There
are certain expressions, within certain contexts that really get my goat. It’s
not just that they’re annoying and foolhardy, they actually make me angry.
Although the list hasn’t grown for a while, of late I have steadily been adding
expressions to it. Sometimes I wonder if it’s just me getting older and becoming
more of a curmudgeon, but in hindsight I think anger and annoyance are the
proper response to these expressions.
For
long and long, somewhere at the top of my list were either the drunk drivers or
texting tweens who plowed into an innocent and killed them, employing the go to
line, ‘I wish it was me instead of them.’
I’m sure you do. I’m sure the individual’s family wishes it were so as well,
but if wishes were horses we’d all have stables, and there would be allot more
cowboys about.
Every
time I hear the line, it just angers me instantly. You chose to drink and
drive, you chose to text and drive, you took a life because you were reckless
and foolish, and you wishing it’d been you and a quarter will get you a stick
of gum, if that.
Another
expression that really gets me fired up is ‘he
is a good boy,’ within the context of some testosterone filled young man or
another doing something truly awful, then having his aged mother come to his
defense. Obviously he is not a good boy, madam! He shot three people, killed
one, and tried to run over a police officer with his car. He is not a good boy,
and you saying it does not change the reality of what he has become. Perhaps,
when he was younger, playing with his Legos or Tonka trucks he was a good boy,
but now he is a full grown adult who has taken a human life, and his having
been a good boy at one point does not change the present reality.
Now
lately I’ve been hearing another expression coming from America’s spiritual
luminaries, and it has the capacity to infuriate me more than any other. If we
were to look back, I believe the originator and purveyor of this expression is
none other than everyone’s favorite theological powerhouse Joel Osteen.
Whenever
any pastor who doesn’t want to get his hands dirty is asked about his opinion
on homosexual marriage, polygamy, or any of a dozen other aberrant practices,
they put on the plastic smile and deliver the line they must have practiced in
the mirror a hundred times: ‘Well, I don’t
believe it’s God’s best for them.’
Oh,
really? Not God’s best? Is it that difficult to utter the word sin? Is it that
difficult to grow a spine and say with the conviction requisite your station
that it is in fact a sinful act, and if not repented of will lead men to
damnation?
By
this logic, whatever it is that men practice, whatever perversion or sinful
act, simply isn’t God’s best. Are you a polygamist, a pedophile, or a zoophile?
Well, you know, it’s not God’s best don’t you? Is this the most accurate
Biblical answer we can give? We couldn’t come with something more substantial,
or dare I say Scriptural?
We’re
not even talking about lying, cheating, fornication, adultery, licentiousness, avarice,
greed, or covetousness anymore. These things are so rampant within the church
that to speak against them would be to empty out an entire congregation faster
than if someone rolled a live grenade down the center aisle. We are talking
about things that God Himself sees as abominations, and it is these things that
our spiritual better see not as sin,
but simply not God’s best!
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Dear Bro. Michael, if I may rant a little on my end also please, as in my line of work, you bottle up a lot.
ReplyDeleteAs you may know, I work in a very dark place and see these people who Ma and Grandma says are good boys.
I've worked with the man who killed my friend, coworker and brother in Christ. I've worked with a fallen brother, who wonders if God still remembers him? I've held together the throat of a man who...
There are those who drink and drive, are child, wife and husband beaters. Neglectful parents and the list goes on and on.
Then there are the ones who are slaves to addictions: drugs & alcohol, those who are prostituted because they are told that no one will want them after the sexual abuse that was imposed on them, many times as a child. Then mental health steps in with their help to cope and forget drugs, thus starting the addictions or adding to them.
I've also worked with people who have plotted to do bodily harm to my coworkers and ti myself, and I've worked with coworkers who tried to set me up to imprison me because I am a Christian.
In my line of work, I have learned how to pray for these people, asking that God will reveal Himself through His Son Jesus Christ through dreams. I have seen healings, salvation and the release of demon possession. One even brought back from the dead when the deputies were laughing and saying that they'll never have to put up with him again. Thank you Lord for hearing my silent prayer at that one moment, as he walked back into the facility under his own power 3 days later and I had the honor of watching jaws drop. I could only smile at that time, but continue to Praise God to this very minute, as this man is serving Christ years later.
I have also seen those who have totally rejected Christ and I ask God to please give them a second chance.
But where is the church in all this? It's hard when the ones who are suppose to be the spiritual leaders in these places remain quiet about sin, it's taboo to speak on such things, you might offend a life style or someone of another religion.
These things that you expect to find in a jail or prison that I've mentioned above and you mentioned in your post is what's going on in the church unchecked. The church is at fault for it's impotence by remaining quiet for far too long, for not calling sin out in the leadership of the congregations, of not speaking the truth of sin, and ignoring the Holy Spirit altogether.
Please continue to pray for those incarcerated as there will be those whom Christ will redeem, for the Christians working in these places who are now being persecuted due to their faith, and for salvation of their persecutors.
I'm done ranting now, your message is right on. It has become a rare thing to hear truth and it is even rarer to hear those who are willing to speak it. Please keep speaking truth Bro. Micheal because we are listening.
Your sister in our Lord
Another good post!
ReplyDeleteOne which always rankled me was "He's so heavenly-minded he's no earthly good."
Always proclaimed by people who are very mindful of this present world.
Good one!