A Whole Lotta Dirt

"Stop preaching faith as a weapon against people." 

YET ANOTHER clod in the pulpit condemns people for not having faith. It’s not so much what he said isn’t truth but that what he said isn’t truth. Jesus. Jesus. HIS NAME IS JESUS. He is God who was deliberately and on purpose born as a human, intending to always be human, including laying down His life to an agonizing death AS AN EXAMPLE OF A MERCIFUL GOD’S LOVE AND COMPASSION FOR WHOSOEVER. John 3:16.

John 3:17. Shut up, clod. You’re tossing dirt in people’s faces. That Jesus who rose again, so we could whoop it up and celebrate, also created the dirt. I mean the devil. Only that clod was beautiful and wise and musical, as the Good Lord made him. Then he decided to be cloddy, and pole vault himself over the throne, except God the Father knew It would happen and besides, HE’S GINORMOUS. I know this. I’ve met Him.

Okay, I could continue with the dirt analogies, but aside from venting, they are best laid aside to make my point. Let me make this simple, in case the clod is reading:

God is mercy.
God is merciful.
He is a merciful God.
He has everlasting mercy.

Wait, there’s one more: Oh, yeah, He is love, which shows up as mercy. As a well-known comedian says in his comedy routine: whatchanotgonnado is make God not be merciful.

See, Jesus laid hands on anyone who came to Him, but only AFTER they filled out all the right forms. No, wait, I think that’s wrong. The disciples were not staff sorting those who came to the altar to see if they had the QR code. (I still can’t figure out those dumb things.) They were LEARNING about how much God loves people and the extent to which He would go to rescue people, regardless of intelligence (if they were clods or not), culture, language, sinfulness … lack of faith. Yes, Jesus saw faith in some, but in many He did not. He healed them anyway.

“And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool …” (John 5:5-7)

STOP PREACHING FAITH AS A WEAPON AGAINST PEOPLE. (Sets down shovel. This hole’s a big one.)

I see hurting people everywhere I turn, fighting their family strife, incorrect church doctrines, anti-the-goodness-of-God preaching. To the point, they won’t come to church. People are turning to heavy medications, worldly counseling, ideas from darkness, because those people in the church will hurt you. I know some who won’t ever go to church, and whose fault is that? Not God’s. He loves them so much He would do it all over again. But He doesn’t have to as now He is Savior of the world, and the Holy Spirit, the power that raised Him from the dead is capable of healing people, of saving people without the church.

You heard me. The Holy Spirit loves people so much He will rescue them without anyone in the church being involved. We think He has to have our agreement, our ineptitude. He doesn’t. No one was there when Jesus rose from the dead, except a couple soldiers who were lying flat on their faces. He had no waiting crowd, no onlookers, and a group of women were the ones to see the empty tomb. Not Jesus’ disciples, because people would have said they stole His body and lied about it. Except Jesus’ body wasn’t there when the girls showed up. The church bribed the soldiers to say nothing. Notice that truth is in the Bible. Some secret.

There are no secrets kept from God. He knows it all. Every tiny thought, miniscule drop of hatred, and the motive and reasons why we’d condemn people with what is supposed to be evidence of our love of God and His love for us. Faith isn’t a sword. It’s a shield which quenches the fiery darts of the wicked (Ephesians 6:16).

God forbid they come from me.

“The worship center leader was outraged that Jesus had healed this poor woman on the Sabbath, and said to the people in attendance, ‘God has given six days in each week to do work, so come and be healed on one of those days. Don’t break the Sabbath by coming to be healed on it.’” (Luke 13:14, Remedy)

Image by fotografierende from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com