Most people - and I'm talking about those who call themselves Christians - don't seem to agree with Paul of Tarsus, the great evangelist without whom Christianity may never have seen the light of day, when he wrote, "I know that in me - that is, in my flesh - dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18).
Most people nowadays seem to think that whatever comes out of their flesh automatically has to be good.
Be it because they're Christians, Americans, or just their wonderful selves.
They automatically figure that whatever is "theirs," their country, their religion, their family, age group, etc., has to be best for the simply reason that it's "theirs."
Totally oblivious to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth had quite a different attitude. When He was surrounded by a large crowd of people and His mother and brothers couldn't get through to see Him, He didn't say, "Excuse Me, folks, but I've got to go and say 'Hi' to My family." He asked, "Who is My family? Who are My brothers and My mother?" (Matthew 12:48).
If people would care to read up on the recorded Words and opinions of the Man they claim to "follow," they'd find out that He didn't have a lot of positive things to say about His own nation's leaders - religious or political - either.
In contrast to that, most Christians nowadays would blindly follow "their" President into WWIII and to the annihilation of every living thing, just because he happens to be the leader of the country they happen to have been born in, even if he were the Devil himself, as long as he keeps claiming, "Yeah, I'm a Christian."
Only faintly, like an echo from a different world, rings Jesus' admonition in most believers' ears, "By their fruits ye shall know them." All the "fruit" and evidence necessary to convince most folks these days is that their candidate holds a passport of their same nationality and that they have the right flag waving behind them. "Everyone else is guilty," as far as they're concerned and is thus deprived of even the most basic human rights.
I'm not writing this because I want to be nitpicking or a pain in anyone's butt. But I believe the time will come when those that are sowing the wind right now will reap a whildwind of proportions that will make Katrina look cute by comparison, and I'm sure there will be a lot of folks then who'll have the nerve to ask, "But why? What did we do to deserve this?"
Well, for one thing, you didn't care very much about the truth.
That's why you swallowed innumerable lies from your leaders & still said, "Yeah, that's okay, after all, he's ours."
Even when those leaders sent your sons off to unjust wars to violate every commandment of God ever gave you.
Just going to church was supposed to make up for it all. But I'm sorry, I can't find that anywhere in the Bible. In fact, the only thing I find on that subject is that God doesn't live in any type of temple, church or building, at all, not even if it's "your" church (Acts 7:48,49)!
When it all comes down to it and you'll have to stand before Him, what will count won't be whether you were a Southern Baptist from Ohio or a Catholic from Naples, but only how you treated the "least of His brothers" (Matthew 25:40). Let's all hope that we had what it took to discern who it is that He considers "His brothers" and that we then had the heart to be nice to the least and the lowest of them... Even if they weren't a member of "our" club.
Some folks might argue, “But it’s natural to stick to one’s own kind.” Sure, animals do it, too. But perhaps in this case Jesus gave us a sample of how to do things in a super-natural way, one different from the “norm“ or “natural.” (Didn’t Paul also say, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God”? – 1Cor.2:14)
Jesus was a Jew in His mid-thirties when He gave us a living example of extraordinary acceptance of non-Jews and other age-groups than His own. He healed and ministered to Romans and Samaritans, both generally rejected by Jews of His day, and He reprimanded His disciples for refusing children to come to Him, and He showed equal favour to the elderly. If we claim to be His disciples, why don’t we start walking in His footsteps for once?
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