Fanaticism

I read a newspaper article last week about the Gaza Strip that Israel currently controls. Iran, Al Qaeda and a few other big names would like it back to say the least, or free usage of it at the very least "or else" they say. Al Qaeda issued a plea to "all Muslims everywhere" to do whatever is necessary by whatever means necessary to get access and control of it back. They said do it for your beliefs and for your people. Now I have been prown in this whole mess to think that the fanatical Muslims doing all of the suicide bombings were cruel and crazy people that were brainwashed and horrible. But you know I read something in psalms just now that has turned around my thinking somewhat. "For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgement written! This is honor for all His godly ones. Praise the Lord!" Psalm 149:4-9.

It's really easy to confuse right and wrong. I read these passages and had a large amount of cognitive dissonance because my Christian world has always taught me that I am to act kindly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. My Christian world has taught me to let God be their judge and to let Him lead me. And my Christian world is right. My point is not what these verses were actually written for and what they mean for us; my point is that it's really easy to confuse what we think what we read means and what our influences are telling us. It's also easy to confuse what's right with what people or your mind is telling you.

My other point it this: I find myself thinking amidst all of these tragic happenings and loses we have seen from Muslim fanatics and I can't help but slightly long for the passion they have. Not all of them obviously, but I watched a documentary the other day on a family of a suicide bomber and they were talking about how proud they were of him and what a great honor it was. He said the same thing and then you see him get into his car and drive away to complete his mission. What if Christians were that convicted and that pursuant of the prize? What if truth was so heavily fought for that people would settle for no less? What the suicide bombers do is certainly not the answer, but what if this world had the passion and conviction that they have to complete the task assigned to them? I believe as Christians we are on this earth with a mission: a mission to let this world know about Jesus, whether it's being Jesus or speaking Jesus. What if we didn't settle for any less from ourselves or those around us that have the same mission?

the true self

Have you ever really admitted to God who you really were? Right then and there I bet you met Jesus- and experienced hope in a way you had never before imagined. God doesn't really start working in our lives until we trust Him with who we really are. That is perhaps the first taste of the true faced life. When we first become believers it's stunning. Incredible. It paints our world in colors we hardly knew existed. But, something happened to many of us in the intervening years. We lost confidence that His delight of us and new life in us would be a strong enough impetus for a growth that would glorify God and fix our junk. So, we gradually bought the slick sales pitch that told us we would need to find something more, something others seemed to have that we could never quite get our hands around. Something magical and mystical that we would receive if we tried hard enough and proved good enough, often enough. And so we began learning to prop things up. We went back to trying to impress God and others-- back to posturing, positioning, manipulating, trying to appear better than who we are. Our two-faced life has severely stunted our growth. And broken our hearts. And left us gasping. Although we may have accumulated titles, status, and accomplishments, we personally remain wounded and immature--long on "success", but short on dreams. We are jealous of the people who live in the true-faced life, but our loss of hope has forced us into desperately trying to discover safety from behind our masks. In a very real sense, we are all performers. Because of sin, we've lost confidence that we will always please our audience, and so we put on a mask. As an unintended result, no one, not even the people we love, ever get to see our true face. Once we put on a mask, we have a hard time taking it off.

We can never resolve our sin by working on it. Nor can our striving to sin less keep us from future sins. Oh, we may change behaviors for a while, but as we try to hide the sins we can't control, we are unwittingly inviting blame, shame, denial, fear and anger to become our constant companions. The key to our maturity and freedom lies in the dominant motive that governs our relationship with God. Pleasing God is actually a by-produce of trusting God. Pleasing is not a means to our personal godliness, it is the fruit of our godliness for it is the fruit of trust. We will never please God through our efforts to become godly. Rather, we will only please God-- and become godly--when we trust God. Not do, but be. Trust God with who you are and you will find a way to put down the mask.
-taken from TrueFaced by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and John Lynch