Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Let Pleasing Him be my Theme...

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

I have been blogging for over two years now. Blogging has its ups and downs but overall I enjoy it. What has caused me some concern, however, is that in some ways I have lost the purity of my strong but simple faith. My goal for blogging was simply this: to share the truth and love that God has poured into my heart and to please God, not people. You see, I spent a good portion of my life as a "people pleaser" instead of standing up for truth alone. I was wishy-washy and, no doubt, what Jesus considers lukewarm. I feared what others thought of me...and, on occasion, still find myself falling into this "wanting to please the crowd mentality". God has spent years working to heal this fault of mine. Time after time, He has nudged me to read the scripture verse, "So Pilate, wanting to please the crowd, released to them Barabbas..."

"People pleasing" is wrong, this has become clear to me over the years. We live in a society that is so dysfunctional that the habit of pleasing others instead of standing up for truth is deeply ingrained in us. Being "politically correct" is a term often used to describe "people pleasing". Political correctness is a subtle form of spiritual tyranny. How can you connect "political correctness" with tyranny you might ask? Easily.

Under the guise of "political correctness" we have allowed truth to be trampled underfoot to such a degree that we have lost sight of the clear path that Jesus set forth for us when He came to earth 2000 years ago. The love he spoke about has no resemblance to our current "popular" definition of love.  You are considered a "loving" and "peaceable" person these days as long as you never rock the boat. We are spoon fed this false "love" in a manner that makes it palatable. No longer are we called to simply and in truth love the sinner (which we all are), but rather, we are asked in the name of the false "love" of the world to embrace the actual "sin". Those who do not comply with this are called bigots and worse. Yet they do not see that forcing us to embrace sin is the worst and deadliest kind of bigotry.

They call lust - "Free Love"

They call birth control -"protection"

They call a baby - "a blob of cells"

They call abortion - "pro-choice"

They call euthanasia - "mercy killing"

The court of "public opinion" has slammed the hammer down and has claimed lies as truth. Let's quickly unmask a few of the above examples and we will quickly see that the truth and love are not served by these "politically correct" terms in any way, shape, or form.

Lust is a sin because it objectifies the human person. It is immoral because we are not "merely animals" and were created in the image and likeness of God. It is considered one of the 7 Deadly Sins. "Free love" is a misnomer because there is nothing free about lust. It is a form of bondage. I put the examples above into this particular order to show how one type of sin opens the door to others.) The connection is easy to see so I don't think there is really a need to explain it.)

Birth control - have you ever seen the ads that ask the question, "Are you protected?" I always want to answer: Why would I need protection against babies? They seem pretty harmless to me. (If it's a question of disease, my comment on lust covers that one.)

Calling a baby a "blob of cells" is simply a way of justifying abortion. Our consciences will not allow us to "kill a baby" so we must once again objectify the human person by calling it less than it is. And once again we are brought back to lust. This is why the 7 Capital sins are called "doorways" to other sins.

Abortion is called "pro-choice".  This is an attempt to cover the harsh reality of murder by taking someone's focus away from the truth that abortion is killing a baby and drawing a person's attention to
the cause of freedom instead. "How dare you tell me what I can and cannot do?! I am a free person with rights you know! You people sicken me! You bunch of zealots!"

Little do they realize that we are trying to protect both them and their unborn children.

I am called judgmental because I am trying to keep them from harm.

Sin is of such a dreadful mien
That to be hated is but to be seen
But oft seen becomes a familiar face
At first tolerated  and then embraced
                           
                               Alexander Pope

I am called a bigot because though I easily embrace people regardless of their beliefs I will not embrace the actual beliefs themselves.

I am called a zealot because I believe that there is an absolute Truth and, for me, this Truth is a Person.

This Person has a name... Jesus

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the way, do you know what Hitler's term for genocide was?

Ethnic cleansing.

7 comments:

  1. Let's go back 2000 years or so when Jesus, just before He was raised to Heaven said "Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples ..."

    He was speaking to His disciples and also to all of us to go and spread His Good News.

    No doubt His disciples met many stumbling blocks at the time, many political correctnesses, and outright lies and opposition to stop the Good News from spreading. Many paid with their lives for what they had to say.

    Today, we too are tasked to spread the News and to overcome obstacles such as political correctness, falsehood and outright lies. But we should not stop in our task.

    We could spread the Word through our blogs, by speaking out when the occasion arises, or simply by the way we live.

    If others challenge our views on our blogs then we defend them as best we can. If others spread falsehood on their blogs we either correct them politely on the comments box, or ... if the Spirit wills us otherwise, we move on and shake the dust from our sandals!

    I've just bought new sandals just for that!

    God bless.

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  2. Victor,
    Colleen's right, this is a great comment :) Thank you for your kind e-mail also. Your words deeply encourage me when I am down. I am "shaking the dust from my sandals" as we speak! God bless.

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  3. Colleen,
    I don't like political correctness either. Jesus was anything but politically correct. Someone can package evil in a pretty wrapper but it doesn't lessen the evil inside.
    God bless you, Colleen :)

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  4. Hi Mary,

    Glad you got my e-mail of today. The computer packed up just as I was sending it. Didn't know whether to re-send ... you'd probably think there's an echo in my house ... my house ... my house ...

    God bless.

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  5. I am called a bigot because though I easily embrace people regardless of their beliefs I will not embrace the actual beliefs themselves.

    I am called a zealot because I believe that there is an absolute Truth and, for me, this Truth is a Person.

    This Person has a name... Jesus


    Is this your own quote Mary? It's brilliant! I want to put it on my sidebar.

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  6. Victor,
    I was very glad to get that particular e-mail my friend! Thank you!

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  7. Ros,
    Yes, it's mine :) Isn't it true? Jesus was right when He said people will persecute us because of Him. I'm not too insulted about being called a zealot though...they called St. Paul a zealot also, so I am in good company. Lol!

    Feel free to use anything you want from this site, Ros. God bless!

    ReplyDelete