What good is a life of faith …
If we live a life that needs no faith?
Be courageous!
Category: Simple Virtue
Sometimes …
Love means letting others own the consequences of their own choices.
Real prophets pay the price for truth …
Rather than expect you to pay them for it.
Unless compassion is combined with steely-eyed realism, I trust neither.
God never intended for either of those gifts to work in isolation.
Biblical love turns its own cheek …
While protecting other cheeks.
When we give thanks …
We become more than ourselves and our circumstances.
Charities, social programs and church ministries have their place …
But not as substitutes for individual hospitality and personal acts of kindness.
Jive Turkey:
Frozen birds with canned food distributed during the holidays by “respectable” Christians to poor, lost and lonely people …
Who otherwise would never be invited into their homes for a place at their table.
Unfortunately, frozen turkeys will out number true hospitality by more than a hundred to one at “churches” across the land this Sunday.
Although the poor, lost and lonely appreciate receiving their annual frozen turkeys …
Don’t think for a moment they also don’t get the unspoken message.
Why not make a real difference by affirming true worth and dignity …
With the gift of hospitality instead?
Sometimes words are not enough.
Spiritual frauds know how to fake charm and empathy to manipulate many.
Don’t be misled …
Value truth and candor instead.
Don’t confuse love with nice …
Because sometimes nice is not enough.
So you’re structuring and operating a “church” like a business to secure your own position and vocation as the pinnacle leader …
i.e., the “Senior” or “Lead Pastor.”
Where do you even find that in the New Testament?
You don’t.
It’s better to pay the price for truth, than to earn your pay from a lie …
Because in God’s economy, integrity matters.
I vote and promote civic virtue and good government in the community and nation where I live.
That’s because I serve a King who has not surrendered one square inch of His sovereign love and lordship over any part of His creation.
Bottom line:
Moral cynicism and cultural nihilism are not Christian values.
Don’t be deceived by false claims of “compassion” by repressive “progressives.”
Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, to give the coat off our back, and to help the poor.
But He never said to use government coercion to do it for us …
Or to force others to pay for it.
You can’t find a single instance in all of Scripture, by example or precept, where government is given authority to usurp our individual obligation …
To be our brother’s keeper.
And thus we are left with the fundamental error of repressive “progressives,” who want government to assume the burdens of compassion which they won’t bear themselves …
While compelling everyone else to pay for it.
Scripture has lots to say about the proper role and authority of civil governments.
For example, God primarily tasks civil authorities with an obligation to protect the innocent from evil doers …
So we may live peaceable lives that allow us to fulfill our own obligations to take care of ourselves and each other.
But nowhere in Scripture does God empower government to usurp our personal obligations of individual responsibility and charity.
Turn to Scripture and prove me wrong.
Otherwise, you make an idol out of government power, expecting it to do and fix what God commands of us as individuals to do and fix …
Through personal initiative and voluntary cooperation.
“Worship” in the New Testament means living lives of sacrificial service and reverent obedience …
On God’s behalf.
Today it means a Sunday “service” performed by a hip band and some “Reverend” …
On our behalf.
Let’s return to the simple faith, simple virtue and simple church of Scripture.
When “faith” is reduced to individual subjective beliefs and perceptions …
Truth becomes hate speech and virtue an outrage.
Moral norms or normalized evil?
When it comes to the basis for our laws, there is no neutrality …
There is no middle ground.
So when you vote for those who want to make them …
Choose wisely.
Love may be gentle and kind …
But it also speaks truth, resists evil and defends the innocent.
Freedoms and opportunities created through your own sacrifices for others are fleeting …
If they won’t likewise sacrifice to preserve them.
This is as true with individuals …
As with nations, cultures and generations.
Jesus hung out with those who are lost and know it …
While condemning those who are smug but deny it.
Many seem to have it backwards most Sunday mornings.
Wisdom is learning which problems have your name on them …
And which do not.
Plumbline Faith 