Tag Archives: Christian Church

Sometimes, The Message Isn’t For Me

Posted on by Standard 51

I have only been blogging for a couple of months, and yet I have watched, normally from the sidelines, as people with varying perceptions have “disagreed” with one another to the point that things have gotten somewhat heated. Some have quickly made amends, and others have parted ways completely. And it seems to me that it is unfortunate that this happens so often, because to me, it is only a matter of looking at things from an earthly standpoint instead of a heavenly one.

I tend to avoid such scrapes as much as I can, only being involved personally with my one throw-down on an atheist that I felt was disrespectful to an amazing degree. But, overall, I enjoy being at peace with my fellow man…or, in these cases, my fellow bloggers.

Yesterday, I had pretty much taken the day off from my computer, and when I logged on in the evening, I came across this post written by Sara, Universal Truths in answer to a post written by Anne, titled Personal Responsibility. I’ll let you catch up on the specifics, but the part that I want to address is perception.

As a young woman, I was under the mistaken impression that everything about a person could be summed up and categorized easily and efficiently, like cataloging some kind of vegetable or fruit. For example, I thought that if a person came from a home with an alcoholic parent, that person would either love or hate addictive substances. No middle ground. If a person grew up with normal, supportive parents, that person would in turn, be a normal, supportive parent. In my mind, I tended to over-simplify everything, including people. To me, the key to understanding a fellow person was in finding the correct formula that they fit in, like an algebra problem.

But, as I grew more mature, both spiritually and emotionally, and I began to deal with my own trauma from childhood, I was forced to admit that no one is truly uncomplicated. There are just too many factors that go into the sum total of a person, and with each layer I would peel off of my own self-consciousness, I would then learn to appreciate the same complexity in other human beings. Now, as I look back over my life, and the road of healing I’ve traveled, I am very slow in assuming that any other person on the planet can truly, truly understand completely why people are the way they are. And with this developing understanding of just how much we are not equipped to judge one another has come a mercy for people as I am beginning to see them from God’s perspective instead of my own. I learned to err always on the side of compassion, empathy, and mercy….all the things that I would have wanted people to give me when I was a lost, confused, angry girl.

The only universal truths I have found are in the Bible, but even in there, we don’t all fall in all of the categories. For instance, we all have varying degrees of spiritual gifts, or we struggle with different kinds of sins, etc. The one universal truth is that Jesus died for all of us, and His sacrifice was enough for anyone. But from there on, we each are approaching this life with our own sets of ideals, understandings, perceptions, mis-perceptions, and other lenses that color how we interact and react to one another.

I don’t think for even one minute that Anne was telling me, or Sara, to just get over our pasts. There is truth in her article about taking responsibility at some point in your life for your decisions. But, I guess what sparked the wariness in me is the somewhat generality of the post…Thrown out there like some random net, and not specific in its parameters.

I am not all bent out of shape about her perceptions, because taken in the context of what I believe she was aiming at, she is correct in her opinion. It is good to remember that the body of Christ is made up of many different kinds of people who vary in their gifts. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are so different, and if one takes a minute to think about the personality types that would excel at each of these different gifts, you’d find, like I did, that they would be really different.

We need the warriors in the body of Christ, but we also need the spiritual paramedics. We need people like me, who dismiss all the varying sins and shortcomings a person struggles with, and seek to see a person the way the Lord sees them, but we also need those evangelists and teachers that bring about conviction of sins, or there would be no addressing and purging of sins in any of our lives, either.

All of our gifts were given to us in order to work together in order to bring people into the Kingdom of God; to encourage each other to stay in the fight; to point the confused or lost in the right direction; to help each other in the ways that we each individually need at that moment. It would be counter-productive to be angry or resentful or dismissive of varying perceptions from our sisters and brothers in Christ just because they don’t fit our limited scope of what we think is important. Instead, by widening our viewpoint, it is rather easy to see how each of our differences, our strong points and our weak ones, work together beautifully in the big picture of the Christian Church.

Anne’s post may have hit home for someone else, even though it might not have been necessary for me, or Sara. And as such, it is important for each of us to weigh the importance of a message for our own lives, and if it is not relevant to our own circumstances at that moment, dismiss it and move on. It doesn’t say anything at all if a message simply isn’t pertinent to an individual at that moment. It might still be important for someone else.

