankfully God knows our heart and will judge us rightly and with compassion and mercy because He IS compassion and mercy.
Be careful my friends and look for Jesus in your heart and in Heaven.Do not look to create Heaven on earth because that is not God’s plan for us.Jesus will return one day and set foot on the Mount of Olives, and that is when the New Kingdom will be established, but not by human hands and not outside of God’s purview.A mindset that sets up good guys and bad guys is nothing other than the devil getting to our basic instinct to see ourselves in the place of those poor abused people, and we transfer ourselves into their shoes and it makes us want to fight back because we are healthy, fed and prosperous.The devil plays with us like pawns on a chess board, and he knows it.The devil is someone who knows your buttons and knows how to make you howl and bear your teeth.The devil is the lord of war in this world, and he brings death along with him (Rev 6:8 KJV).
Hello and good morning, I am enjoying a day off from work and found this e-mail from Americans United for Life. I began Tuesday making phone calls to our Senators and Congressman pertaining to the health care reform bill. Today's e-mail message lists just another reason why this legislative monster is objectionable. However your beliefs pertaining to abortion this bill is the largest grab for control into our personal lives in U.S. history. At this point of the argument of the bill I will not debate on the issue of abortion as say whether or not this is an immoral act (for Lola and I it is). The bottom line is - should the United States government have the power to take your tax payer dollars and apply it to something that millions of Americans feel and believe an objection to on many levels? If a woman wants to abort a living, innocent, defenseless life living inside her womb that is between her and God and I am fine with allowing God to be God in that situation. What I do not feel is constitutional or legal is for the government to decide what is best to do with my money while disregarding my voice as a voter and tax payer.
Please watch the two minute video: http://blog.aulaction.org/2010/03/04/video-urgent-message-from-aul-action/
Please pass it along to others who feel the same way. Our voices need to be heard by our elected officials - even the President. The media presents the President as some sort of celebrity when in fact the office of President is a public servant position that is provided for by tax payer dollars and is issued public housing. The President is to be the decision maker in some cases but so is congress, there is to be a system of checks and balances to where one governing person or body does not diminish the other. As of this point as exemplified by the health care summit from last week even Chris Matthews of MSNBC commented that President Obama disrespected many of our Senators and Congress people by ignoring any points brought up that were in conflict to his agenda. In the end of the summit President Obama stated that the time for debate is over and that a decision must be made to move the bill forward. Dozens of political polls report every week the desire or interest in a public option health care plan is being rejected by the American people and the minority has now become the majority. We have something here that is larger than passing a public option health care bill, we have a President who ignores what you the American tax payer and legal citizen wants and is set on achieving his own agenda.
This is no longer the United States of America it is the United States of Obama. We are at the precipice where if we sit quietly and silently go along to get along our liberties will be stripped from us one by one. The President and F.B.I have already moved to extend conditions of the Patriot Act where they can (at will) choose who's cell phone they will monitor without the permission of a court order or warrant. While George Bush moved for this and initiated it and many objected, the Obama administration has chosen to keep it in tact and continue to violate the right to privacy when and where they so choose. It's about abortion and it is about so much more. This whole bill is constructed in such a way that the State gives the power and the privileges and the rights of the individual are ignored. Look at Govtrack.US under 3200 for the house version of the bill, the Senate version is only a few hundred pages smaller but has the same essential language. Taking away your individual rights and turning them over to the State government. It is not a boogie man scare tactic, it is reality. People ignore this because our society has become conditioned to believe only stuff like this happens in the movies, well, life is stranger than fiction and our government has gone a muck.
If you are opposed to abortion support Americans United for Life in what ever way you can. Make a telephone call to your Senators and tell them you are in objection to abortion being paid for with your tax dollars. Sitting by while knowingly allowing the government to use our money for this while we personally find it objectionable still makes us culpable because we know that it is going to happen and we sit and do nothing about it. At least if we protest and make telephone calls and write e-mails we are exercising our legal means to stop it. If those elected officials proceed against our wants and desires and can say in our prayer time to God that we have done all that we can do then the blood is literally on their hands and not ours.
We must raise the roof with our government and let them know they are not celebrities but elected officials who's jobs are paid for with tax payer dollars and they are in fact answerable to us (their employer) just as you are answerable to your boss whomever that may be. We accept a job position and understand that we are there for eight hours to serve them and not ourselves and they will pay us for our labor. Elected positions are the same, we vote them in but for the reason of being our elected agent with the authority to carry out our wants and desires, not their own. No one hires someone and pays them to just do whatever you want when you want and how you want. That makes absolutely no sense. Our employees are walking away from their job responsibilities and heading in essence to the break room or wherever they go to do what they want on our dime.
It is our responsibility as their employer to give them a corrective interview, to label out for them where they have not fulfilled their duties as an employee and list how we want them to correct the errors and misjudgments. If we are not doing this then the failure of our political and economic society cannot be held to them but to us. God has blessed this nation with opportunities for liberties that no other country on earth enjoys, not in the same ways we do. God has blessed us with the opportunity for self government and self elected leadership. To ignore this and allow it to go up in a ball of flame is like flicking God the bird and saying, "so what, who cares, it doesn't affect me in my life, I never asked for it and don't want it." Good stewardship also entails assuming and acting out in a responsible way and exercising our rights and privileges afforded to us by the people who fought and died to claim it as our own.
Stand with your neighbor and with me, let our elected public servants know they are missing the mark.
Hello and good morning, I just finished reading this article and found it worth forwarding. I am placing the web link for it here:
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/duke/100301
Why some Christians aren't Christian and simple facts are given. Something to think about the next time any of us find ourselves not wanting to be confrontational with our faith and our views. Confrontation as was explained to me by a Diocesan approved program is not a physical altercation or cruising for a bruising. Confrontation is a practice of giving opposing view. An art form that is not practiced much anymore in our culture is debate. In consensus, participants of a group are asked and relied upon to give their true thoughts and beliefs about something. All members are given five minutes to say their piece while the others only listen (key operative being listen) and no immediate response or retort is given, all members have their say. This gives a window into the mental and emotional goings on of the group. Once all have spoken it is easier to move forward as a group and not as an individual who desires to run rough-shot over everyone else. Consensus is difficult for many and even large corporations hire experienced group discussion leaders to help a department reach consensus because as individuals we want to be "right." Consensus may show that we are off track or that we are different in our thinking from others, it may show us for who we really are and that is getting too close to the quick of our mask that we cover ourselves with. It is easier to argue with someone about being right than to sit with someone and have a respectful and open ended discussion.
The author is not talking about consensus I feel it necessary to bring up consensus. I believe that educated, responsible, mature adults can reach consensus on many issues. I'm not saying it will be a completely agreeable process and there will be some descent among members but in all, by and large each member is allowed to speak their piece without being cut off or told they are stupid. Each person is, for at least five minutes, heard by their piers and for many in our walk today that will seem for them like they have received the greatest gift. To be heard, that in our society today is one of the most prevailing causes as to why some people snap, they act out, because others around them don't want to listen. It would be the Christianly thing to do.
Be an open ear for someone today, just as Jesus is for you, every day.
