Now This is Interesting

I am just realizing, I do not even want to write this post. It could offend a lot of people. I guess we will just let that be my disclaimer. Now you can decide if you want to continue reading.

This is the post I warned you was coming. Well, maybe it is just the first of several. I just did not think it would take this long to actually get it finished and published. It is another one of those things I knew I knew, but had no idea why and did not have the statistics to back it up. (In re-reading, I think I might have pulled this off without being as offensive as I thought I might be. Of course, you will have to decide that for yourself.)

"The Left prefers top-down central planning by a bureaucrat in Washington. OUR strategy is to maintain the decentralized nature of this leaderless grassroots movement. Freedom is our strategy, because freedom works." Matt Kibbe, President of FreedomWorks

Facebook is an amazing invention. That is where I found the above quote. I did not even know there was an organization called FreedomWorks until I saw it on a friend's page. I could not help thinking how closely the concept the Left prefers, according to Kibbe, aligns with the way we usually do church. Since you are still reading, despite my disclaimer, get your toes off the floor now if you do not want them stepped on. Do not say I did not warn you.

Kibbe is advocating less government. Less government equals more control of our individual lives and destinies. This writer does not understand how fewer people telling me what to do can be a bad thing. To be sure it is a wonderful thing to have people and resources to help us meet the challenges of life, but think library. One either goes to the library to find help when needed or does not--that is his or her own choice. No one tells anyone to visit a library. Lest you argue that, but for the government, we would not have libraries, that is simply not true. There are thousands of private libraries in this country. The internet is still free, at least for the time being. My sources tell me there will shortly be a power-grab by the federal government to regulate the net.

When I first saw the quote, I immediately thought of Galatians 5:1, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." and 1 Corinthians 14:26, "How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification."  We have already discussed the latter verse in these pages so suffice it to say, if would appear we really do not do "church" very well, according to scripture, in this country.

Add to the previous remarks that yours truly has been reading  the book Grace, by Lewis Sperry Chafer and has been truly enlightened as to a lot of things we do routinely that serve to take us out from under the covering of God's grace and place us back under the law. Just another word on that, we have had that book sitting in our library probably the whole 35 years of our marriage. I even tried to read it a couple times, but apparently it was over my head, because I never did get very far into it. That is a painful admission since Dr. Chafer is theologically, diametrically opposed to me in some major areas.
  
According to the Gallup organization, approximately 17% of the United States population was employed by the government in August of 2010. 17% of everyone in the country receives his or her paycheck directly from the government. (Well wait, whose are only the ones working. I have not even seen statistics as to the number of people who are not working, but receive government checks of one kind or another.) It also does not include people who work on contracts that are funded by the government. Is it any wonder our taxes are as high as they are? Now, if you are not a government employee and want to be really disgusted consider one other statistic. The average federal government employee earns salary and benefits equal to more than twice the amount of compensation those working in the private sector earn. You are probably wondering by now if there is a point to all this. I was wondering that myself. I had to quit writing for awhile to discerne what that point is.

Drum-roll please. The point is very simple really. Whenever we depend on someone else to "pay our bills" we have limited the resources available to us and our ability to do what God tells us to do. I have already asked all the questions about that you are asking now. You will have to answer them for yourself. The point is that we have had it so ingrained into our culture and our minds that we have to have a consistent income and someone else writing us a check that we have compartmentalized our lives into soulical (work/law) and spiritual (faith/grace). The ironic thing about this is, it flies in the face of common sense and knowledge. Let me explain what I mean by that.

One of my best friends is a professional. He is the best I have ever known in his particular field. He considers his work his ministry to hurting people. He is not what most would consider wealthy by any means, but he earns more money than many other people I know. The point is, he writes his own paycheck. The money comes primarily from "services rendered" doing what he believes God has called him to do. Were God to tell him to do something, anything, different on any given day, at any given time, he would undoubtedly do it. He has the freedom to do that because he is not depending on anyone to write him a check at the end of the week. By the way, I write him a check on something of a regular basis.

Consider this question. (No worries, it is rhetorical and very simple.) Does God have more money than I do? So if my friend performs services for me--and many other people--and has an ample supply of resources, does it not make sense that if one were serving God, he or she would have at least ample resource? Again, that is a rhetorical question. It does not even require an answer.

At some point all these posts have to come to an end. I am in something of a quandary here. These posts are getting uglier and uglier--and I suspect they are going to get even uglier. That is not really an apology as much as it is an insight. From the first word of the first post, this blog was intended to make people aware of the affects of the religious spirit that hangs like the marine layer over the Santa Maria valley, keeping a lid on The Church. It is now becoming more clear that spirit is more pervasive than I had ever thought. For those of you who do not give up when things get difficult to understand or seem overwhelming, your continued reading and support is appreciated. God bless!