Tired

I'm tired.  Sick and tired.  I'm tired of not sleeping well when I travel and even more so when I'm home.  It's quite frustrating. But even more frustrating than many weeks connected together by many nights of restlessness, I'm tired of lazy, pseud-intellectual, make-believe, wouldn't-make-a-commitment-if-their-life-depended-on-it, , I'll-make-up-whatever-God-suits-my-lifestyle-of-choice, "Christians." 

I read an excellent article today by Jim Shempert who talked about the lack of real commitment by Christians in America today. He pointed out that although the vast majority of Americans claim to be Christians, one would not draw that conclusion by our culture and morality.  I've opined on many occasions that a person who is willing to commit murder to support their sex life is a sick person, clearly not bearing the fruit of a life dedicated wholly to Christ.  Likewise, a nation that supplements physician-assisted murder with its tax dollars is not a nation adhering to the principles of Christ.  We as a nation have not just approved of murder, but we in fact support it financially in the name of sexual "freedom" and "healthcare."  I will say that we've finally called it what it is. Abortion is a choice.  A choice by a couple to engage in unprotected sex that results in an unwanted life.  That couple makes a choice to commit murder to avoid the responsibility of raising that child.  The doctor makes a choice to aid them in that murder rather than take responsibility to protect life as is their Hippocratic oath mandates. These choices to avoid responsibility for ones actions are not new, going back to at least King David, and clearly are not the fruit of a nation or individuals who are making choices through a context of a life dedicated to Christ.  At least upon recognition of his multiple transgressions David repented and sought forgiveness.  Today we won't even call sexual immorality and murder what they are: sin.  Like David, since we don't recognize and call these what they are, we don't repent, therefore forgiveness cannot flow from God.  We are not a Christian nation and I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of other people telling me how I feel.  I've had multiple well-intended, but horribly misinformed people tell me in so many words that taking a stand against sin represents a problem in my love life.  In other words, they've told me that when I state that I'm against a political agenda that would support abortion, or change marital laws, I don't properly love people and am therefore an immature Christian if I am one at all.  I can tell you that these accusations have sent me to my prayer and study "closet" on countless occasions wondering if they're right and somehow I've totally misinterpreted the whole meaning and message of Christ.  As a result, the more I pray and study, the more firmly convicted I become that Rick Warren has it right.  He stated that we've bought into two lies: that to disagree with someone's lifestyle choices means we must fear or hate them and second to love someone I must agree with everything they believe or do.  Essentially, society demands that I accept their lifestyle and choices and all choices are equally valid.  This is clearly contrary to scripture. The Bible makes it clear what God considers sin, particularly sexual sin (Lev 18, Ro 1:18-32 just to highlight a few of many) and is full of stories of both earthly and eternal consequences of sin and extreme accountability to a high and Holy God who loves perfectly, but also is full of wrath for those who choose to live a sinful lifestyle of any kind.  Christ confronted many people living a sinful lifestyle.  He didn't condone their sin, he called them into repentance and upon receipt of it, sent them away forgiven, but with a lifestyle mandate to "go and sin no more."  God goes on to say that any truly loving parent disciplines their child which includes dire consequences for disobedience (spanking! - Pr 13:24).  Teaching personal responsibility, accountability, and having the courage to demonstrate the consequences of disobedience are essential forms of agape of a parent and a truly loving fellow Christian. 

Furthermore, we in America refuse to simply read and believe scripture and would rather rationalize some other "kinder and gentler" definition of God, his word, and agape.  We're getting it wrong.  Getting it wrong has eternal consequences.  We're locked in spiritual warfare and we're losing because we're content to ignore scripture or worse, attempt to modify Gods own definition of himself.  I don't like losing, especially when eternity is at stake and I'm tired of being defined as part of the problem. Here's a clue:  You don't get to define who God is or His character. He has defined that for us and provided a divinely inspired book with all the details we need.  Neither do you get to define how I feel. You can stand in judgement of my fruit (actions), but you don't get to define how I feel. 

