How we Americans hate discomfort. The smallest pain, and we run to a doctor. The slightest offense and we cry foul and grab the nearest lawyer. We have made an art of standing on our rights. We scorn those who oppress us. We will have ease. It’s in our c/Constitution. And aren’t we stoked to have been blessed with a faith system that guarantees it all, too.
We despise those heathen hordes who insist men created God in his image. Yet, we’re no different. Our American god dispels all discomfort, dis-ease, disaster. We worship the god of dis–. I’ll go one step further. God created man in His own image. That didn’t suit us for long. So we decided that man, all along, created god in his image. As human civilization progressed, technology joined the parade. Now, it seems machinery is recreating humans in its image.
What did standing on our rights accomplish? Not even shame on those who proclaim “social justice.”
The old hymn says, “Stand on the promises of God.” Oh, right, cheap grace — that covers our fleshly indulgences.
Social justice, promoted by religion or commanded by secularists, is merely another form of me, me, me, me.
Like all bureaucracies, once humanism and its goal of utopia take center stage, all you really have are bulging file drawers and the automatons who service them. Look up and see the drones? Don’t bother. They’re right across the counter from you.
Or maybe we were supposed to be light, and aspire to be a beacon on a hill. Of course that’s dangerous. So instead we hid in the lowest part of the valley of filth. Unlike Jeremiah, sunk in the mire that was meant to destroy him and his word from the Lord, we don’t even know the Word of God anymore, let alone proclaim it. We prefer to cozy up to the mire of filthy modern civilization.
We deserved this break, didn’t we?
Ah, but the Bible is handy when we need a verse to justify our cowardly behavior. “I can’t protest [whatever], not today anyhow. I’ll be jailed and then I can’t provide for my family and you know what Proverbs and the New Testament letters say about that and I can do so much more in my own domain and what would my in-laws say AND MY BOSS, and I’m not called to a jail ministry anyway…”
Okay, okay, I’m convinced. (Lets me off the hook, too.)
Talk about the scorn American’s Founding Fathers would feel about our current leaders. How about the shame of the Church’s martyrs when they gaze upon us?
Just how does a Christian sanction the presence of a television in their home?
Do Christians really still send their kids to public schools?
Are your college-aged kids really sleeping around – in your home when they’re on break?
Did anyone else bother to research the effects of the smart-gizmos on the human brain, on society in general, on the body? You like your addiction? You truly believe it’s necessary?
Are you preparing to fight American society’s battles with firearms and lawyers when the anti-Christian soldiers come for you and your not-so-safe-after-all family?
How about standing on the Rock and speaking truth and doing social mercy – even if it gets you that dreaded prison ministry.
Whose ranks are you in? The hardships the Lord has taken you through all these years were meant to teach you that He can be trusted. You can actually believe Him. Incorporate Romans 5:3-5 into your worldview paradigm:
“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Woe to those who would fight carnally for unregenerate human kingdoms:
“When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice; rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops” (Habakkuk 3:16).
Yes, it’s coming all right.
For those who fight valiantly with Christ: “Nevertheless, we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12). God bless you.