Things I Think…
1. Combine political division with a pandemic lockdown and you end up with people who’ve learned to live without each other…and now prefer to live without each other…
2. The church however, is supposed to be a group of people called individually to live corporately as part of the Body of Christ…and the loss of any individual weakens that Body. My thought is that we’re so far removed from real spiritual power that we seek power from other places and cease to be a church except in name only…
3. I still haven’t found any place in the Gospels where Jesus speaks to the wickedness of laws coming up before the Roman senate…He always speaks to the wickedness coming up in the heart…I’d prefer He spoke to the former, so I could more easily ignore the latter…
4. Jesus didn’t fight persecution from government, He promised it…
5. The key to political success is to never solve the issues that people care most about so you always have something to run on and against…
6. Division in the church is always a scandal, division in the church over secular politics is an abomination…
7. Character never matters in politics if your person wins…if they lose, it’s the first thing we attack in the victor…
8. It’s increasing hard to have thoughts that address these issues, because I increasingly don’t give a ….
9. I think the future church will be small, separated, groups of believers desperately trying to live quiet lives and follow Jesus as long as He doesn’t go back where we were…
10. On a different note…a few years ago I enjoyed heaping scorn on the “American Patriots Bible”…if I had any joy left I’d scorn “The Passion” version even more…think “Bethel Study Bible”…
https://www.alisachilders.com/blog/heres-why-christians-should-be-concerned-about-the-passion-translation-of-the-bible
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/burning-scripture-with-passion-a-review-of-the-psalms-passion-translation/
I had just enough time during my work break to look up The Passion Bible. Yikes! As if we don’t have enough dubious translations already from those who haven’t read a good one. I enjoy paraphrases (Philip’s, The Message), but those authors say they are translations. Then, I went on a rabbit trail to look up The Patriot Bible, and I don’t know if I’ll make it through my lunch next hour.
I am still recovering from Jesus Calling…adopted by the entire women’s Bible study at my church a few years ago as Jesus speaking to us. Every page sounded the same to me, and I consider it of dubious authorship. Thankfully, it seems to have run its course.
Michael, something that is a surprise to me as i age is that this world becomes less and less feeling like a home… Did i think when i was younger that we’d conquer evil? Dunno, but can’t wait for our Lord’s return even though those who choose this world and its temporary ruler will be annihilated. Guess that’s not the right term, but……. Gone?
Know i need to pray for an attitude adjustment as God takes no pleasure in the deaths of the wicked… is that because He knows their destination?
Em,
I try to see beyond what is and see what will be…every time I get caught up in the wickedness of the world, I see how I contribute to it…
Linn,
Jesus Calling is still one of the top ten Christian bestsellers…we have an endless taste for drivel…
Em,
When I became a Christian back in ’73, I really thought people could make the world “better.” And, I thought I was a “better” person than most. I prayed to a God I didn’t know yet, asking for things I thought I deserved because I was “better.” (Think the parable of the Pharisee praying in the temple…I am not like those_____). I was caught up short one day when someone mentioned that I was a sinner. I was offended, actually. And, then, (I think because God brought me under conviction) I started analyzing who I really was inside, and I realized that was why Jesus died, for my sin that didn’t make me any better than any other sinner. it was a true conversion moment, and I haven’t been the same since. I long for others to come to that realization, too, and as I’ve gotten older I realize it won’t be everyone. Whatever your stand on God’s election, we still have to cooperate by saying yes. Many don’t want to. My one great consolation is God knows who will be in heaven, and I just need to keep sharing that there is hope, but not here. Even in Bible times, there was the small number who hadn’t bowed the knee to Baal. They’re my people, and I’m always looking for them.
Michael,
Give me CS Lewis or Bonhoeeffer or Elisabeth Elliott any day…Pilgrim’s Progress. i need to confess that I don’t miss my local Christian bookstore that folded last year. I didn’t need another mug or Bible, and everything else in it was friffle.
ahh….the focused study bibles…blech! (if I may quote Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Newman).
