A little disclaimer, I am not trying to strike an argument but if you feel that way, I am sorry. These are my views and my views alone, they do not reflect the views of the Assemblies of God or any of their affiliates. Hope you enjoy.
Let me start of by saying that as a Christian and as a citizen, I am tired of being "politically correct." I have been raised and taught that I am free to say what I want based on freedom of speech, however, there are limitations to how far that free speech can go, and that is understandable. But if voicing my opinion because it has religious values or does not represent the normal view of society leads to persecution or me being looked at as a jerk or someone who is in the wrong, then I am sorry, I do not want any part in "free speech," people are allowed to walk around and curse and it is okay to curse on TV, but if someone brings up that being Gay is not in the bible, then everyone pulls the "separation of church and state" laws. I say that we need to be weird because we should not conform to the thinking of the world or keep our mouths shut because we will not be "accepted" or people will think differently of us.
As I have previously stated, the issue in the above paragraph needs to be addressed or our country is headed for some really tough times (think of 9/11 and what opposition forces have the capability of doing). Joel 2 1-6 states, "Blow the trumpet of Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand-- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like a dawn spreading across the mountains a large and might army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in the ages to come. Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the lad is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste--- nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like calvary with a noise like that of chariots, they leap over mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle. The end of verse 11 states, "The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?" This is as much of a warning as any one that I have ever seen. Once again, it is time to stop being silent and speak up for the church. Do not let politicians and people who are no- believers dictate what is and is not okay for the church to speak about. This country was founded on Christian principles and we need to stand by those. People are dying out there for this nation, we tend to think that people who speak out against the war and are pro-choice are only able to have that freedom because of soldiers who died for them. What about us as Christians? Do we not have that same right to speak out against abortion and to support what our troops are doing? I see that as Christians we tend to put our tail between our legs and walk away when we are told "No" but we should be pushing issues and showing that we stand up for God and what He believes because He is the One who GAVE us this great nation. We must not lose it for Him.
This applies to me too, it I cannot commission people to do the work of God, but I can drag people onto the front lines with me. It is time not only to make a change in the people in this nation, but it is time to stand up for our faith and not be pushed around anymore. This is not possible in many countries because of religious dominance or ordinances put into place to stop the spreading of Christianity. How long before the Christian church is FORCED underground in America? Would we speak up then? When it is too late? I have just as many rights as the guy who just was elected. I am a CITIZEN too, my voice is allowed to be heard to. My values do matter and so do God's! I am not asking for them to change necessarily, I just want them to accept me for who I am and not for who they want me to be. I believe that the scripture applies to me in the fact that it is a warning that times are changing and it is time to move on with the times and make a stand. There is a quote from one of my favorite movies called "The Kingdom" the background information is not pertinent, but the Director of the FBI in the movies states, "You know, Westmoreland made all of us officers write our own obituaries during Tet, when we thought the Cong were gonna end it all right there. And once we clued into the fact that life is finite, the thought of losing it didn’t scare us anymore. The end comes no matter what. The only thing that matters is how do you wanna go out: on your feet or on your knees?" I know it seems like a stretch, but is this not how we should live as Christians? Why be afraid of people? The only one we should fear is God because in the end He is the One who judges us. Are we going to leave this life wishing we would have spoken up more and not sat around? Or are we going to be able to say we did all we could for the Kingdom of God.
I want to leave you with a video, please take the time to watch it, it is only 3 minutes long and it kinda goes hand in hand with the scripture.
Once again, I am not here to strike an argument, these are just my thoughts and they are not the views of the Assemblies of God or any of their affiliates, they are solely my views and what I believe God has put on my heart.
Joseph Robinson
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