Years ago I heard a saying; "there is a difference between a peacekeeper and a peacemaker." Another saying that is an example of this principle is; "if you give a man a fish you feed him for one day but if you teach him to fish he is fed for a lifetime."
We are living in a culture now that values feelings over good sensible solutions to life problems. We praise people for small matters and allow them to ruin themselves by ignoring the big important matters.
One example of what I am saying is the ridiculous anti-solution cities in my country are perpetrating, which is to give clean needles to drug addicts so they don't get diseases and even legalize the use of hard drugs so that they are no longer having to arrest people. Their foolish and irrational solutions are making more addicts, keeping people on drugs their entire lives that are destroying them, and encouraging more people to turn to drugs who would not have otherwise done so.
I call this "raging insanity" merely to be able to make the authorities feel good about themselves as though they are doing something helpful when what they are doing is as damaging to the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of a person that is possible to do.
Being "nice" to a person by giving them what they want is often, in our world today, selfish and even evil. God gave us the mandate to help people in ways that help them off of drugs so that they might live a fulfilling and productive life. Indulging the lost in sin is not love, it is not helpful and perpetuates and grows problems until they are out of control.
Peacekeeping is selfish, it is without concern for the one being helped. Peacemaking is finding permanent solutions to problems through confronting people straight on, even using "tough love" to cause a lifestyle change which is far better than a temporary feeling of personal self-righteousness gratification. This method of "help" is really merely pretending to help someone while encouraging them to destroy their lives.
We see this same mentality in the church today when "Christians" refuse to correct or rebuke their brothers and sisters in their sin. Rather than working someone through a difficult marriage the "group thinkers" love their targets into divorce and remarriage, or accept shack-up couples by never confronting the sin.
Back in the day when I was young divorce and remarriage were uncommon, it was frowned upon by nearly all Christians and marriages were more stable and children more confident than they are today.
Satan managed to deceive two generations of people into thinking it is kind and friendly to encourage people in their sin even convincing them that it was good and beneficial to do whatever one wants no matter how much it grieves the heart of God.
We can expect this mentality from the world but worse yet is that it has entered the church gatherings. There is as much sin and defeated lives in the church as there is in the world all in the name of happiness, friendliness and false kindness.
1 Corinthians 5:6-7
"6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover also has been sacrificed."
1 Corinthians 5:9-11 "9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case, you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people."
1 Corinthians 5:1-2 "1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?…"
We can expect the unsaved world to think irrationally and without authentic compassion based on real-life solutions. But Christians ought to know better in the church. Because there are more pretenders, Christians in name only, sitting in the pews we have the same mentality in the church as there is in the fallen and pagan world.
Because divorce and remarriage are so common in the church and have been accepted by almost everyone, the next step of shacking up with unmarried people has become the next accepted step in the church. I have been chastised and rejected as have many others like me, for standing against the sin of divorce and remarriage among Christians. The very same people who are against "shacking up" will defend divorce and remarriage.
Sadly many will say they are against divorce but will endorse a remarriage after divorce when God clearly said divorce is a sin and remarriage is forbidden by God.
Malachi 2:16
16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
Matthew 19:8
"8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so."
Luke 16:17-18 "17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. 18 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
1 Corinthians 7:10
"To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband."
1 Corinthians 7:11
"But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife."
Believers who follow Christ have been rejected and gossiped against more about this subject than any other. Those who believe God and speak the truth of His Word are a target for the rest of the church for remaining faithful to the Word of God.
Those in the church who care more about the temporary feelings of the people while endorsing their sin do not love the people they support and encourage to live in sin whether it be a shack-up situation or a remarriage after divorce.
More of the Bible is being violated within the church than is obeyed. This is because we are living in the days of apostasy in which the Bible is being taught as a book of suggestions and that sin doesn't matter anymore.
God has not changed, He hates sin as much as He ever did when He gave His Words to the prophets who wrote them down for Him.
In these last days of apostasy "Christians" are giving those in the church what they want, that is "a fish for a day" which makes them temporarily happy but avoids the hard work of teaching them to fish so they can feast on the holiness of God for eternity.
Personal happiness has become the goal of the entire society and even worse it has become the goal of those in the apostate churches.
Adultery in the church in the form of remarriage is rampant, without shame and even those who defend it are hostile toward those who stand for God's principles and commands.
Deflection is another tactic of the devil in this matter of loving someone God's way. Those who defend and endorse sin accuse their brothers and sisters of past forgiven sins that they committed before they were born again, as though they are still present.
One favored tactic of the narcissist is to hold past forgiven sins against the one who now lives a life of holiness and refuses to accept sin in the church. Satan is never-ending in his accusations against authentically born-again believers.
Revelation 12:10 "Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night."
Whenever you encounter someone who accuses you of past forgiven sin because you came against sin in the church you have met the devil's helper.
Never fall for this trick of deflection when you must confront sin, just admit you used to be a sinner and continue doing what God has led you to do. DO NOT allow the devil's minions to change the subject from what is happening and what needs to be said. Keep speaking the truth and when they will not listen remove yourselves and leave them to be buffeted by Satan.
1 Corinthians 5:4-6 "…4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord. 6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?…"
Do not become like the rest of the "group-thinkers" who support and defend sin.
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