Okay, this article that I am linking to is EXTREMELY long, but as I was
reading it I considered more than once how unfortunately true it is. It
is pretty blunt, and amusingly, it is written by a Democrat and is
largely a critique of Democratic policies on Iraq and war. He doesnt
have much good to say and wont make very many friends in the part he
sometimes supports.

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2007-04-01-1.html

The
whole thing really got me thinking, though, about how easy it is to
give up things such as personal honor in so many different ways. For
example, I was talking (semi-arguing) about a complicated issue with a
friend of mine earlier. And in the end, I ended the argument, said that
a decision had to be made based on what people were comfortable with.

This
is so true, but at the same time, I was either totally wrong in what I
was saying at first, or I was right and I just gave up. What a crappy
way to go.

I think back to the topic of evangelism in this
regard, since Jerel was talking about it last night. Do we really worry
so much that people will think we're nuts that we wont share the gospel
anymore? I hate so much to admit that I absolutely do at times. What an
honorless pig I am to stand before the Holy, Sovereign, Awesome God of
the Universe, claim the name of Jesus Christ and a relationship there,
and then spit in His face saying that I will claim to believe something
that Earth shattering but that my being comfortable is more important
than His Great Commission.

Go and make disciples. Oh how often
we totally screw that up. How often we'll let someone raise a hand,
walk an aisle, stand up, or whatever else, then we shove them off
merrily on their way to do the same thing for someone else. Yeah, they
might make some converts, and those converts might make some, and such
forth. But my WORD, how WEAK is that? DISCIPLES, people. We're not
handing somebody a stack of insurance cards, and it is as sure as
heaven not a "take one and pass it" (I hate that phrase in all possible
ways, but it works).

The greatest thing that this leads to is
a lot of shallow, lukewarm Christ Followers who know nothing about the
name they claim. And that is assuming that their "conversion" is a true
one, which is a whole different can of worms if they arent being
discipled.

The Word of God is a huge thing not to be taken
lightly. It should absolutely be spoken with conviction, and it should
absolutely be spoken as a 100% God-breathed truth from Heaven, and
anyone who looks down on an accurate teaching of Scripture JUST BECAUSE
IT STEPS ON SOME TOES is treading on the dangerous ground of the likes
of Joel O'Steen and Friends that refuse to preach about the truth of
sin, Hell, and Satan, and want to talk about the squishy
warmandfuzzies.

I'll tell you something totally nuts. If there
is a ministry that is bleeding people, everyone is disappearing, and
big changes have happened recently, you can have a pretty good clue
about them; their pastor is almost certainly preaching the absolute
truth of Christ in a profound, honest, and accurate way and people dont
want to hear it. WAKE UP! People loved Jesus when he was all Miracles
and Fun! But when He got to the Gospel Truth about Himself, the fun and
games were over for His followers. They werent impressed anymore. They
wanted to be entertained, nevermind eternal Truth.

They didnt want Jesus Christ, they wanted a magician, parlor tricks and Red Rubber Balls.

It
seems just the same that people dont want Dean Sisk or Jerel Olsen.
Some people dont want Fritz Games. I absolutely love all three of them
and the passion for the Word and the Lord that they share in common.
But that is me. Some people want the wishy-washy, health-and-wealth
Word of Truth crap from people like Joel O'Steen, Benny Hinn, and TD
Jakes. Some people want the EVIL of hateful people like Pat Robertson.

If you look at Scripture for EITHER of those, you are looking in the wrong place.

The
Word isnt there to make you feel good about yourself. I absolutely LOVE
what Fritz has been saying about the Old Testament this semester, that
the stories arent there saying for us to be like those people, it is
there to tell us we ARE like those people. There's a little bit of
David arranging to take Bathsheba and have her husband killed in all of
us. I bit of Jacob, looking for love and acceptance in all of the wrong
places. A bit of Sarah, not trusting God to do exactly what He said. A
little bit of Moses, disobeying out of frustration with dreadful
consequences. A little bit of Jonah, running from our HONOR and
RESPONSIBILITY to God out of hate for a certain group of sinners.

If people are in sin, they need to know it. They also need to know the truth.

Tough cookies folks.

Jesus
Christ is not politically correct in today's terms. People seem to
think that it is intolerant to call something wrong that God clearly
calls wrong wrong. Unfortunately, people look at a condemnation of such
things as homosexuality as homophobia, because as much as we sing the
old song of "hate the sin, not the sinner," MANY OF US STILL HATE THE
SINNER AND WE WONT ADMIT IT. That isnt cool. Not a bit.

This
is really long and really incoherent and definitely chased rabbits from
the original topic. I really dont feel like I'm done, but I've hit a
wall. If anyone has comments or a sharp rebuke for me, feel free to
send it my way. I'm open to correction :-)