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Fear is Worship

or, The wishy washy american christian church

Yesterday was St. Francis day and we went to see a film called An Inconvenient Truth, and there was supposed to be a discussion afterwards on what would St. Francis think-- it was at a church and was supposed to be opened with prayer and songs-- but there was no prayer and only nature songs, they were ok, but not worship-- th' priest was trying to be "seeker sensitive"-- having a famous movie play at his church and holding an environmental discussion, and indeed many non christians were there, but th' whole thing was so wishy washy, th' priest strayed away from saying anything about Jesus, or christianity and creation, only talking about "things to do for th' environment" which is good too, but-- it was no different than being at an atheistic discussion... yeah th' worlds gone and it's our fault, and yes we can turn off lights when we leave our house, buy compact flourescents and drive less and blah blah blah, but that's only th' effect of a bigger problem-- which th' priest, acting as discussion narrator, kept dodging- and th' problem is us. It's in our hearts. Education is not th' answer. Education only lets people know that there is a problem-- but not that th' problem is actually a result of our lack of trust in God. The environment is screwed up because of our greed- we are greedy because we are not content- we are not content because we do not trust in God as our provider- we do not trust in God as our provider because we do not know God- we do not know God because we don't take th' time to listen to him-- Th' christians at th' discussion were so scared of saying anything related to this because they didn't want to get into a "religious" discussion. And that's why people don't want to be christians, because most of us are so wishy washy, we're spineless jellyfish for God's sake- People want something real, something they can believe in- something they can live and die for- not something that makes people afraid to talk about difficult topics. When we are afraid to say what we believe because of what someone else might think we commit idolatry. We should fear none but God, and when we fear somone or something other than God we commit idolatry. Fear is worship, and worship of anything other than God is idolatry. Worship is the acknowledging, and voluntary surrendering of your self to anothers complete authority over you. Most Christians in this country fear america far more than they fear God. As many churches nowadays have american flags in their sanctuaries as crosses. Church leaders are afraid to speak on touchy subjects, saying things like "politics should not be discussed in church" - or "religion and politics don't mix". They are afraid to tell their congregations that war is wrong, that there is no such thing as a just war, that "thou shalt not kill" applies to people as well, or that our "christian" president has acted in a very unchristian way. They are afraid to repeat th' words of Jesus that we are to sell all that we have and give to th' poor- that we must hate our father and mother and brother and sister in order to be his disciples- that we must love our enemies- "wait a minute! Isn't that a contradiction? Jesus just said two opposite things here, well he obviously didn't mean that hate thing literally. And if he didn't mean that literally maybe he didn't mean other things literally either. Maybe i don't have to turn th' other cheek, maybe i don't have to bless those who persecute me, maybe i don't have to sell all i own and give to th' poor, yeah, maybe he didn't mean that thing about creation in 6 days either, not literally. Hey, this bible is full of a bunch of nonsense and lies, science is right and God is wrong, well maybe not wrong, but He didn't really mean what He said. And if He didn't mean all that other stuff, maybe He didn't mean what He said about loving me, and forgiving me, and taking care of me so that all i have to do is seek Him and i will never lack anything i need." Do you see where this is going?-- We believe science and th' news and man and we say that God "didn't mean that". Something's dangerously wrong with this train of thought. God tells us that there's no bridge over th' canyon, scientists tell us they've studied th' tracks and there is a bridge. We're on a train going full speed ahead towards that canyon, who are you going to believe? Jesus said things that are hard to understand, but instead of saying He didn't mean them, we ought rather to say that we simply do not understand. Rich Mullins said that if God gave us th' bible it was not to prove to us that we are right, it was to prove to us that God is right and th' rest of us are just guessing. In other words, we must learn to accept our own limited understanding. Yes, Jesus said hard things, but He also said th' most important was to love God and love your neighbor. That one's pretty easy to understand. But in case your wondering who your neighbor is, He told us that too, it's anyone who needs you.