Tag Archives: Complaining

Freedom Fighters?

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I see people fighting for freedom (so to speak).

So to speak of fighting; the fight Americans are putting up is more akin to complaining.

So to speak of freedom; the great majority of Americans have never lived under a totalitarian regime.  They have no idea what it’s like to live without freedom.  And they would be seriously hard pressed if you ask them to define what freedom is.

Passion is born of experience. 

The same is true with the Gospel of Christ.  Happy is the average person who calls himself a Christian:

.To go to Church (when he wants to)

.To be accepted in his social situation (as if saying you’re a Christian makes it so)

.To stay out of trouble and to stay out of jail

.To have some future unknown hope (leaving the entirety of heaven in the hands of those who are there; preferring ignorance over understanding)

And

.To live his life as he pleases “knowing” that the forgiveness of Christ will cover him in the end (such a man has absolutely no reason to fight for anything)

A man fights for what he knows.  The one who knows how precariously he stands as a free man, fights with all he has to keep his freedom.  The one who does not understand freedom, does not fight.  And such a man will not understand what I have just written.

The offer of Christ is free.  Accepting his offer will cost you everything you have.

Suffering Complaints

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Are you suffering under a burden that threatens to drive you to the dust?  Has your heart become calloused, so that you will not call out to God for the sake of the things that oppress you?  Have you allowed yourself to blame the One who made you?  Have you come to believe that you are righteous in blaming God for your trouble?

Jesus did no such thing!  Faultless, blameless, and full of love for his Father, the Lord was beaten beyond recognition.  Yet he did not blaspheme the will of God.

He endured his Holy Father’s will, because he knew his God can do no wrong.  And he considered even the greatest of torment as if it should not be compared to the Glory that awaited him.  How is it that we cannot even sustain the sufferings of the common cold without complaint?

The Holy Bible uses a very curious word to describe the testing of the Holy Lord Jesus, “crushed”.  Have you been so treated?  And that for no apparent cause?  Are you without sin?  Don’t we deserve to be crushed?

10 “But the LORD was pleased
            To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
            If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
            He will see His offspring,
            He will prolong His days,
            And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” (Isaiah 53)

For our sake, and his love for God, he was sustained through it all.  For the sake of his Father’s love for man, he endured the most vicious possible death.  For your sake Christ was purified of all possible pride.  Stripped of his Glory and Majesty, humbled to the likeness of an animal, Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins.

He did not complain.  He did not beg for mercy.  He did not resist the ungodly hands.  He did not strive to evade the whip.  He offered the tender portion of his hands to the nails.  He forgave sins as he hung toward death!  And all of this with the most resolute heart!

And then horror came to visit him; his Loving Father turned his face, as his son became a curse for hanging on a tree.  As it is written in the law of the Most High God, “for he that is hanged is accursed of God”.

Still he did not all allow sin to encompass him.  He endured the will of his Holy Father.  Shall we do any less? 

Consider the tiny burden we bear.  Even if we suffered as Christ Jesus, we deserve the beating. 

As we consider these things, so we become more like him.  As we consider these things, we reach to the victorious one for the strength which sustains. 

Do you want strength to overcome your intolerable need to complain?  You will find that strength in Jesus the Christ of God.

Amen!

By His Grace

Unfair Comparison

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The early Church was tested, as are we.  Yes, we are all tested.  But let us be reasonable and fair.  The early Church was not tested by technology.   They did not live in a world where what happened thousands of miles away was instantly known to all.  Their focus was on what happened within the limits of their own senses.

What is similar between us is the spiritual aspects of trials and testings.  Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever.  But the situations of man have changed radically.

Is it harder to endure as a Christian today?  No.  What plagues all men, regardless of time, finds roots in righteousness, obedience, truthful worship, integrity to the Word of God, and witnessing about the Living God in Christ Jesus.  Isn’t that enough similarity to bond us to our brothers who lived in every age?

If one wants to compare, let us remember that there are those who have worked in the “heat” of the day.  And there is still a “heat” to come.

Man loves to compare himself to others.  By some means it is necessary.  But to boast or complain is not appropriate.  God has given us birth in the age we find ourselves.  He has given each one a live in the situation of “today”.  Let’s endure what we have.

Help Me if You Can

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I can’t find it in the Bible.  But it must be there somewhere.  We are told to do what Jesus did; to obey and glorify His Heavenly Father.

But I listen to my brothers and sisters.  They complain an awful lot.  It’s too hot, it’s too cold, or they’re taking too long, or I just cant take it anymore.

I have no right to judge them.  I have complained myself. 

Apparently it’s normal and falls in line with God’s expectation of us.  Apparently Jesus complained and grumbled quite a bit. 

But I can’t find it in the Bible.  It must be in the same place someone would expect to find mention of Jesus telling little white lies. Perhaps someone would be kind enough to point it out for me.