Not The Only One!
Post# 132
9 May 24
"Miranda Rights"
Howdy,
Thanks again for checking in. This is a last minute " Hale Marry". I was working on something else and even with my self diagnosed ADD, it was going in to many different directions for me☺️☺️. This is something that I started one Saturday morning in my men's group. One of my very good friends "Alex" is a retired cop. I was wondering what he knew about Miranda rights, after having read them to so many people over the years. Well, I'm not throwing him under the bus because he's not a history guy, like myself. He knows the rights and what they are for, but not it's origin or how long they have been around. Now, just about anyone who has ever watched a cop show on TV is familiar with the right to remain silent, and the whole spill about, if you give up that right, the things that You say can be used against you in a court of law. It goes on about how a lawyer will be provided for you if you can't afford your own attorney, so desperately wanted to throw a lawyer joke in there☺️☺️.
Just a little quick background on Miranda rights. We may think that it's been around forever, because I remember seeing it on" 1ADAM 12" ☺️☺️,back in the day, but it actually started back in 1963 from a case that went all the way up to the supreme court. A man by the name of Miranda was arrested over an eight dollar crime initially, and some how after being badger by police for hours, he confessed to a kidnapping and a rape. Anyway from that whole debacle we got what is known as Miranda rights. It's the readers digest version, so now you are all caught up. Ok, here's the real skinny, a confession of sorts. So the night before my Saturday morning meeting, I had a hot date scrolling on social media. Yep, I'm just tearing it up on Friday nights ☺️☺️. So , there's this comic, extremely vulgar and I use to find him completely disgusting, so I guess maybe my taste buds have changed slightly☺️☺️. I'm not going to give him a shout out, but I had seen him years earlier with Jeff Foxworthy on their blue collar comedy show. Any how, this person was talking about having his Miranda rights read to him. He said that he had the right to remain silent, but he didn't possess the ability to ☺️☺️. I guess there is nothing like a good old bar fight and being drunk and belligerent ☺️☺️. I'm not exactly sure why, but for some reason I thought that was the funniest thing ever. Ok , I know, I know, where is this going? You are probably thinking that I'm so far over the cliff that there is no rescue for this one here☺️☺️.
If I'm being completely honest here, I've probably done just as much to chase people away from the kingdom of God, as I have to welcome them in. I know!, how sad. The point being, I have never shied away from talking to people about God, as if I had some Miranda right that would incriminate me for uttering life saving and life giving words to anyone. Yes!, there have absolutely been times when I have done that in a less than humble and respectful manner, again, very sad !. As far as faith and religions go, I'm often quite perplexed by them all in different ways. When I survey the landscape, all religions are based on "Do". Either its do this and don't do that. If you are doing then it's something that you have a say so in , and there for you have a say so in the outcome, which means that you are working for your prize, call it salvation, heaven, paradise, or just the great beyond ☺️☺️. If you are working for it by all of the doing, how will you know what is a sufficient amount of doing? We see this in Judaism with all of the ritual surrounding foods and customs about keeping the sabbath. Islam has a specified amount of prayers that you must do in a day, and I think that every other religion except one is about doing stuff, doing something to be acceptable to some deity, that requires doing, but doesn't deliver the goods.☺️ The one exception is Christianity and its an exception because it's not a religion, but it's a relationship with an all knowing and loving God, who invites us to call Him father. When all the others say do, my God says "Done"!!
If you had the cure for cancer, would you keep that good news to yourself?.....of course not. Well then, the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, and it's something that every single person needs to hear and know about, because if you don't have cancer, the odds are extremely high that you know of someone who does have cancer. God has done all of the heavy lifting and made a way for us to connect with Him and to have a friendship with Him. There's no more trying to measure up or being good enough, because we just can't and never could be. The question is, what kind of God wants you to worry about if you are accepted or not? No!, really think about it, as a parent, do you want your kids to wonder if they are loved or not, or do you want them to be the most secure kids on the planet ? in knowing how much you love them and how you would do anything in the world for them.
"Anything in the world ", what an elaborate expression! Well, God spared no expense in the elaborate and extravagance of His love for us, and He did that by the Sacrifice of His one and only Son. He loves us so much that He cared to send and give the very best, long before Hallmark had rediscovered that☺️☺️
See, we get so caught up in the doing, that we sometimes forget about all that God has already done for us. I know that the question is, if God has already "done" it all, then why do we bother doing at all ? Well the answer to that question should be gratitude. We do and give, because of what God has already done for us. There isn't some score card about who does what or how much they did or gave. It's supposed to be freely given as it was poured out on us and freely given . I will be the first to admit that I can be a grace hoarder☺️☺️. I don't always have grace and patience with people, like God does with me, but I'm not condemned because I sometimes drop the ball. It's not just me, not you, not any of us are perfect, and we all occasionally get it wrong. Some more than others ☺️☺️.