– Bird

Related articles

An Answer for Arkenaten

Posted on by Standard 140
Jesus

Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Update:

Be sure to read the comments for Arkenaten’s response. Thanks!

Anyone who has visited Anne’s site – My Life Uncut…Almost has probably met Arkenaten. As a tireless advocate against the existence of God, he tends to show up at her site, and occasionally mine, to toss out a few bits of his opinions and wisdom that usually make my head want to explode. I simply hate an illogical argument…

Today, I feel pretty peaceful and as such, I feel like I can address some of these arguments without letting my own human anger get the better of me, and to not tie up all of Anne’s WP memory, I’ll just see if I can’t lure him over here. I have a less than strict policy on language so he might feel a little more comfortable responding here.

So, let me say this first, Arkenaten. The anger you may hear in my “voice” isn’t directed at you, but is instead directed at the only real enemy I have, and that is satan. You may think I hate you, but you would be very wrong. I hope some day you are saved. I don’t wish for you go to hell, and I’m not interested in seeing God humiliate you. When you talk, I hear satan’s perfect voice luring doubts. I hear your voice puppeting the hatred satan has always harbored toward Jesus, knowing full well that Jesus would defeat him and take the throne he had so desired and envied for himself. So, please don’t think this is a personal attack.

Here’s how one Christian girl responds to long-winded diatribes laced with dusty old supposed logic and random references to little-known authors, philosophers, saints, etc, and all laced with an attitude of superiority and disdain.

I don’t have to prove God’s existence to anyone. Leaving out the “tired old book — the Bible“, God has actually proven Himself to me and an entire church full of people here, and a million times to me alone.

I don’t use intelligence as a measure of a person’s worth, as evidenced that I went to private school with people who ALL have achieved greater worldly successes than I have. I tend to feel more drawn and respectful for people who have had to overcome terrible, painful things in their lives. It is a point of reference for us that I consider a starting point for a real relationship.

So, let me explain why your careless words bother me. Anne has a real patience and love for a different kind of people, and I respect and admire that. But, I’m not going to insult you by pretending that I want to love you into the kingdom of God. I’m not dishonest, not even with the crappy parts of my nature. I have a feeling the more I read your writings and the more I interact with you that you are simply really, really angry. And believe it or not, that makes a point of reference for you and I to understand each other too. So, let me give you a glimpse of the world from my perspective.

I had an adult man molest me for years while I was a little girl. That person was a professed Christian. Tell me, how do you deal with how slow time is when you wait in the dark, afraid to go to sleep? Years ticked by slowly.

I went to authorities but they were uncomfortable with the subject matter back then and because they were unsure how to proceed, they just ignored the problem, leaving me, a little girl, to deal with a problem that they themselves had no clue how to fix. Tell me, are you lonely? I’ll bet I know loneliness better than you do.

How do you respond when your own mother refuses to acknowledge this horrible situation because she can’t afford to financially care for all the other children in your family? What did you think that felt like? What does “betrayed” mean to you, Ark?

Instead of having crushes and learning what it meant to first fall in love, I learned that touches were painful, and I still struggle with people touching me to this day. Is this a point of reference you and I share? When other girls were dreaming of white weddings and playing at being mothers, I was dreaming of murder and maiming a specific person. Am I evil, Ark? I know what hate feels like.

To hide his own behavior, he would tell anyone who would listen what a liar I was. I was accused unjustly, and labelled incorrectly. When I thought the nightmare was finally over, I found out that I’d been so scarred that the nightmare would continue to live on in me for decades, always haunting every interaction with mankind I’d ever have. Can you tell me what disappointment, hopelessness, grief mean for you?

I went to a church pastor who informed me that a demon that my own father had passed on to me had caused this person to stumble…in other words, it was my own fault. Can you say you’ve ever felt betrayed by God Himself?

I went to the world’s “intelligent” people, and they were full of big words, medicines, and science…but none of it made a difference. I know big words, too, Ark. I don’t use a lot of them out of rebellion against those same people. For people who were supposed to have a lock on the education game, they were powerless to fix what was broken in me too…My whole being right down to my sense of who I was was destroyed. Intelligence, education, science…they were powerless to give me my self-esteem and sense of worth back. They don’t make medicines for that.