I'm tired of lazy "Christians" who expect me to honor their laziness and take up their slack.  So very few Christians even attend church devotedly never mind read, pray, or serve regularly.  Because of our willingness to define love as a feel good emotion with no responsibility or accountability, we've allowed laziness and lack of commitment to Christ to become commonplace. Worse, as Americans it really takes no faith to get through a day. In our land of plenty, we don't have to work daily for food.  We ignore the intrinsic value Paul's admonition to the Thessalonians to be industrious and avoid those who are idle and disruptive (2 Thes 3:6-18).  Instead we reward idleness and claim that those values are old and don't apply today. Would someone like to quote me a chapter and verse from scripture on that opinion?  Kyle Idleman wrote a great book on this issue and labels such people as "fans," Christians who aren't in the game.  Essentially most Christians simply buy into the benefit of salvation without the cost of discipleship.  What they really want is the benefits of Christ's gift of salvation without allowing Him to be Lord over their life.  Once again today's political correctness feeds this shallow faith. I think the worst of it is that these are the folks that are too lazy to really read scripture, and assume that they know what it must say from a few sermons and the constant bombardment of lies in social media. These lazy Christians can vote and this is where our moral character erodes.  Paul warned Timothy that such a time was coming in 2 Tim 4:3-4, yet he charged Timothy to "faithfully preach the word, correcting, rebuking, and encouraging."  The problem is, lazy Christians only accept encouragement and categorically reject correction or accountability.  These are the people that look at me and hang labels such as Bible thumping, intolerant, right wing, bigot.  These labels, assigned by people who rage against labeling as another form of a love problem, are a tactic to marginalize my input on an issue so that they can ignore it and continue in their lazinss and misguided faith.  I'm tired of it and I'm tired of being tolerant in the name of unity.

Unity is a hot topic in today's church including my own United Methodist Church.  The political agenda of the Homosexual minority has bled over in a big way into the church and is causing splits in the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches among others.  A small minority of leaders who have bought into a theology of heresy over unity are threatening the Methodists stance on Homosexuality.  I know that scripture discusses life in the body in at least four places, Ro 2, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4, and 1 Ptr 4 and in every case calls us to unity within the body of believers. Clearly unity is important.  Nowhere, however, does scripture tell us to adopt heresy in the name of unity.  In fact, whereas those who would have us adopt clearly heretical standards in the name of unity quickly point to a "mandate" in 1 Cor 1:10-12, but cleverly ignore the clear direction in 1 Cor 5 to excommunicate those in the body who insist on living a sinful lifestyle.  These pseudo intellectuals claim to have command over scripture in three languages and cannot find clear direction in regards to homosexuality or life within the body. Clearly these people have an agenda that is self-centered rather than God-directed and centered and I'm tired of it.  More than just being tired of it, their baseless opinions and attacks on the church are making today's church irrelevant. A church that does not stand on scripture stands for nothing and is therefore irrelevant. That is why the church is shrinking and this makes me sick,  sick and tired.  The bad news is that pseudo intellectuals believe that if the church would adopt heresy (they would state it as being more inclusive), it would grow.  Irrelevance doesn't lead to growth, it leads to extinction and the numbers in the more liberal churches show it.  This backwards thinking by these pseudo intellectuals makes me sick.  Sick and tired. 

 

This isn't the end of a rant, it's the beginning.  If you think I'm misguided, put on your armor (Eph 6:10-20) and and be prepared to do battle.  But you'd better grab your "sword" and be prepared to "rightly divide" (2 Tim 2:15) it because I'm tired.  When I'm tired, I get grumpy.  When I'm grumpy, I lose that infinitesimally small amount of patience God gave me.  I'm out of patience with lazy, pseud-intellectual, make-believe, wouldn't-make-a-commitment-if-their-life-depended-on-it, , I'll-make-up-whatever-God-suits-my-lifestyle-of-choice, "Christians."