Back to Liberia - For now

Genesis 50:20 (ESV)
²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

I don’t know why I was born healthy and have enjoyed a life of physical and material blessings here in America.  I don’t know why Moses Kollie was born in poverty in Liberia.  I don’t know why his mother was killed by rebels when he was only weeks old.  I don’t know why God let Moses lay trapped under his dead mother for a week causing him to live his childhood with a deformed hand.
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I’m bad, you’re bad, John Piper is bad?

I came across this video a few months ago. I don’t know why I like it. Maybe because I like John Piper and maybe because I grew up liking Michael Jackson.

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Not that there is anything wrong with that

How should I look at our world? Is it “live and let live” and “I’m ok, you’re ok”. The Bible clearly tells us not to be judgmental.

Judge not, that you not be judged (Matt 7:1-5)

The rest of the world gladly takes up this mantle. As long as what you do in your life does not adversely affect me, then all is good.

Is it all good? Are the problems we have in this world because people are too judgmental or do we have our problems because we have sacrificed truth in order to avoid the appearance of passing judgment?

If I am not supposed to judge people, then how do I respond to world issues that clearly contradict biblical truths, especially in regards to sexual immorality? Romans 1:26-27, 2 Corinthians 12:21, Mark 7:20-23 are just a sampling of many verses that speak of sexual immorality being evil.

Sin hurts not only others but it hurts the sinner even when we think we are just doing our own thing.

1 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV)
¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

As a Christ follower, my reaction to sin in the world should be love. The world in full of sin and we know sin destroys. The world needs God’s love and God’s hope and we should be the ones telling them of this great hope. We don’t need to be standing on a corner at a gay parade telling everyone that they are going to hell. We need to be reaching out to people suffering from AIDS showing them God’s love with our service and telling them there is a hope in a God that loves them.

That said, the world needs empathy, not sympathy. You cannot sympathize with sinful behavior, “That’s ok, you’re not hurting anyone“. However, you should be able to empathize with a person indulging in sinful behavior, after all, you’re a sinner too.

Show the people around you God’s love. Tell them about God’s grace. Gently explain why what the world is offering is destroying them but what God offers will save them.

1 Peter 3:15-16
James 3:18

Red pill or blue pill?

You want to be a godly man. This means choosing sides, as you are either a godly man or you’re not. Once you’ve decided, God has given you the armor you need to withstand the attacks of your enemy (Ephesians 6:11)

The question is do you really believe all this. Is there really a spiritual war out there or is this just church talk?

How can I believe all of this spiritual talk when I have real physical and emotional pain?

I can’t see God, the devil, angels or demons. How can they be real? I can feel pain. I know that’s real.

The pain of this world is real. Sin brought this pain into the world. Jesus is real. He has saved us from the sin and the pain.

God came in the flesh as Jesus to our physical world. He died a physical death in the world for our sins. He physically rose again to conquer death. We all still die (unless Jesus returns before we do), but we can have eternal life if we believe.

We all have the same choice as Neo in the Matrix. We can choose to take the red pill and join the battle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). Or you can choose the blue pill and continue to live oblivious to this very real battle.

Believe and join God’s army. Be a godly man.