I was angry at everyone in this world, and at myself as well, for not being able to pick up and move on. To not be able to just let the whole thing go. Drugs would help for a moment, but it took more and more, and it was never permanent.

I tried to be better for my kids and for my husband, but you can’t sell an image very long, and I was unable to keep up the pretense, no matter what my reasons were.

I studied Buddha, Taoism, and every manner of new age crap looking for something that would make my heart stop hemorrhaging, and that includes most forms of Christian variations. You aren’t talking to a person who grasped at the first lifeboat that I could locate and threw myself all in…I tested the God I serve now because I don’t like to be tricked. I don’t like anything or anyone having any power or control over me. And I don’t trust easily…So, if God couldn’t handle me questioning Him, then we had no basis for a relationship, because there could be no trust.

I eventually picked up that tired old book — the Bible, and I began to read, absorb, re-aquaint myself with the words in it, and they became alive. I had gone to a Christian school, Christian churches. I’ve always know God was there, but I had split when I felt He had not lived up to His end of the bargain. In the end, I didn’t find God in a church. He came straight to my room when I called out to Him.

Without drugs, professionals, churches, medications…nothing, Jesus began to lead me out of the darkness I lived in. There is simply no way someone who isn’t even looking for God is going to understand that. There are no words that will sway a hardened heart.

I write all of this to say this, Ark. When you carelessly run your mouth off, being ever so witty and clever, aren’t you as mean and evil as this God and religion you’ve declared war on? How are your intentions really different from Stalin or Hitler, or the many, many Christian Crusader’s wars you continually bring up? Hurting other people for the sheer joy of pursuing what you selfishly want to make your own existence more tolerable is simply the same thing. Self-love above what is good for someone else. Basic motivation that has varying, horrifying results. Isn’t that what the motivation was for the man who thought my life and well-being was secondary to his getting off??

Let’s say, just for the sake of argument that you are right, and I’m deluding myself. Is it more merciful of you to shake me out of a delusion and let me sink back into the hell that I lived in than to let me be healthier and happier now? Is the rush that you get by “proving” your theories and stirring people’s pots,  more important that the happiness people get from their religious beliefs?

People who are honest with themselves first always show that trait, no matter what they say or do, and it is a trait that I respect. We both know that your intentions aren’t to help your fellow man..I know this because I had a close friend who was a real atheist, and while her beliefs made me nuts, her motives were really rather good. You aren’t worried that we Christians will rise up and start the Crusades again, injuring innocent people everywhere. I imagine a lot of people can see through the words to your heart, even if you yourself aren’t being really honest with yourself.

I don’t have any clue where you are going when you die. I’m not stupid or simple enough to believe that God doesn’t have a better grasp on the “light that you walk in”, and people like Anne, who God put specifically on this earth for people like you, will probably always be a plague to you as long as you live and resist. Sorry. None of that is my business. What is my business, though, is that I’m positioned here for those who have experienced Hell already, and I won’t let you toss out nonsense logic without calling you on it. Not when those who are still weak can so easily be swayed by satan’s very excellent deceiving abilities.

– Bird

How An Outlaw Motorcycle Club Taught Me Honor

Posted on by Standard 54

Chef told me back a few months ago when I started my little blogging adventure that I was bound to offend someone,

Honor is the defining trait I find among the men and women of this club.

and guess what?! Now I have.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been honored and humbled by an outpouring of personal emails that people have sent me asking for advice or saying how much a piece I wrote helped them. They always leave me in tears, plus it makes me feel useful in God’s kingdom when I can comfort someone and help them in a difficult time.

And now I’ve been scolded. For what, you may ask? I’m still trying to figure that out. This person doesn’t seem to be one of my followers, and it seems to be a dummy account because you can’t respond to it. Tsk, tsk. But, I’m not even going to use the name you used or publish the email. It really isn’t important to me to embarrass you, and in my opinion, you not even letting me respond via email back to you should embarrass you enough anyways.

Now, I’ve made it pretty clear that you shouldn’t fire off verbal grenades and not have the fortitude to identify yourself. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a different opinion than someone else. But when you hide, you are invalidating said opinion, and I don’t know about other people, but I can’t respect that. So, since I know you read my site, I’ll share something with you and hopefully this will put the matter to rest.

