you might be asking yourself right now, "What earthly reason would I have for wanting to devote that a lot time and energy into something that I've already heard about and am not concerned in, at all, like the Bible or what it says?!" Well, let me tell you the "earthly reason".
Alright, now look at this from an even more practical perspective. The Bible only teaches you things that you know to be the most healthy, the least stressful, and that are unquestionably the right ways to live and maintain your integrity & honor, so if for no other reasons than these, wouldn't you prefer to learn what it says and live that manner anyway? If your car owner's manual says to put
10W/40 oil into your engine, are you going to put 90W oil in? surely not! If a road sign shows you a 180 degree hairpin turn ahead, will you maintain your current speed or slow down? Well, slow down, surely! So if the Bible tells you to avoid or do certain things, why won't you heed to that message? It was inspired by your Manufacturer, the one who made you. Wouldn't He have the best theme of how to maintain you as well? Even from a historical viewpoint, wouldn't you prefer to learn what folks a couple of thousand years ago figured out was or wasn't healthy living? It makes perfect sense to study this renowned book. The Bible has life lessons in it that can make even our grandfathers stories pale by comparison.In our "hi-tech" culture, we all too often begin thinking how great we are and how gloriously intelligent we have become since Grandpa's days. Our technology seemingly promises to fix all of our problems and make all of our lives comfier, convenient, and stress-free. nevertheless the overwhelming evidence proves to us exactly the opposite. Never in the history of mankind has there been more stress; stress-related crimes, stress-related illnesses, stressed marriages and homes, stressed children at ever-increasing younger ages, and stress-related suicides. The numbers are absolutely devastating to comprehend! Look around, research some statistics on your own and you will see exactly what I mean. Everything in our society has become prioritized for convenience, including our beliefs. It all has to feel good and comfortable and give us that "warm fuzzy" that we are wanting.
What we seek in our society most often is not the truth, but justification. You seek to justify your lifestyle, your actions, and your thoughts. You do not prefer to hear anything that might contradict your life, but only those things that support it. Most of us, including you, usually become very offended, angry, and occasionally very vocal if we hear, see or read anything that speaks against or even questions our life or actions. Somehow we have the false belief that we already know what is right or wrong based on our life experiences and teachings that we have somehow ascertained the truth, so anything that challenges that thought pattern upsets us. Now, granted, there are some who know and admit that their current lifestyles are not right that do become angry at these challenging principles, but their anger is more at themselves because they do know that they're not living right and simply are not willing to alteration, so they just do not prefer to hear the truth because it hurts.
While we are on the subject of truth and our society, I have to address the theme of 'Absolute Truth' and whether it's a myth or a reality. In a plethora of surveys conducted by Christian and non-Christian groups, the results have been overwhelmingly the same with well over 80% of Americans believing that there is no "Absolute Truth' that we are able to all embrace as a nation as a common belief foundation. Most replies were that what each individual believes to be 'right' or 'wrong' is the truth for them individually, but that those beliefs of 'right' or 'wrong' are different for each person, so rendering any common belief system unattainable for the nation or world as a whole. Most folks in these studies did not believe that there is any "Absolute Truth", that there is no common moral absolute that exists.
There are inherent issues in that mindset. If that is true, that each individual develops their own set of beliefs of what is 'right' or what is 'wrong', then how do we then establish laws that utilize to the masses? among our constitutional rights is freedom or religion, or freedom of belief systems. If, then, a pedophile has a belief system that provides him to act upon his desires with clear conscience; or an abused woman reaches her physical and mental limits fearing herself and/or her children to be in danger and her beliefs clearly lead her to thinking murdering her abusive husband is the 'right' thing to do; are they truly criminal acts, or just acts of faith in their individual belief systems that is truth to them individually, which is their constitutional right to exercise as they see fit? There has to be a moral absolute for laws to even be presented, considered and passed.
