- Not The Only One!
- Post # 81
- 25 May 23
- “Expansion , Hmmm”
- Howdy!
- Hey, thanks for being there. I think back to some thirty years ago, When Arseno Hall had a late night talk show, and yes I know that it is hard to believe that it has been that long, but it is what it is. He had a segment on the show, where he would propose a perplexing thought of things that would make you stop and think, and go hmmm☺️☺️. Sometimes there was no right or wrong answer, it could have strictly been about your perspective and how you viewed a particular thought or idea. I think one of my all time favorites was how oral sex , wasn’t actually sex…hmm☺️☺️right!. Well no matter where you came down on that one, it was nineties and we were entering a brave new world, where the Commander and Chief, could be someone who had never worn the uniform and if you think that is where we are going today , then you are on the wrong bus. I am just going to tell you upfront that this is going to piss some of you off, and I will even remind you that it is better to be pissed off than pissed on☺️☺️. Again , I hope instead of being deeply offended that you will think of this as food for thought and maybe have you pause and go, hmmm. This is not my original material, but something that a friend had shared with me and when I researched it, it came from a church out in Denver. I have had similar thoughts about other things along this line and will share it at the end. Let’s just jump in, shall we? I’m making the assumption that the person who brought this to the media was a pastor, but regardless of his designation, when I thought about it, I went beyond the hmmm, to the that is absolutely correct! The thought process here is that You can not , absolutely not be a conservative Christian, nor a progressive Christian, nor a straight Christian, Gay Christian, Black Christian ,, white Christian , or any other adjective that we may like to place before the word “Christian ” . The speaker wanted to point us back to grade school and our earliest understanding of grammar and that is that that adjective points to the noun. The adjective is telling you what is coming. So , if you are a Black Christian, then the primary allegiance and agenda is to the Black cause. If you are a Gay Christian, then your primary allegiance and agenda is to the Gay agenda and all that entails and everything else comes after that. If you define yourself as a conservative Christian,, the same is true, your primary allegiance is to the conservative agenda and not to Jesus. The adjective that describes us is what causes us to distort God’s truth into what we want it to be and best meets our needs. I have mentioned before that I love history and I don’t have to go back as far as the civil war, but it is a very clear example of how both sides thought that God was on their side, and both used the Holy scriptures to justify their vision and convictions for and about the war. It is no different today with all of our adjectives. This is not new, we have just made it more sanitized, but I think Jesus Christ is probably sitting in heaven at the right hand of the Father, shaking His head at all of the twisted things that we do in His name. We didn’t learn a single solitary thing from the Crusades. We will use another adjective and say that we are a pro-life Christian, and that somehow give us the right to bomb an abortion clinic. Not your cup of tea,? . How about I’m a straight Christian, so that gives me the right to go to some Gay pride event with a picket sign and scream and yell obscenities. Where is Jesus in that exactly? I will sometimes talk to people about God in a box. This is a reference to people who have a God that is limited . God can only do certain things in certain ways. God is limited to their limited understanding of who God is. When we do this, we put God in a box. I mean if I could figure God out, then maybe I would begin to understand that other great creation of His…woman ☺️☺️. Can we all just agree that God is outside of time and space as we know it, and that while He gives us glimmers of insights into who He is that none of us can truly and fully know Him on this side of eternity. He fully knows us, the created, but we only partially know Him the creator. Let’s go here, by a show of hands, if you were going to save the world and redeem it, how many of you, your go to move would be a helpless baby, born into a poor family?, no takers, I didn’t think so! I just think it’s time to be honest and real with one another and stop trying to hide our secret agendas and disguising it under the flag of Christianity. Life is just full of Cliches and all kinds of irony. Jesus said that You would be able to recognize His peeps, by their love . It’s supposed to be about the love that we have for one another, and the love that we demonstrate to other people, even the one’s we don’t know, one’s we don’t like, the one’s who don’t talk like us, the one’s who don’t look like us the one’s who don’t smell like us or just don’t smell good at all, and even the one’s who don’t share our political points of view . Jesus just said love, He didn’t give us an exemption card or clause. The irony is that not many people can tell you what Christian are for or about , but they can sure as heck tell you what we are against☺️☺️. We have become the