Good words, Linn, good words to ponder…..
Dan from Georgia–I love Alfred E. Neuman. “What, me worry?” Signed, One Weird Sheep. 🙂
other than I always love “Things I think”, #9 is great, years ago, regarding Alfred E. Neuman, I had a foreign company steal all my intellectual property by submitting forged documents that they had purchased said properties thus the transfers. It was an attack against me. The documents were notarized by a Alfred E. Neuman in Butts County, Georgia on a Thanksgiving day. It took over 6 months to have the government agency correct the fraudulent transfers. Butts County? The foreign entity had swore they would have my “butt”. Sorry….back to “Things I Think”…could not agree more…
Butts county is a little over an hour from my place. There’s also Spaulding and Paulding counties. ??? I stopped questioning things here in Georgia about a year into my residence.
I grew up reading Mad Magazine. I know, it’s unfortunate. But dang some of it was funny.
Someone will soon be marketing special Son-glasses to be bought and worn while reading the Bible under a colorful rainbow lamp available for an additional $29.95 to decipher the word at home during the pandemic.
I added the hyphen to differentiate between Song-lasses; the pretty frontladies leading the entertainment “worship” at so many gatherings today.
JD, it is sad today that so many churches only allow good looking people up front…. guess they’ve forgotten Scripture’s description of Jesus….. and the apostle Paul…..
Em and JD, some of the worship teams I’ve seen were composed of ordinary folk, but it does seem that the higher-visibility ministries have the more photogenic people. What really bothers me, which you brought up Em, is the appearance of Jesus…almost all films depict him with that perfectly trimmed brown beard/goatee. The last movie case I saw for a recent film on Jesus just about made me want to throw up in how “handsome” their depiction of Jesus was.
DFG,
Big Mad Mag. fan as a teen. Devoured the books and mag. Still like the stuff.
My favorite was the issue where they told you how do you all your homework during the top of the hour, half hour and 15/45 minute commercials. Hysterical. It later helped propel me
to a low-to-medicore college gpa. I blame Mad. 🙂
bob1 and Mike E…WHEW! Glad I am not the only one here that liked Mad Magazine.
We are not meant to live apart from others. Apart from our brothers and sisters in Christ. Apart from our children, and grandchildren. Apart from lifelong friends that have supported each other through thick and thin, through divorces, through deaths of parents, through job loss and sickness. Now we cannot give our loved ones God- given love and grace in person; we cannot ” “bear one another’s burdens” as God compelled us to. I miss my children, I miss my friends, and I grieve for the precious lost moments with my four-year-old granddaughter and my one-year- old baby grandson that should have been, but never happened. I grieve for missed wedding celebrations that had to be cancelled, but were dearly planned for and anticipated. I miss the visits with my 93-year-olf father in assisted living – the visits I felt so blessed to be able to make. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. We weren’t meant to live like this. Sometimes itvdoesn’t feel like living at all. Our lives are about relationships. I know we are lucky; my children still have their jobs and livelihoods and none of them have caught this horrible virus. But, Lord, I can’t take much more of this seperation from the precious people you have put put in my life, but have kept me so distanced from. My heart is growing weak, please take mercy on us, Lord. Let thus end.
BoC – I’m sorry you’ve had to miss out on so much. Your post brought to mind Isa 43.2 – you are not alone in this trial!
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.”
Paul, Thank you so much…it’s been exactly one year since I’ve seen my baby grandson, my granddaughter, and my two daughters. We all met in Hawaii after the birth of our new baby boy in the family. My husband stayed behind in San Diego so I could help out with the newborn baby in Hawaii for a month ( Grandbaby’s Dad is in the military) and my husband has yet to meet his new grandson in person.. Some anniversaries are hard.
BOC,
I’m so sorry you’re missing out on a lot of really good things.
My wife and I dearly miss being able to hug our sons and their wives. Even stuff we used to take for granted like cards and birthdays. They do live close by, which is a blessing of course but also very frustrating.
You and yours are in my prayers.