I am organizing a protest, who is in?
I have never been one who keeps up with the latest trends and I am definitely not a trendsetter. For one reason, most trends are expensive so I usually wait for them to come down in price. I think it is cheaper to hold on to what you have and wait for it to become trendy or cool again. That reminds me, does anyone know when men's blue jean jackets will be cool again? I love mine but my wife and daughter will not let me wear it in public. The only trend that I think I was in on from the beginning was the bacon trend. I was eating bacon by the pound when bacon was the "unhealthy breakfast food" that nobody wanted to admit they liked. I was putting bacon in just about everything I cooked long before bacon become cool. Other than that I have been behind times when it comes to trends. I am serious about the blue jean jacket thing though. As soon as it is cool again let me know.
The big trend for 2016 wasn't a fashion design, a slang word or phrase (my daughter hates when I
learn those even more than she hates my jacket), a food or even a diet like most years. The biggest trend of 2016 was protesting. Everybody seemed to be doing it everywhere over everything. It looks like it is still a popular thing to do in 2017 so I want to jump on the bandwagon. Maybe I can get a bunch of old, bald, overweight guys wearing blue jean jackets to protest at Holster or Nordstrom or the Gap.
I don't want my protest to be like every other protest. I want everybody everywhere to be able to join my protest. I don't want to target a business, a city, an individual or any part of the government. I want people to be happy when they see my protest and I even want the people protesting to be happy. I want to start the protest that will end all protest. So I have searched and searched for the right cause or that special message that everyone needs to hear. I have made a list of ideas and I have crossed off everything on that list because none of those ideas seemed like the right thing to make a stand for. I finally went to my go to source when I have questions and I soon found my cause which included a message for all to hear.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2 (ESV)
That is my protest. It is time Christians protested the sinful world we live in by not participating, supporting or justifying the sin that is in the world. We, Christians, have been transformed by and we have conformed to the world long enough. It is time we are transformed by our worship of God. Instead of reading about what is popular on social media let's read what God's word says. Instead of
letting Hollywood tell us what we should believe let's let God tell us. Instead of turning to the government for morals let's turn the pages of God's word to find them. Instead of letting society tell us what is right and what is wrong let's review what God's word says. It doesn't change like society.
The Christian population is getting smaller because it is getting harder and harder to tell Christians from the world. We have become more worried about offending people and hurting people's feelings than we are worried if they are going to heaven or hell. We have decided to fight one another over the small things instead of joining together to fight the enemy. The Christian army decided to go undercover and become God's Secret Service. Once we established ourselves as the Secret Service we don't want to blow our cover so we kept blending in and not fighting anymore.
When we as Christians do fight we usually target the wrong enemy. We target people and not sin. We are to love one another as Christ loves us. He loved sinners but He didn't participate, support or justify their sin. That is the example we should follow. We have gone to the extremes in both directions. We have either told everybody to come and it was ok if they continued their sin. That's not biblical. Or we told everyone to quit sinning and then come to church. That's not biblical either. What is biblical is Jesus telling us we can bring our burdens (which includes the burden of sin) to Him and He would give us rest. We have been called to share the gospel and allow it to change the hearts of sinners, and Christians. We have been given the Holy Spirit to do the cleaning on the inside. He cleans the hearts of Christians too.
Want to join my protest? You do not need picket signs or a place to march. You just live so that others can see Christ in you. Go the extra mile because Christ went the extra mile to the cross for you. How do we take a stand against all the sin in the world? We start by riding our life of our sin. That will give more time in our life to Christ so others will see more Christ in us and less sin. We make a stronger commitment to Christ. Others will see this commitment. If we change our life Christ will use it to speak to others. The key is more Christ and less world. After all you can't be a CHRISTian without Christ. So, let's pick up our cross daily and follow Christ. The cross is heavier than any picket sign but no picket sign can change the world the way a cross did. Want to join the protest?
Parting Thought: Experience: The name people give to their mistakes.
The big trend for 2016 wasn't a fashion design, a slang word or phrase (my daughter hates when I
I don't want my protest to be like every other protest. I want everybody everywhere to be able to join my protest. I don't want to target a business, a city, an individual or any part of the government. I want people to be happy when they see my protest and I even want the people protesting to be happy. I want to start the protest that will end all protest. So I have searched and searched for the right cause or that special message that everyone needs to hear. I have made a list of ideas and I have crossed off everything on that list because none of those ideas seemed like the right thing to make a stand for. I finally went to my go to source when I have questions and I soon found my cause which included a message for all to hear.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2 (ESV)
That is my protest. It is time Christians protested the sinful world we live in by not participating, supporting or justifying the sin that is in the world. We, Christians, have been transformed by and we have conformed to the world long enough. It is time we are transformed by our worship of God. Instead of reading about what is popular on social media let's read what God's word says. Instead of
The Christian population is getting smaller because it is getting harder and harder to tell Christians from the world. We have become more worried about offending people and hurting people's feelings than we are worried if they are going to heaven or hell. We have decided to fight one another over the small things instead of joining together to fight the enemy. The Christian army decided to go undercover and become God's Secret Service. Once we established ourselves as the Secret Service we don't want to blow our cover so we kept blending in and not fighting anymore.
When we as Christians do fight we usually target the wrong enemy. We target people and not sin. We are to love one another as Christ loves us. He loved sinners but He didn't participate, support or justify their sin. That is the example we should follow. We have gone to the extremes in both directions. We have either told everybody to come and it was ok if they continued their sin. That's not biblical. Or we told everyone to quit sinning and then come to church. That's not biblical either. What is biblical is Jesus telling us we can bring our burdens (which includes the burden of sin) to Him and He would give us rest. We have been called to share the gospel and allow it to change the hearts of sinners, and Christians. We have been given the Holy Spirit to do the cleaning on the inside. He cleans the hearts of Christians too.
Want to join my protest? You do not need picket signs or a place to march. You just live so that others can see Christ in you. Go the extra mile because Christ went the extra mile to the cross for you. How do we take a stand against all the sin in the world? We start by riding our life of our sin. That will give more time in our life to Christ so others will see more Christ in us and less sin. We make a stronger commitment to Christ. Others will see this commitment. If we change our life Christ will use it to speak to others. The key is more Christ and less world. After all you can't be a CHRISTian without Christ. So, let's pick up our cross daily and follow Christ. The cross is heavier than any picket sign but no picket sign can change the world the way a cross did. Want to join the protest?
Parting Thought: Experience: The name people give to their mistakes.
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