This is something that God has been pointing out to me, I will often treat or love people in the way that I want to be treated and loved, and God says....frankly that's just not good enough! He wants me to love others the way that He loves me. That is a lofty standard that I fall far short of every single day. I fall short, but that doesn't mean that I'm not supposed to try and keep trying and hopefully getting a little closer every day to what has been modeled for me. It's an incredible high standard.
Here is the rub for me. If God is awesome, which He is, and done all of these amazing things for us, which He has, especially providing a way for us to communicate and fellowship with Him. If He is the cure for spiritual cancer , which He is, why are we talking to people about everything under the sun , except God. We can talk about working on our swing with the golf pro. We can share some dandy recipe we found on Pinterest. We can even talk about some neat trick that we taught to our dog. Don't even get me started about sports teams. 😝☺️ We can talk about our kids, our work; our hobbies and believe it or not, we tell people cute stories about going to church and never talk about why we are really there in the first place....and that's so sad. All these things are great in there own right, but none of them, not a single solitary one cures spiritual cancer. We carry on as if we have been read our Miranda rights and anything that we say or do will be used against us in a court of law. This may sound harsh, but if you haven't lost one friend, relationship or acquaintance over your faith, by the way that You live, the things that You believe to be true, or how you believe that everyone is created in the image of God and has worth and value; then maybe you should take a nice long look in the mirror and see if the person in the mirror actually has that relationship or is it all about working and doing, because it will never get you there.
Ok, let's put a spin on the Miranda rights. Over two thousand years ago a man bore a cross, that was not His own. He knew every disgusting and despicable thing that I was ever going to do and say, and I wasn't even born yet, and instead of blurting out all of my mistakes and wrong doings, He kept silent. The long list of charges against me, condemned me to death and I was one hundred percent guilty. I'm a horrible person, but I'm in the company of other horrible people, every single person who has ever trod the earth, every man , woman, child, ethnicity, all ages, creeds, genders and any other way that you may want to divvy up the pie.☺️☺️ He knew my sins, and He knows yours as well and He just kept being pressed by all of the sins of the whole world. All of the murders, the lies, the rapes, all sorts of deception and crookedness. All of the abandonment, disappointments , genocide and for all who have just flipped someone else the bird☺️☺️, it was there on that cross as well. He could have called for ten thousand legions of angels to come and rescue Him from all of the pain, agony and torment, but He remained silent . He Remained silent, so that we wouldn't have to. We would have had no excuses standing before a holy and mighty God. We would have been pronounced guilty !, no words, no flimsy excuses or rationalizations, just guilty!
He remained silent, when He had every right to point an accusing finger and pronounce judgment, but He didn't do that. The Word of God says that He remained silent as a Lamb before the slaughter. We don't usually like to think about the brutality of the cross, we choose to water it down or disregard it all together. It was the most brutal and Gruesome and horrific death of all times and we want to some how sanitize it for our own comfort. Two thousand years later and we have disdain and contempt for the cross and our connection for placing Him there.
The cross was and is the most sacrificial expression of love that there has ever been. It demonstrates the heart of God and that it is only filled with love towards us . I want to say that not much has changed in two Millennium. People stood at the foot of the cross and some jeered and mocked. Some stood by with disbelief in their hearts, some were waiting for something miraculous to happen and it did, but they completely missed it, because it didn't happen in the way that they thought it should, so it didn't meet their expectations. Still yet, there were others standing there with broken hearts, as they stood and watched all of their hopes and dreams come to a close. And here we are two thousand years later and we still have the skeptics , the ones standing on the sidelines waiting for something miraculous to occur, but the invitation has already been given and it was given at Calvary. It was the truest expression of love ever given. The righteous for the unrighteous, the innocent for the guilty, the perfection for the imperfect. There is only love in the heart of God and I hope that you haven't missed that. He hung on the cross as a testament of His great Love for us.
So, don't be silent, give up your right to be silent and tell others about the great things that God has done in your life. Give them the cure for spiritual cancer and let the great and awesome wonders of God to be proclaimed. Tell them of the freedom, forgiveness and acceptance, that you have found in a personal relationship with God. No judgment of fear or rejection, just a heart full of love and compassion.
Till Next Time ✌️ Peace!
Sandy The Southerner
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