The outlaw motorcycle club seems to be a concern in this person’s thoughts. Let me tell you exactly what I think about my husband being in an outlaw motorcycle club.

Many, many years ago, before Chef was involved with this club, he was actually part of what is called a Mom and Pop club. This is mainly a riding club where motorcycle enthusiasts join up each week and ride together to different locations. It is a lot of fun, and is a good way to get to know each other. And for the most part, this group of people were just wonderful. This is the club we belonged to when I was involved in the motorcycle accident, and they were there for my whole family when we needed help. I have nothing negative to say about them.

After the accident though, mainly because of the accident, at least in my mind, I wanted some distance from the reminders, and that kind of killed the joy for me in the club. And with that death came Chef’s, because if the wife ain’t happy, neither is the husband. There was some disagreement, and the club split in half, and our half took to creating a new club.

Now, without getting in specifics, I will say that the one thing that was lacking in this “new” club was honor. Men were hitting on me behind my husband’s back, and it caused a real stir in my marriage. One thing that you have to understand about motorcycle clubs, or any clubs for that matter, is that trust has to be a central point.

It didn’t take long for that “new” club to completely implode, and poor Chef, who desires the camaraderie he once experienced in the military, was left without that important part of his life. And along came The Motorcycle Club. I’m a big one on first impressions, but I’ve learned over the course of many years that I need to gather more information before deciding yay or nay on something, and so I sat back, running my little bar, and watching these men and their women who came calling on Chef. And after some very kind and open conversations with one — Yes, that’s you Brooks– I decided that I kind of liked the structure of their honor system. I’d been told we women should never ask them questions, and in one fell swoop, Brooks invalidated that theory and let me ask the questions that I’m sure others would be offended by, and then he gently answered every single one of them honestly and openly. I’ve had less experience with honesty with pastors than I did with him. Thank you, Brooks!! Turns out, they have more honor than most Christian churches I’ve been in.

Now, let me be clear. Unless you’ve held in your arms a girl who has had her innocence stolen by an adult just so that he can get some sexual gratification, you don’t get to have an opinion about how we perceive the world. The minute that happens to a little girl…and I imagine it is even worse for a little boy…the world suddenly becomes dark, dangerous, perverted, evil. And with that perception comes an innate distrust for people…You tend to assume that everyone is selfish and that you will be annihilated if you are vulnerable. Compounded with that hurt, is having a pastor that your respect, even if you never really liked, tell you that your rape was your own fault. There is nothing you are going to tell me about only looking to Christians for the answers. I’ve learned a ton from non-Christians.

I’d read books on biker culture, scoped the internet, watched television…I definitely had a preconceived notion about who these people were and what they were about.

Then, I got to see up close and personal just how protective these people were with their young, and anyone else’s children as well. I laugh because for all the jokes about them being dumb, I find this lot of people pretty damn smart. And I watched a convicted child molester try to join. Guess what? He didn’t get very far. They have this uncanny ability to sniff out the people who hurt the innocent, and he was sent packing. I’ve watched serial adulterers join, thinking the women would be easier to lay, and those guys are gone too. I’ve watched liars join, and be escorted away from the family. In fact, I have to say that I know a ton of bikers that are professed Christians on varying levels of their walks with God. So much for judging books by their covers.

I also have watched over the years this code they live by. No lying. If you get caught lying, you’re on your way out. No stealing from a brother…You steal, you’re out. Need some help..they are givers, even if it is just their talents they have to give. My home is nice, neat, and well-maintained because of this family we are in. In turn, I take a lot of wedding pictures and Chef cooks a lot food to help out this family. No cheating with other brother’s wives…You get caught, it isn’t allowed and you won’t be staying in the family. And child molesters….just move out of town now. They don’t condone it and will handle their business. In other words, this motorcycle club taught me the meaning of honor and holding themselves to a higher standard than some Christians I know. So, please. Spare me. Unless you are in it, don’t preach to me about who I should be hanging around with. I am not gifted at leading Christians to the Lord, they are already there…. What do they need me for? I will say that I feel safer surrounded by these men in colors than I do sitting in a pew at church. And for those of you who are childhood sexual abuse survivors, you know just how hard it is to make us feel perfectly safe surrounded by people. Am I right?

