Friday, 26 June 2009
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My thoughts on the latest .....
First thing on my mind is ......... the death of an apparently great pop star - the Michael Jackson. Thing is, I'm not mourning him. And apparently I'm one of the few. A post today on Revelife entitled "Michael Jackson is Dead" had more commenters who admired him than those who did not. I don't want to presume to judge his soul - ultimately that is God's domain. However, the actions of a believer shows their heart. Does someone profess to love Jesus and want to serve Him? The "world" will know. Does someone reject Jesus, and refuse to live by His commands? The "world" will know. "By their fruits you shall know them." What saddened me the most about that whole post/comments was that there seemed to be this prevailing attitude that because he did so much "good" in his life (music? dance? oh wait ....."feed the world"....) that his eternal destiny shouldn't be in question. Sounds to me like a works based salvation? I think I got 5 separate slightly hateful comments for writing this "but what did he do for Jesus? Were his songs, his music, his performances done to the glory of God? Why should we uphold a man who didn't appear to love Jesus Christ? Yes, it is possible that he repented and received Jesus as His Saviour ......but if he didn't - then I'd have to agree with the statements "What profits a man to gain the whole wide world and lose his soul!" It doesn't matter how you start, but how you end!"
I was called an "asshat" , told to shut up and mind my own business, to be respectful, that it doesn't matter if he did things for God or not .......I was told "Somebody like that doesn't just leave the world and not be upheld." I was told as well "there are A LOT of artists/singers/bands that don't appear to love or worship YOUR God or Jesus. Besides. If they actually do, why would it matter if they wrote songs about Him or contributed any of their work to Him. If they love him and believe in Him, it shouldn't even matter."
Whoa! Someone correct me here. If you believe in God - aren't we supposed to do ALL things to His glory? Hmmm ........and wait, God couldn't care if we did things apart from Him? That's not the God I know, nor the Bible I read ......... but I think that's the problem with today isn't it? "what you believe is good, don't force it on me, there is no absolute truth, yada yada yada ad nauseum". There even appears to be an attitude among Christians that we can separate the world culture from spiritual culture. But I've come to understand that there is no separation. For Christians, we do, think, listen, act, talk, walk, breathe, .........for Jesus. Yes, we are allowed freedom in Christ .....but let's not abuse that! Freedom in Christ does not mean hanging on to the world and its pleasures. I too need reminders of this all the time in my daily life. But with "MJ" as the media is calling him in the news this much right now (have you seen CNN's coverage? OY!) , it's just natural that we as Christians should be re-thinking and re-looking at what we do and listen to for entertainment. For if it's not God glorifying, it's something other-glorifying. And if it's not FOR Christ, it's against Christ. The road we walk is narrow ........so narrow.
I attended a HighSchool graduation banquet tonight ( one of the perks of being married to a teacher!) and we sang a beautiful song that encompasses what I'm feeling right now about being and living as a Christian:
All I Once Held Dear
All I once held dear, built my life upon
All this world reveres, and wars to own
All I once thought gain I have counted loss
Spent and worthlessnow, compared to this:Knowing you, Jesus
Knowing you, there is no greater thing
You're my all, you're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love you, Lord.Now my heart's desire is to know you more
To be found in you and known as yours
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All surpassing gift of righteousness.Oh, to know the power of your risen life
And to know You in Your sufferings
To become like you in your death, my Lord
So with you to live and never die.Here's a video with Robin Marks singing it --- beautiful worship!
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Comments (12)
PPL forget that while the fancy is to please the world We are supposed to show Glory To God.
I always look at it as I did good if I get blasted for speaking the truth from God's word. It bothered me at first when I started Xanga, then it dawned on me, if I am living and speaking God's truth, I have to expect that type of talk back to me, I can think of no better compliment really!
I have a few that follow me around just to try to get under my skin. I tried at first being nice and talking to them, but it didn't work, so now I don't even acknowledge them when they reply to something I said.
This was such a great post. I totally agree. I couldn't have said it better myself.
I had a chat with a dear friend about this the other day. I saw a clip where he was talking and he mentioned something about his loving the children like Jesus did. I changed the channel immediately. I couldn't bare hearing this man, who showed absolutely no signs whatsoever (that I saw) of genuine repentence invoking the Name above all names, and acting as though he had somehow demonstrated Christ.
I genuinely hope that in his final minutes, or sometime before he repented of his sins and trusted in Christ. I genuinely do. As the thief on the cross, or as the the sinner praying "Lord, forgive me" instead of the rich man praying "thank you that I am not like these," but to say that he was the man to whom was given ten talents, and who returned ten more.. I don't see it. I don't know how anyone else could see it either.
The ironic side to this is that each time he was on trial for child molestation, I remember I couldn't find a single person who thought he was innocent. Everyone I talked to "hated" the "pervert" or had similar feelings. Now that he's dead, I notice 6 of the top ten downloaded songs on Itunes are songs of his. What a sinking sand this nation is...
by the way - how are ya? I haven't been around for a while, and missed catching up and reading your responses to my posts. You always did challenge me with your comments. I enjoyed it immensely.
@James3_1 - Suddenly the child molestation is no big deal... only his songs and his "legacy."
@Job_One_21 - what's the smiley code for vomit?
@James3_1 - Hey Doug ......doing well, but haven't been able to spend as much time on xanga as I would like. Maybe tag me when you do a post, it's quite possible that I miss yours because it's a day or two in between "xanga time"!
Thanks for your comment!
@Job_One_21 - thanks for dropping by!
@Made2sing4Jesus - so true. My blog was also linked to my facebook, and I got some interesting comments there too - not sure what to make of some of them.
@UnworthyofHisgrace - you're right ........but it's harder to deal with when you're conversing with Christians.
@nicolevw - Well, if it was on Revelife, don't be so sure they are Christians. There are MANY on there simply to try to make Christians look bad by saying things about Christianity that they hear false teachers teach about and they themselves claim to be Christians. Therefore they make Christians look bad...which is their goal. They are pretty easy to spot, but every once in a while you do get a Christian that has just been taught wrong and doesn't study for themselves just what the Bible says!
I don't see why people freak out so easily! ♥
I so agree with James3_1. It's sad that people have gone so overboard for this man, only a man. I hope that the facebook comments didn't upset you too much. Good post Nicole!
What bothers me more is that some churches put God in the back-burner. They say that man's "good intentions" are "good enough."