Changes

I've been thinking about the direction of The Open Forum for a while. As you've likely noticed over my past few entries, God's been really working in my life and further shaping what I'm to be doing on this planet. I've recently taken up a few causes and made them my burden to bear. I want to use what is currently called the Open Forum as a place discuss these causes and my involvement in them. I'm not sure if that means the end of the Open Forum, or if I start a new blog, copy over posts from here that are relevant, and continue to post here when I want to spark discussion.
 For now, I'll continue to post here exclusively, but that may change.

Until then, let me fill you in. Two things that have been on my heart lately are abortion and pansy Christians. I've talked about both of these things in two separate posts earlier on here. I want to address them together here and discuss how they fit together.

I firmly believe Christianity in America is where it is today because the Church became indifferent or passive about what is happening in the world. That's why you've probably read a bit of what many would rightly call "questionable" language in some of my more recent posts.  I'm not apologetic for it. I get pretty fired up over these subjects. My brain goes into over drive. My fingers just start typing what I think. Honestly, the severity of some things is better communicated when the language is harsh. It's time to be harsh. We're aren't loving anyone by tip toeing around these things that will make us unpopular. We can only love someone by standing firm in our faith and showing them the Gospel of Christ. I know this sounds a lot like bullying or guerrilla warfare, but you have to remember that we're on their turf. We don't have to be mean, we just have to be strong and firm.

This goes hand in hand with the fight against abortion. Abortion is a touchy subject in America. Most media outlets (FOX News being the exception) don't want to talk about it, or so they claim. I've had to sit back and listen to my employer's own "political commentator" give his liberal opinion on how a woman should have the right to kill her child a number of times. I also know my employer doesn't want to give any air time to people who believe otherwise, because it's perceived as an unpopular belief. We've let this happen because we think there's nothing to be done about it. There's nothing to be done about it because we don't want to stand up to them. We don't want to get rough with them. We don't want to challenge them. It's time that changed.

It's time we tell those in control that we're here and we out number them. It doesn't matter if we actually do or not (I firmly believe that we do, but it's not the point). We just need to be loud enough to get their attention. Believe me, local tv and radio stations all over the country would promote child rape if it meant increasing revenue. Threaten their bottom line and they'll point a camera and a microphone at you.

Giving people a voice and gathering people in great numbers is just a piece of the puzzle, and honestly, it's a small piece. The bigger pieces are prayer and scripture. God gave us the two most powerful tools in the world and we've squandered them. I'm talking about myself, too. It's not like I don't have a Bible. I do, and it's a pretty big one at that. I see it everyday, sitting there, staring at me. But all too often the Xbox controller or the Wii Remote wins my attention. There's nothing wrong with these things in of themselves, but there is something wrong with me when I neglect to use my weapons and sharpen my skills in favor of playing a game.

We need to be in Word. We need to be reading. We need to be memorizing. One day, your faith is going to questioned and if your response is "uh..... but... God loves everyone...." then you have failed as soldier in the army of God. If you give a decent response but can't back up what you believe with scripture, that's better, but still a pretty piss poor example of what a true soldier is. We need to read and read often. We need to know our arsenal front and back, just like a soldier in the Marines knows his weapon of choice. A marine not only knows how to use his weapon, but also disassemble and reassemble his weapon, clean it, prepare it for proper storage, and anything else he needs to know how to do with it. We also need to hold each other to this standard. We can't do it alone any more than a Marine could.

Prayer is the other huge piece of this puzzle. Prayer is powerful, maybe even more powerful than knowing scripture. If scripture is the rifle you carry for one on one combat with the enemy, then prayer is the bomb you launch from afar into enemy territory. The bomb isn't more important than the gun, but it is more devastating. We must be in constant prayer. Prayer can literally change the landscape around us, just like like a bomb can. Prayer can change someone's heart. Prayer can shut down an abortion clinic. Prayer can even move a mountain if that's what God wants. This is something we absolutely can not neglect if we are to take back our culture.

Each of these things is a discipline that, unfortunately, some of us will have to learn and it won't be easy. I've decided to teach myself these disciplines by scheduling them. Every Sunday I get up and bring my family to church an entire hour prior to service beginning just so we can pray about these very things (I didn't seek permission form my wife to do this. She's my wife and she has to submit. I would, however, recommend that you do discuss this with your spouse if you're in a similar situation. It wasn't proper of me to just dump this on her without at least discussing it with her. We'd still be doing it and I'd still play the submit card if it came to that, but that doesn't mean I should just be making decision without first consulting her. Show your wife more respect in this than I did my own, fellas). We encourage our fellow Centerpointers to join us. As Jesus said long ago, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." (Matthew 18:20 ESV) As that discipline becomes a habit, I'll add to it. and so on. I have other ideas I'm going to implement in the future to help in this and will share them on here or the new blog if that's what happens.

I implore you to hone your battle skills. Listen to what the Spirit of God is telling you. God may have something He wants you to lift up to Him in prayer. He may have something He wants to tell you using his Word. Do not miss the opportunity to be a big part God's Kingdom work here on earth. If you won't answer the call, you might look around one day and see that God has replaced you with a stone.