I am not going to apologize to you or anyone else for being completely honest about the things that I struggle with, or the people who I have a loyalty to. This club had never done a single thing to me that they should apologize for. Are they perfect? No! But they are humans, and they deal with the same failings that Christians in the church pews deal with. Difference is, from what I can tell, they’re more honest about it to themselves and others.  I find that sharing what sins I struggle with makes me human, and it doesn’t give this image that once you are saved everything is Noodle Salad and Church Picnics. Life is hard, and it remains hard. The difference is that I feel like I have a purpose. I have a healing direction, and I have an empathy to help others head down the same healing path. I usually feel like I’m in big trouble when I die, because I do make a lot of stupid mistakes even though I know better. But, for whatever reason, God always deals really mercifully with me, and in turn, I intend to do that right back to my fellow human beings, Christian, motorcycle bikers, strippers, prostitutes, drug fiends, whatever. I love them all. I’m a firm believer and preacher of grace…Without it, you wouldn’t be getting in either!! I will continue to try to become more like Jesus, but let’s be real….I’m never going to resemble Him much…He was too perfect and very much God Reincarnated…

Hope this sets things straight. You don’t have to agree with me, and maybe I’m wrong. I don’t think so, but what do I really know anyways? And seriously, stop sending dummy stuff…that is just too weak! I have mad respect for the atheists and agnostics that disagree with me on my site (respectfully) than I do someone who shoots off fiery arrows and then hides in the trees….Seriously???? For all of you, my email is cathiemartin68@hotmail.com. I’m standing behind my opinions and beliefs.

Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox for now. :)

–Bird

 

 

The Motorcycle Club

Posted on by Standard 10

I am re-posting one of my earlier contributions….

As anyone can probably tell from my pictures, my husband belongs to a well-known motorcycle club. I don’t write much about this in my posts because frankly, I don’t think about it much. But, it is probably worth a minute to clarify where this culture and my Christian beliefs come together.

I once had a proclaimed Christian tell me that because I was part of this 1% culture, she could not in good conscience hang out with me anymore. This “Christian” opinion always angers me to no end. And I always refer back to Matthew 9:10-13.

“Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, ‘ Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?’ But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘ It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: “I desire compassion, and not sacrifice”, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

I was understandably nervous when my husband first began to associate with what the world would consider “undesirables”, but as I got to know each of these people, I had a powerful compassion on them. I also had to put aside preconceived opinions that I’d gathered from television, internet, and books. I had to open my mind up to the possibility that I had ended up here for a reason, and Jesus thought that His work was more important than what the Christian community around here thought.

As with any large group of people, there are going to be the good, the bad, and the ugly. But, just from the ones I know on a personal basis, I see that God hasn’t written off these men and women. Evidently, God isn’t bound by our social standards, and I have come to feel that He has put my husband and I here for a purpose.

Where in the Bible does Jesus say we are to only associate with those who already know Him? What purpose would that serve? If you insulate your whole existence away from those who are dying, who do you save? And what is your worth in this kingdom? Isn’t that a little like hiding your light under a bush?

My brother is a pastor of a church, and he recently wrote a book that I sincerely love. It isn’t because it is a masterpiece of wordplay. It is because in it, he chronicles the building of his church by fighting Satan in a real world setting. He talks about getting out in the real world and stealing from Satan what belongs to God. His church doesn’t put on a pious, religious front. They instead, are warriors, pillaging from Satan’s camp using every method they can think of. There aren’t great discussions on whether or not viewing Harry Potter is going to make everyone into a witch; there is a restaurant operated for the sole purpose of getting to know the people they hope to lead to the Lord. He talks about websites set up as the first taste of any church. He is fighting fire with fire.

