The fear of "Organized Religion"

First off, maybe it's just me but it sounds like the Mafia or something. Give your offering or we'll bus' your knee caps, right? When did organized religion become a dirty word? How did this happen? Used to be the church was the place people could go for support, help, or in a time of need. Now people look to the government to supply their every need and Christians have slacked off on their charity. Christians have become timid and the ones who do speak up do so arrogantly and sel-righteously, while failing to live up to their own standards. This is why Christianity is viewed with such disdain.

Too many are willing to yell on a street corner about how homosexuals are evil and an abomination, none of them are willing to love the people they claim to be trying to save. Do I believe homosexuality is ok? No. I believe the Bible speaks strongly against it. Do I believe I'm better off than a gay person is? Nope. Sin is sin. The Bible calls homosexuality a sin. It also calls premarital sex a sin. Looking lustfully at a woman who isn't your wife is a sin. Envying your neighbor's new truck is a sin. So on and so on. If you are guilty of one part of the law, you are guilty of the entirety of the law. What does this mean? All of those preachers coming down and spouting hate towards homosexuals aren't following the Lord.

Think back on the past few years. How many Christian leaders have been found in some sort of sexual impropriety? Far too many if you ask me. These are the same guys who will stand behind a pulpit in front of 10,000 people and condemn anyone doing the same things he does in secret. And we wonder why the world thinks we're all hypocrites. And speaking of these megachurches, how does it look to see the pastor of one of these churches wearing a $1000 suit and driving home afterwards in his $80,000 Lexus sedan? That question is directed to any of you out there reading this (I got to have at least one, right?). To me it looks like the pastor is paying himself a wee bit too much out of the congregation's tithes. I have no problem with wealth, but in my opinion when a pastor is living such an ostentatious life, it sends the wrong message. These pastors usually belong to a church where he preaches the health and wealth doctrine. Choose God and everything will be fine. Life will be easy. You'll not find this anywhere in the Bible, in fact you are guaranteed that you will have troubles and trials as a result of choosing God. How should the pastor live? Look to Chuck Smith as an example of a guy who lives, for the most part, above reproach. He is the founder of Calvary Chapel. He likely could've taken the same liberty but he drives a 10 yr old Mercury Grand Marquis.

The new movement in the world is to decry organized religion. You even find it amongst Christians. The "I don't need to go to church, I can worship anywhere I want people". Yeah, it's true, you can worship anywhere, but the Bible specifically says not to forsake the gathering together of the saints. Some of these people will say they don't go because of other Christians, but then what about Heaven? That's what Heaven is, full of Christians. Atheists will jump in on it because of a bad experience as a kid, or an irritating friend, or whatever. My response to that? If you truly want to take a fair look at things, go after it how the Bible says and follow God, not man. If your eyes are on mankind, you'll be disappointed time and time again. Keep your eyes on God and He'll never let you down.

First blog

Greetings, this is my first blog. Let me introduce myself for those who may have inadvertently stumbled across this here. I intend to use this space as a place to put my thoughts, adventures, ideas, dreams, goals, and things that tick me off. We'll be covering topics from my Jeep, family, work, God, and people.

Not everything will quite fit the paranoid section, but I like the sound and that's usually what makes me sit down and write. I'll try to keep this a daily thing, but we'll see.

So, onto my first blog:

I live in a house out in the desert. There's a small town nearby, literally 8 miles from my house, but it's a small town and it pretty much just stops. So while I can order a pizza and drive down to the shop before it's done, they still won't deliver because we're in an unincorporated area. We have 5 acres of land, but when we bought the house it wasn't surveyed. Our realtor gave us a map of the property but it was vague, doesn't show us anything about where our property actually is. We know, or are pretty sure, that it extends back into a wash behind the house. On random nights, people like to come racing down our wash in buggies, on quads, etc. I could care less about people enjoying the desert, I do so on a regular basis, but seriously at 11pm? Come on, at least have the courtesy to run friggin mufflers on your buggy or rompin V8 wannabe Trophy truck, alright? Sometimes it's all I can do not to jump in my Jeep and chase you down.

And please, when you see me on the street, remember that your Super Duty with 42" Swampers will not stop as well as it did stock, which wouldn't stop as well as my wife's minivan will. So, keep your distance, you never know when something will necessitate a fast stop. And for you wanna be SCORE desert racers, the highway is not your personal race course, and again, your Ranger with its nose scornfully turned up at the rest of us, butt dragging in the dirt will not handle rapid changes of direction like your average car will.

That's all for tonight. I'm tired and done. More tomorrow maybe.