Target Practice

  
    This will be short and sweet! First a disclaimer ... I don't have a subscription to the newspaper ... I don't have a parakeet. I do peruse the want ads and read Pickles in the comics. And then, I reluctantly admit to browsing thru the rest to kill and or to waste time. Today, Gordon Howie made the front page again because he's selling property to pay taxes and to subsidize his income. It bears asking the question "why are they still trying to paint [to smear, tarnish, infer, taint] a less than desirable image of the man?" After all, the election for Governor is over. He certainly draws criticism even from some Christians [he reads his Bible]. The answer is easy! This guy doesn't know when to quit. He's off and running again with his Life and Liberty Group. After sponsoring or co-sponsoring all the pro-life legislation the past six years, he's taking aim at the pro-death camp from the street level. He's not going away. The difference between his Christianity and the more prevalent christianity is that he knows we're in a war. His endurance reminds me of a story about John Quincy Adams who, after fourteen years of being one of the most reviled representatives in Congress for his unrelenting commitment to end slavery, was asked by a reporter ... " Why do you do it? How can you keep going year after year, battered by the newspapers, against insurmountable opposition? Why do you do it? " His response was simply this. "The duty is mine, the results are Gods." JQA read his Bible.

     Matthew 7:29 says " Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

     When I watched Veggie Tales,  " The Pirates That Don't Do Nothing, " I thought, I know you guys. It's the church that ”doesn't do anything.” I removed the double negative just for my mom. You're all over. You're the ones that can't call murder, murder. The harder you try not to be offensive the more you are ... to Christians. In the KJV truth and mercy are yoked together. It's not merciful if it's separate from the truth, and truth without mercy is fruitless. Repentance and healing do not come from admitting to a procedure to remove tissue. When facing the consequences of divorce and trying to move on, it didn't work to tell myself I made a bad decision, lots of people do it, and the kids will be okay. Rationalizing ... that's another name for lying. What works is the truth. I'm an adulterer and to top it off I'm a liar in whom vows to my wife and God meant nothing, or surely not enough. Repentance isn't always easy but it works and it is necessary! C.S. Lewis stated that, as with a mathematical problem, after making an error it does no good to continue forward for the solution. As with the problem, the quickest and only way home is to go back to where you made the error and correct it before continuing. All right, it was something like that. Anyway, it sounds like I'm attacking the Church. Well, you're right! I am. I'm tired of kicking a dead horse and I'm tired of people that think being a Christian is a spectator sport. I also know it's not everyone, just too many of us. I want more than to know about God. I want to be known by God. It might be a dirty job to be me, but that's the option God gave me. He'll also give me the qualifications and hopefully an occasional prod when I need it. I pray that I can be known by God... not famous, not in the paper, but for sure not on the sidelines. I'll never be perfect this side of eternity and I've made more than my fair share of mistakes but I won' be drawn out of the battle, and I feel rather certain that Gordon Howie will not either just because the enemy is using him for target practice. What God desires is for His people to move out of the trenches. We're supposed to have the armor for defense but he also equipped us with a sword. Now if we could only quit cutting each other with it and use the sword as intended, as our one offensive weapon.