You see, if you open up to the thought that there is no 'Absolute Truth' that we are able to all trust on as a guide to our thoughts and resulting actions, then there is little more than semi-controlled chaos. That is where juries get hung, where courts get confused even when the facts and evidence are clear, when we see unnatural acts being accepted in the streets and other people being charged with hate crimes for stating their beliefs against those acts. An un-unified system of differing beliefs is what has caused wars in Middle East since before Jesus time; what has caused nations to war against themselves, whether Vietnam or our own Civil War. Dissociated belief systems wreak havoc inside a nation, and inside the world. There have to be an 'Absolute Truth' that we are able to all embrace and build our country's foundation upon for us to continue being a successful and prosperous nation.
That 'Absolute Truth', that moral absolute does indeed exist, and our country was founded upon that Truth in its beginning. Our founding fathers had firm beliefs in the Bible and the Absolute Truth that it teaches. Upon that Absolute Truth, they created the Constitution and the Amendments. For that Absolute Truth they risk their very lives, the lives of their families, and a lot of died to take into account that Truth to prevail in establishing our great country. That Truth is what has always made our nation a Great Nation one of all nations of the world. Why do you suppose they placed 'in God we trust' in the pledge of allegiance? Why do you think that you see In God We rely on every denomination of money we have in our country? Those statements came from an conviction and commitment to that 'Absolute Truth'! It does exist, and it's right in front of every among us in the form of a human instruction manual known as the Bible, which simply means 'The Book'. It gives us 'Absolute Truth' without any excuses or extra fluff. we are able to deny it. we are able to ignore it. we are able to defy it. we are able to hate it. we are able to twist it. even so, we cannot alteration it. it's the Truth, regardless of whether we like it or not, and regardless of whether we embrace it or not. The Book is the Absolute Truth that we all seek, if only we will look, listen, and heed.
Generally, I am a very conservative Christian, which in this context means that I am more of the silent warrior type. even so, with our country's current direction fast erupting into a combined civil religious internal battle of national origin and personal rights, I find myself being known as into more aggressive action... and I truly believe that there are a lot of other typically conservative Christians that are hearing the same call because of our conviction and commitment to that Absolute Truth. Let me explain...
First, I am very thankful for the freedoms that we have in America, and fully realize the great blessings that we have and the strengths that are accessible for us to use in preserving our great nation. even so, the religious rights that we were founded on now being perceived as unpopular one of the a lot of "special interest" groups not only concerns me, but is now calling me out for a confrontation that I did not seek, nevertheless am more than willing to oblige.
Somehow, the overwhelming majority of our American Christian community has opted for a lot of decades now to remain silent, mumbling our disgust at a lot of events and legislatures, but doing little to nothing to protect our position. Just as Christ was angered and felt it necessary to overturn the tables in the temple to protect His Father's honor and place, it's proper time for us to feel that same validated anger and embark on becoming physically, verbally and financially active in "overturning the tables" in our country.
Jesus told us that if we proclaim the Father before men that He will proclaim us before the Father, and if we don't proclaim the Father, neither will He proclaim us before Him. Our silent disapproval is not proclaiming our Father before men, and is in fact, expediting the agenda of the "special interest" groups. Ours is truly a "silence of the lambs", being every bit as destructive to God as Hannibal was to those around him in the movie I am referring to.
We grumble and mumble, but these other groups boldly proclaim their allegiance to Satan as loudly as they are able to. We sign petitions and send emails, but these other groups rise up and attack mercilessly, violently raping every belief in God and those that claim Him as they rage forward with their agendas. While I don't support the rising up of Christians in a full blown physical religious war, I DO question whether Christians as a whole in our country understand who we are and Who we serve!
