WATER OF LIFE

A few muslim children are being allowed to worship in a private room at the Army youth center where I teach. I talked to my bosses and they emailed their boss about my concern that muslim worship shouldn’t be allowed in our center. I even talked to one of parents (of a child attending the center) about it. But then I felt God was showing me that this wasn’t the battle he wanted me to undertake. Not every need is a calling and not every sin is a call to take action. Also, while listening to the sermon this weekend I realized that I’m on fire for God but I have to make sure my fire is expressed according to His will, otherwise I will end up like Aaron’s sons and be burned up for offering a kind of fire God didn’t call for (Lev 10:1-7). For example, God doesn’t want me to “point a condemning finger but instead to love the person while hating the sin”.

Additionally, what He has showed me is that it this a sin that goes all the way to the top of our government and culture. Americans think they can play the politically correct game of accommodating all religions just like the Babylonians (600 B.C.) in the Bible (who also accepted all Gods), and who were also used by God to conquer and punish Israel for its own worship of other Gods. (The Babylonians judgement was reserved for later when they were conquered by the Persians.)

Israel’s period of grace ended and they faced judgement. Some Christian leaders believe the U.S. is in a period of grace, which means we are sinning (just like the Israelites) but still have time to repent before God’s judgment falls on our country. We could also be like Babylon and God is, at this time, using us to punish Iraq (which is, ironically, the territory of ancient Babylon) and Afghanistan. And our judgement is being withheld—according to His timing—but certainly looming somewhere around the corner.

I’ve heard a lot of arguments from Christians about how Obama can’t be a Christian because he accommodates homosexuals and abortion (both of which are clearly stated in the Bible as sins) but why are no Christians concerned about our accommodating multiple religions—just like the Babylonians or even the Israelites did during several points in their history? How can American Christians be so focused on the sins of the President and small groups (like homosexuals and pro-choicers) and so blind to the sins of our country as a whole?

In the Bible there is the case of Sodom and Gormorrah, cities that God destroyed for their sexual immorality (which included homosexuality and is the origin of the word sodomy). God also had the Israelites destroy all the people living in Canaan because of sexual immorality and false God worship. I don’t recall any incidents of God destroying cities or countries because of mass murderers. But there are MANY, MANY more acts of God’s judgment on individuals, groups, and whole countries (including Israel) for worshipping other gods.

God makes it clear throughout the Bible—especially the Old Testament—that we shall have no other Gods besides HIM. It’s the first of the ten commandments so it must be the most important. Furthermore, it’s not only our accomodating other religions, it’s making our own idols (wealth, prestige, and power) and pseudo-religions (such as psychology). As we address the issues, such as abortion and homosexuals, let’s make sure that as Christians we also address the sins of worshipping and accommodating false gods in our country and in our lives.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Christianity, Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.