Saturday, January 29, 2011

food for thought...

I was doing some thinking today. It's kinda a new thing I've started doing from time to time. Somehow my mind drifted to all the different forms of people in the world. All the thousands of jobs, lifestyles and world views. I thought to myself "satan sure has done a wonderful job of really perverting things without having taken any of the credit." You see, I quickly came to the conclusion, as many of us have, that Satan is a being of subtleties. He doesn't need us blatantly worshiping him, he simply needs us doing anything but bringing glory to Christ. He doesn't need men who no longer love their wives, but rather men who love themselves more. He doesn't need us not going to church, he wants us in church, but with cold hearts. I suppose in the end, for him, it won't much matter if you were Hitler or a complacent accountant. He is simply in the business of attempting to rob God of the glory He is so worthy of. I continued thinking. How is it that it has become nearly impossible to have a conversation with someone living an anti-Biblical lifestyle; whether it be consciously or subconsciously? It is so difficult to even speak with someone pro-choice or homosexual without appearing to be "intolerant" or "close minded." After a few minutes of thought I realized that in many regards, truth in and of itself is intolerant. You see, when a man marries a woman, he is not only saying yes to one woman but also no to all others. We are all "intolerant" in some regard. For to simply choose one thing means to be intolerant of another. I suppose what I'm getting at, is that Christ is respectfully offensive. For to say" Christ is Lord" is to say "Buddha is not." I guess my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would empower me to speak the truth in love more often. Not out of a frustrated hatred for non-Biblical living, but rather out of an all consuming passion for everyone to know the truth. Suppose you saw a man wearing a watch as an earring. We ought not be disgusted with him for having such a tacky earring, but rather attempt to, in the most loving way possible, reveal to him that he has been greatly misinformed.

8 comments:

  1. word nick good thoughts my man! i couldnt help but think of 1 cornithians 1: 18-31 when paul is speaking about human wisdom and how it pleased God to choose the weak and despised things of this world to kinda cancel out the things that are lifted up as human wisdom. kinda... i think. read it and tell me what you think. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

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  2. Last night I had a conversation with my older sister about this very topic. She was warning me about the dangers of becoming a radical for Christ.
    But isn't that our goal-to be wholly consumed by a fire that cannot be put out?

    "But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot," Jeremiah 20:9

    She said, People who are so "all in" for Jesus just judge people who haven't found that way as truth. Shouldn't we just love everyone, isn't that enough?

    My sister! My best friend, how do I "reveal to her that she has been greatly misinformed"?
    All this to say-I notice this tension between loving and being honest about the gospel. A conversation to be continued, I'm sure. Thanks for sharing, Nick. And Happy birthday!

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  3. Thank you guys. Can't wait to see you both at Circles. Much love and God Bless.

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  4. I love what you said about Satan as a being of "subtleties," I think that is right on and so true. It's goes a bit with what we discussed last night in Circles as well...Satan wants to distract us in every way he can...with subtle fears, anxieties, with subtle messages on Facebook (!), with our futures, what we will eat for dinner...anything really to keep us from focusing on God and what God has put in front of us NOW! Great thoughts...really enjoy your blog!

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  5. "Satan doesn't need us blatantly worshipping him, just doing anything but bringing Glory to God". This is an awakening truth...and really a challenge to evaluate exactly what I can do in my life to honor God even more!

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  6. "I suppose in the end, for him, it won't much matter if you were Hitler or a complacent accountant."

    So true... Both paths end up leading to death. But quite often its so easy to make a completely wrong correlation and place people into simple categories like hitler->evil->heading towards hell and accountant->hardworker->good->heading towards heaven...

    I definitely had that mind set at one point in time.

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  7. This is SO good. Praise God for truth. The world/Satan tries to shut those down as intolerant, you are completely right. May we stand for God's truths. Praying for you in this.

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  8. so, it's not like i came home and read your blog instead of doing my homework and studying for my statistics quiz that's in about seven hours.

    now that we've got that all cleared up, i loved this post. i read through a few, but this one hit me especially. i get so obsessed with seeming open-minded and nonjudgmental that i often sacrifice my own holy living. even in the past couple days of hanging out with me, i'm sure you've seen this. thanks for articulating the reasons that that's unacceptable so beautifully in this post.

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