anti culture, we have become known for the things that we don’t like. I don’t like smoking, so people shouldn’t smoke. I don’t like drinking, so people shouldn’t drink. How many people have stayed away from faith and a personal relationship with God because all of the judgment and the fear of things that they may have to give up. I think from the outside looking in, many people would think that the Bible has a Commandment against drinking alcohol or some kind of prohibition, when all God’s Word actually says is don’t be a drunkard. So is it laughable, that the people who are supposed to be the most closely identified and synonymous with love are sometimes, not always, but sometimes, so far removed from that. I’m not being cannibalistic and trashing my brother and sisters here, but I just think that it’s time for us the Body of Christ to wake up and if we are to represent Him whole heartily in the way that He deserves then we need to put down and eliminate the prefixes. I want to say be who God called you to be. My last recollection of that was to be salt and light. Salt to be a preserver of truth and light to point the way to love and acceptance. Let’s be the “Church”, and leave all of the adjectives and prefixes for your rotary club, because there is no room for them in the house of the living God. I know that the context was different, but in my weird brain, it kind of reminds me of when Christ said that we can’t serve two masters, I know that He was referring to money, but If, and only if He has offered you the gift of eternal life and you accepted and received that gift, then shouldn’t your allegiance be to Him and Him alone? I have had a little fun here, but I did find this thought provoking at the onset and I hope that You did as well , and maybe it will make us stop and think about how we identify ourselves in the future and about whom we belong to. I’m a realist and I know that Christian are no longer a majority, no more than this being a Christian nation, once upon a time, but not so much! anymore! I point that out because I don’t want the rest of you guys, who are not believers to leave here without me showing you some love as well☺️☺️.At the beginning of the post, I said that it was not my original material, but that I had parallel thoughts and now I will share them. I was born in the United States of America, and so by birth that made me a citizen. I know that others have come to this country from many different points of origin and have obtained citizenship, and of course we have squatters as well ☺️☺️. This is not about immigration, but my hearts cry to eliminate the hyphenated- Americans. Why do we have to be the Italian- American, African-American, Polish- American, Jewish- American, and the list is just exhausting. I’m both proud of your heritage and at the same time don’t give it a second thought. If we are here and we are citizens, then we are Americans. I’m not asking you not to be who you are, I’m asking you to stop pointing to something that divides us opposed to something that brings us together. Isn’t there already enough things that makes us separate and distinct, such as body shapes, eye and hair color, complexions, different heights, and most surely our fingerprints. I don’t speak the language, but I can make some pretty awesome Italian dishes, does that make me an Italian-American?, no of course not, and I know that was a great over simplification. One of the first things I remember from early on in school was that America is a smelting pot of different ethnicities. There was a time when people came here and wanted to shed their previous home land of origin, for whatever reason and to be strictly only known under the banner as an American. I have noticed a change over the decades, now people come here, and they don’t want to be absorbed into the culture, but they want to be hyphenated and to bring their culture here, be separate and distinct, while enjoying all of the freedoms that they did not experience some place else. Many times not even wanting to or even bothering to learn the language, that’s just rude !There was a time when us all coming together made us stronger and shared different cultures together under one identity. Now we are splintered and fragmented and not as strong as we once were. If it’s recognition that we seek , then it’s recognition that we will receive, but at what cost? I’m not going to do a deep dive in on this, but I will leave you with this, I believe that every ethnicity and people group has contributed something into making America great and also, not so much!. We are all flawed , and we want to take pride in our accomplishments and distant ourselves from our unique failures, I mean there are a few weird birds out there, but for the most part, not to many of us running around being proud that we are a Nazi. I think that there is room enough for all of us at the table , I just wish that we could all just show up as Americans and be united under the stars and stripes. I remember many years ago when I took the oath to defend this nation, it was against enemies both foreign and domestic , and they didn’t care or ask what my heritage was because, I was just an American, and a none hyphenated one at that.
- Till Next Time ✌️Peace!
- Sandy The Southerner
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