Birds and Feathers

 Birds of a feather flock together, as do pigs and swine. Rats and mice will have their choice, and so will I have mine. This is a nursery rhyme. At least it was back in the day when everyone wasn’t so sensitive about everything except for permanently disfiguring children, which, as it turns out, is a human right. We’ve expanded that list of what human rights are quite a bit in recent years, and we went from life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to baby murder and child disfigurement. That’s progress for you. At least, that’s what the brilliant minds who get paid for regurgitating word salads would like us to believe.

It’s worth noting that every new addition to the human rights roster deconstructs the notion of family and even the continuity of the human race. If God wasn’t going to judge the nations, it’s likely that we would have self-destructed all on our own without any assistance from Him.

It may have taken longer, and the decline would have continued far beyond the point where God said “enough,” but once the narcissism boulder starts rolling down the hedonism hill, it’s almost impossible to stop. The only way to stop it is divine, supernatural intervention ushered in by national repentance. Still, since even the church can’t utter the word repentance anymore without breaking out in hives, I’m not holding out much hope for the world.

We made it clear that, as a nation, we want nothing to do with God. Thanks for the tuition money, Grandpa, but I think I got it from here. What would you know about what I should do with my life or what I should major in? Perhaps the gender nonconformity of the Amazonian tribe of Flick might not be something they would have chosen as a major in your day, but that’s why you still think capitalism works. Even when Grandpa points out that it was capitalism that paid for their tuition, the cognitive dissonance is so all-encompassing that they just don’t get it.

We are spoiled, coddled, self-obsessed, petulant children who balk at the idea of personal accountability, taking responsibility, pursuing the way of righteousness and truth, or considering the laying down of our burdens at the foot of the cross. By burdens, I mean sins, and we all know that we’ve talked ourselves into believing it’s the sin that makes life worth living, not a life in service to God.

Other than how we can get God to make that McMansion happen for us, we want nothing to do with the Bible, the will of God, or the plan of God for our lives. Everything is theoretical until it comes to stuff, then we’ll stand there like man babies yelling something about money flowing unto me at the top of our lungs, without a care for how unbiblical or ludicrous it is or how others might perceive it. Would we speak of Jesus in the same manner, with the same passion and conviction? Surely not; what would people think of us?

There is a certain profundity to what has been brushed off as a nursery rhyme that we would do well to heed as believers and followers of Christ. Before we can win the culture for Christ, we must win supposed Christians for Him. If everyone professing to be a believer were a true believer, then there would be no need for judgment to begin in the house of God, but it will. God wasn’t wrong about that one either, and the list of things He was right about keeps getting longer and longer, while no one can, as yet, point out one time where God was wrong.

Even so, we will bicker, question, and sow doubt; we will twist words and take phrases out of context; we will reinterpret the interpretations of long-dead men just to get a different outcome than what is clearly written within the pages of Scripture.

If everyone identifying as a Christian contended earnestly for the faith, the culture itself would be different from what it is, and the darkness would have been beaten back by the light the Word tells us we must become.

Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and up it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Notwithstanding that, Jesus dared to speak the words that ought never to be spoken, good works, He didn’t say you will possess light; He said you are light. You are the light of the world! If it is so, why is it so dark? It’s not as though you can be light and not shine, possess truth and not exude it, live righteousness and not encourage it.

When the Word tells us that narrow is the way and few find it, God wasn’t trying to be mean-spirited. He was stating a fact. We’re doing a lot of moaning and complaining but very little striving, and it shows.

The lines have been drawn, the birds of a feather have flocked together, and the messaging is straightforward: comply, go along, be docile, and whatever you do, don’t wake up! Some of them are so brazen and even go so far as to claim that Jesus would have been as docile and compliant as they’re encouraging you to be.

A day is coming when your faith will cost you something. If you are unprepared to pay the full freight, you’re just playing a game. The problem is, the devil isn’t.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.