Do we fully understand the strength of Him whom we serve? Do we understand that our Leader is the One who raised men from the dead? Who healed with a simple touch, or with words spoken from His lips? Do we remember that our Leader parted an entire sea to deliver His folks? That He alone spoke our very being and our entire entirely perfect ordered universe into existence? Do we remember that it was OUR Father that even Satan had to consult with and get permission to test Job, and that afterwards God rewarded Job with far MORE than he had before he was tested?
Why do we appear weak and afraid? Why do man's laws and the threat of jail scare us so? The apostles knew persecution far beyond what we will ever experience in this country. They were stoned, beheaded, and publicly shamed prior to their violent deaths... just for proclaiming their Father, our Father, before men. Are we so weak and filled with doubt in our Father's abilities that we would rather stay silent and let His honor and place be mocked and made into a political marketplace?
Although I don't support a religious war in our country, I do state very clearly, based upon the Word of God, that we ARE and always have been involved in a spiritual war, and that we ARE here to openly and boldly proclaim our Father and His Word, and that if we don't do so NOW, that we are in dire jeopardy of having Jesus, our Christ & Savior, not proclaiming our name before the Father. Make no mistakes... God loves us, but he did destroy Sodom and countless other people that denied Him. In our silence, we are denying Him. With that being said, are we also living just as Sodomites? Aren't we denying Him as we silently let His name, His honor, and His place that established our country be overtaken by political marketers that act as puppets and are promoting "special interest" group agendas at frightening rates?
As American Christians, with more human and financial resources than any other country on this planet, are we not responsible for not only our country, but for setting the example and precedence of Christianity and Christian rights the world over? If we cannot proclaim God's Word before our own openly and confident in His ability to alteration our own folks, than how can we profess to send out missionaries with full confidence that our Father can also alteration those that we proclaim Him to in other countries?
Either we have confidence and faith in our Leader, our Father, or we do not. We cannot honestly claim that peace through Him anywhere if we lack the strength, or the conviction, or the hope and trust in Him to alteration our own country in His sovereign plan for us.
Our defense is to convert to offense. Our offense is only offending to Satan and his followers, which is exactly where we need to be... addressing those who are lost. Our defense is to boldly begin proclaiming our God, our Father, our Hope, our Faith, and His Word WITHOUT fear of consequence. If He is our focus, then nothing stops us or slows us in accomplishing what He has instructed us to do... Preach the Gospel to EVERY living creature, and that includes those here that are pressing Satan's agenda so adamantly. Jesus stated that He came to seek and save the lost. We have a critical mission in our own country right now to do the very same thing, and the beauty of this is that the lost are now advent to us, confronting us. What a wonderful time to embark on sharing His Absolute Truth with them.
If we were in a physical war with a physical General giving us direct orders, nearly every among us would be dishonorably discharged or thrown into the brig for disobeying direct orders. So why in this world or in heaven would we ever think that our Commander and Christ would proclaim us before the General, our God, when we're not fighting for Him as He gave us such direct orders to do?! Stand up, fellow Christian! Arise, prepare yourself for battle, arm yourself with the Word and a thorough knowledge of it! Fire back at the enemy, use the Sword of Truth and boldly march into this battle with the assurance that the Commanders of these opposing forces have already met and you KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT that YOU ARE ALREADY VICTORIOUS!
The ONLY manner that you are able to lose is if you become a traitor and begin fighting for the other side. You have already won! So what is stopping us from boldly and loudly marching into this fight? Why are we so scared? Why are we mumbling? Get off of your backside and join the front! Jesus is not proclaiming you as a worthy warrior or servant right now unless you freely take this call to action! God's plan WILL succeed, because He always finds those He requires to lead His cause. The question is, are you listening to Him? Are YOU going to be the one He requires, because He is asking.
We need only to consider God's Word to discover His plan and His Truth for us. No creeds of man, nor another man-made instructions are needed, but only His Word that has been inspired and delivered to us. The call is clear. Unlike a lot of of the trivial points we might disagree on from one denomination to additional, our ultimate mission and responsibilities are crystal clear as those who carry His name.
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