From the time my babies were small, I’ve tried to impart to them the understanding that living a Christian life is choosing to be a soldier. The enemy doesn’t fight fair. It is a bloody, exhausting, but satisfying existence. Jesus has us here for a purpose — and working up enough faith to own mansions, labeling yourself a god (creepy, and blasphemous), and be healed of every hiccup isn’t it. We’re in a battle for souls, and everything in our lives are circulating around that. And if you, as a Christian, are leading a quiet, uneventful, rich life going to church, eating potato salad as you pat your righteous self on the back, attending seminars with other like-minded brothers and sisters, and nothing is ever going wrong for you — well, then you have been neutralized by the enemy. However, if you find yourself in the Valley of the Shadow of Death on a pretty consistent basis, then you are probably a threat, and you should be happy that at least you aren’t wasting away the talents God gave you. I find the most dangerous Christians in the world these days, emotionally exhausted, but spiritually powerful. Sometimes, you can almost see them lying in a crumpled, bloody pile with a big smile on their face. There is nothing like defeating the enemy! And the true warriors always untangle themselves, stand up, brush off the dust, bind up their wounds, and jump right back into the battle.

I am a Christian. My battlefields are no more or less important than anyone else’s. If the proclaimed Christian community has objections to my orders, they can take it up with our commander — Jesus Christ.

Ride it like ya stole it!!!

– Cathie M.

Related articles

The Motorcycle Club

Posted on by Standard 6

As anyone can probably tell from my pictures, my husband belongs to a well-known motorcycle club. I don’t write much about this in my blogs because frankly, I don’t think about it much. But, it is probably worth a minute to clarify where this culture and my Christian beliefs come together.

I once had a proclaimed Christian tell me that because I was part of this 1% culture, she could not in good conscience hang out with me anymore. This “Christian” opinion always angers me to no end. And I always refer back to Matthew 9:10-13.

“Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, ‘ Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?’ But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘ It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: “I desire compassion, and not sacrifice”, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

I was understandably nervous when my husband first began to associate with what the world would consider “undesirables”, but as I got to know each of these people, I had a powerful compassion on them. I also had to put aside preconceived opinions that I’d gathered from television, internet, and books. I had to open my mind up to the possibility that I had ended up here for a reason, and Jesus thought that His work was more important than what the Christian community around here thought.

As with any large group of people, there are going to be the good, the bad, and the ugly. But, just from the ones I know on a personal basis, I see that God hasn’t written off these men and women. Evidently, God isn’t bound by our social standards, and I have come to feel that He has put my husband and I here for a purpose.

Where in the Bible does Jesus say we are to only associate with those who already know Him? What purpose would that serve? If you insulate your whole existence away from those who are dying, who do you save? And what is your worth in this kingdom? Isn’t that a little like hiding your light under a bush?

My brother is a pastor of a church, and he recently wrote a book that I sincerely love. It isn’t because it is a masterpiece of wordplay. It is because in it, he chronicles the building of his church by fighting Satan in a real world setting. He talks about getting out in the real world and stealing from Satan what belongs to God. His church doesn’t put on a pious, religious front. They instead, are warriors, pillaging from Satan’s camp using every method they can think of.  There aren’t great discussions on whether or not viewing Harry Potter is going to make everyone into a witch; there is a restaurant operated for the sole purpose of getting to know the people they hope to lead to the Lord. He talks about websites set up as the first taste of any church. He is fighting fire with fire.

From the time my babies were small, I’ve tried to impart to them the understanding that living a Christian life is choosing to be a soldier. The enemy doesn’t fight fair. It is a bloody, exhausting, but satisfying existence. Jesus has us here for a purpose — and working up enough faith to own mansions, labeling yourself a god (creepy, and blasphemous),  and be healed of every hiccup isn’t it. We’re in a battle for souls, and everything in our lives are circulating around that. And if you, as a Christian, are leading a quiet, uneventful, rich life going to church, eating potato salad as you pat your righteous self on the back, attending seminars with other like-minded brothers and sisters, and nothing is ever going wrong for you — well, then you have been neutralized by the enemy. However, if you find yourself in the Valley of the Shadow of Death on a pretty consistent basis, then you are probably a threat, and you should be happy that at least you aren’t wasting away the talents God gave you. I find the most dangerous Christians in the world these days, emotionally exhausted, but spiritually powerful. Sometimes, you can almost see them lying in a crumpled, bloody pile with a big smile on their face. There is nothing like defeating the enemy! And the true warriors always untangle themselves, stand up, brush off the dust, bind up their wounds, and jump right back into the battle.

I am a Christian. My battlefields are no more or less important than anyone else’s. If the proclaimed Christian community has objections to my orders, they can take it up with our commander — Jesus Christ.

Ride it like ya stole it!!!

– Cathie M.