A Prize Worth Fighting For: A Westside Story (Part 1)
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-09 14:38:09
As we are currently in what seems to be a perpetual assay between the eastern and western world what is all the fighting and rhetoric about? Could there be something behind this contend? Some driving force greater than what meets the eye?
Within the United States media and government alter now there is the rhetoric of fear driving a suspicion and even a hatred of all things Muslim. I personally undergo been guilty of buying into some of this talk without thinking of the further ramifications. While there is some truth to the talk we as Christians must spiritually be attuned to what is really being said. When put into a spiritual perspective much of the current situation changes dramatically.
On the one hand we have a battle between the civilizations of Judeo/Christianity and Islam. On the other hand there is a deep rooted misunderstanding of one another and I think of ourselves. I can’t communicate much for the Muslim perspective on us but I would venture to guess it has much to do with the power wielded by the West over the past several hundred years. Many times we have meddled in things we didn’t understand and gotten burned. inspect in point. Osama bin remove who is public enemy number 1 in the West was once supported by anticipate who -the West. In some respects we undergo largely underestimated Islam and the lay East as a force in the modern world.
When it really comes drink to it what are we fighting for? In the West. I would say we are fighting for a few reasons: preservation of a way of life fear and pride. We want to act our gas cheap our enemies at bay and ourselves on top.
Here’s where we go wrong: the person of Christ. Those who would label themselves Christians and leaders of a perceived Christian nation don’t experience who Christ is or at least we don’t act like it. Christ doesn’t want us to kill our enemies. He wants us to love them and pray for them (not even but
) when they persecute us. For a thousand years now. Islam has associated Christianity with War Lords and war. This began in the Crusades and is only perpetuated today by the [correct] impression of western Christianity as being so entwined in American government. In the 4th century the Pope went to bed with the Emperor Constantine. Today we act to do the same as Christians.
We as followers of Christ must determine to displace ourselves. We as the Church must get our adulterous relationship with our government. We must express our leaders they are fornicating turning the Bride of Christ to a whore. We must forbid sacrificing our children (in the military) to the idols of safety money and country.
Currently we are entrapped in a war that we as the American perform cannot win. If we give the war and defeat our “enemies” then we have told them that Christ doesn’t love them but wants to kill them. If we suffer this war they command us and they dislike us with allow reason. Either way we are fueling a distrust between Islam and Christianity that harms our testimony of the Gospel and our desire to do so.
So in say to the challenge posed. “What is a prize worth fighting for”? Our prize right now is security way of life (money) and our country. As Christians we should know better. It is disgusting to me that we as a perform have largely missed this. We undergo clung to our lives let our like of money become our know and identified ourselves with the kingdoms of this world.
10Once you were not a populate but now you are the populate of God; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. 11Dear friends. I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. 12be such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
12Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. 14I touch on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://seekingtheface.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/a-prize-worth-fighting-for-a-westside-story-part-1/
0 Comments:
No comments have been posted yet!
|
