Pilgrimage

PILGRIMAGE
I shout to You, Lord Steadfast!
Don't turn off your audio feed.
God, if I don't hear from You
I might as well die. What's the use?!?
Are you listening as I cry out for help
Do you have compassion today?
I cuddle up to your sanctuary
I grasp your light pole and won't let go.
Lord, don't settle me with the filthy?
with those who consult spirits
who dress nicely and speak sweetly
but whose inner springs are bitter
God, who am I to say repay them
My own history is filled with verbal violence
God, please teach us not to sin.
Please forgive them for their deeds.
Oh, God, heal our evil, broken land
God, for Your Son's sake, repay only those who cannot be broken
Dear God, let us all be taught as we see them punished
God, I plead for my nation
Give us a regard for Your word yet, Lord
Lord, we revere the supernatural
Teach us to praise Your name with joy and gladness
Teach us to worship You in Spirit and Truth
Lord, we are nothing
You are everything
We are a blip on the pages of history.
We have exalted our country
Forgive us for our pride
Our country is good
Use us as You will
Mold us and make us after your plan
Let us not be prideful as a country or as a people
Let us not confuse Christianity with Americanism
America was founded by pilgrims and strangers
pilgrims are ones on a pilgrimage
Lord, we have settled down and become fat and sassy
Lord, teach us to be pilgrims once again. Amen

Cussing

I was just looking through some scriptures on holiness for something that I was thinking about writing when, what do ya know, something jumped out at me. Well, as anyone who reads this blog much knows, I exaggerate a little. Okay, exaggerating is something of a way of life for me. Things are rarely just what they are. That would just be so Boring. They always have to be like something else.

But, anyway.

What jumped out at me were three killer verses on cussing. So, what's the big deal about that, you say? I know people who claim that there's no prohibition in the Bible against cussing. Well, I don't have a terrible foul mouth anymore. Age helps, that and looking like a Sunday School teacher all the time. Here are some thoughts, though.

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." Matt. 12:33 It's not really a good witness, #1. And, #2, this verse seems to indicate that maybe it's evidence of a heart problem. I mean meaningless expletives wouldn't be a problem, but expletives that degrade the body, God's temple, seem destructive.

"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45 No explanation required.

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." John 15:19 Everytime I open my mouth, I'm giving the world a reason to hate me or love me. Jesus tells me to be ye therefore perfect or holy or mature, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, or holy, or mature. However you interpret Matt. 5:48, I just don't know. When I combine it with John 15:19 and all these others, the maturity or holiness or whatever just doesn't seem consistent with a potty-mouth. Would the Pharisees have been quite as threatened if Jesus had been out preaching on the hillside using filthy, adolescent language?

possibility of homosexual change

The American Psychiatric Association's website says that "[T]here is no published scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of 'reparative therapy' as a treatment to change one's sexual orientation. The potential risks of 'reparative therapy' are great, including depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior." Currently, I'm in therapy. A lot of the course of my therapy has involved depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior. Therapy is hard. Depression and anxiety are like the grinding of the therapy gears. Occasional self destructive behavior is like the sparks that hard working gears throw off. What I'm trying to say is that most if not all very involved therapy involves, I would think, depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior. Why would this be a problem? Are gay men too big a wimps to undergo therapy because it's hard? If we really respect them as people, then shouldn't we encourage them to seek what will make them better socially fitted to their surroundings? No matter how we rage, their surroundings are never likely to change all that much. It seems a kindness to encourage change.

Paige Patterson

Why does everybody in blog-land hate Paige Patterson so much? I just read this long diatribe about him on Baptist Blogger. So, he's rich! I thought that riches were right up there next to godliness in the Baptist hierarchy. I mean, so many BMWs (correction, rich-looking cars) roar past me as I walk home from Baptist events. Is it just easy to take pot-shots at a symbol of excessive wealth, while we all have our own little ungodly excesses at home that the Lord is convicting us of and we're not doing anything about?