Bitter and Fresh Water

We, the Christians as a people group, are so very convinced of our own righteousness. That spirit is what allows people to stand there and destroy another image-bearer of God with impunity without realizing that it violates their own spirit. The absolute worst verse in the entire Bible is the one that reads ...and it broke God's heart. Gen 6:6 I have often wondered how close we are to that unspeakable tragedy again. I sometimes wonder if the warrior in my spirit is because of wounding or fierce love for my Lord. I have to do kind of a constant check so I don't go all rouge. Father help me be aware of the feelings of those around me to stop me from being able to wound deliberately especially in the name of Jesus. I would that we all become that careful.

There are those whose fountains run with fresh and bitter water in the name of Jesus. Bitter always taints the fresh, just as leven always spreads throughout the whole dough. I'm hoping that the coming presence of God will be able to overcome the damage caused by Christians. Just today I heard from a friend asking for prayer for an atheist friend who is hours from death from cancer. This man was once in the church but the people there hurt him so badly he decided God was not for real because how could he be if this is who represented him (I'm putting words in his mouth, but this is the gist from the conversation). This horrific scenario is played out over and over. Only the felt presence of the ENORMOUS love of God will be able to turn this tragedy around, that and a heavy dose of conviction. Which is never fun, but sooooo very necessary for all of us.

Having already seen some of the worst the church has to offer I'm afraid it doesn't phase me as much anymore. Disgust and grieve yes, but not much surprise. Remember the Tommy Hicks vision of the church as a sleeping giant? The very scariest part of the vision was "But as he stretched forth his hand toward this one and toward that one [people in the Body of Christ], they simply bowed their head and began to back away. And each of those that seemed to bow down and back away, seemed to go into darkness. Blackness seemed to swallow them everywhere." I'm terribly afraid that this, in part, represents those who are willing to tear others apart in His name. Their disappointment at God loving those that they don't agree with may be the very thing that causes them to bow out (oh God I hope I'm wrong, that is a great many in your body).

I don't know if this is the right way to handle things or not, but I think there is going to be a line drawn in the spiritual sand and everyone will have to make a choice, either you stand with God as He really, truly is and not as you want to see Him or you stand with your false god where hating those who are against you is par for the course. Meaning this, if you think that screaming at the school board for not teaching your child Christian values is acceptable behavior then please line up with the goats, if you find that a poor witness of the love of Christ and recognize those school board members as people made in the image of God (image-bearers) who may not have found Him yet, but are still deeply loved then you can line up with the sheep. Because the reality is that the sheep have work to do and the goats are getting in the way and it has to stop. Not that anything needs to happen to the goats, simply that they will become something even worse...irrelevant. The power, authority and grace are going to go to the sheep Christians and they will move on from the day-to-day struggle with the goats. When our focus truly shifts to our ultimate Commander in Chief and we are daily occupied with how we can help advance the Kingdom today we will not have time to devote to trying to do damage control for the goats. They can clean up their own mess. We have to be about our Father's business today and we cannot do it with hearts of bitter water and fresh water - purify us Lord!