Arrested Development

When the police came to haul me off, it was a little difficult to explain. After all, it's not an ever day occurrence - seeing a grown man on the street corner, buck naked, holding a Bible preaching about the coming of the Lord.

Actually, that did NOT happen. At least to me. But for three years Isaiah walked around barefoot and naked proclaiming the oracles of God and apparently no one thought a great bit about it. Either his nakedness or his oracles. You have to admit, that has to be a challenge to your self-esteem.

I mean  - think about it. In the most extreme circumstances, if you or I were hopelessly devoted in our commitment to the Lord and we knew beyond any doubt that he said to do that, regardless of what people thought, we strip down and head out. If all goes right, and we make it a day...consider it a victory. But, a week, a month, a year, three years!

No rational person would consider that today. Either that God would ask them to do such a thing or, even if He did, that they would follow through with it. So, should we surmise that the people in Isaiah's time were irrational people?

I think that perhaps we have outgrown our own development. By that I mean, we have become so sophisticated in our proposed thinking and "being" that we have no room for the divine, the prophetic, even the normal.  We have let culture dictate the "norm".

Yesterday I signed a petition regarding two bills in congress on supposed "gay rights". One is really a Free Speech bill. It says, roughly, if I choose to speak out against homosexuality IN CHURCH, as a deviant lifestyle based on scripture, that that may be considered a hate crime punishable by law.  The other is a "worker's rights" bill that basically says businesses such as the Salvation Army, Focus on the Family, etc. that would not hire homosexuals because of their belief system, my be forced to hire them or be charged with worker discrimination. 

Now something is wrong with that picture.  People do not want "Christians" forcing their belief system on them, but it seems to be alright for every other group to force theirs down everyone else's throat.

God help us all.    Really ---- God help us all.