Rob Bell vs Westboro

[29 ] I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; [30 ] and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Acts 20:29-30

   Recent events have really ticked me off. Here's the deal. A few days ago certain circles were all abuzz because of Rob Bell's new book. People were up in arms about what he did, didn't, and vaguely said. I can't tell you the specifics of it all because quiet frankly I don't care. Then something was in the news that I do care about very much. Westboro Baptist Church was in the news again. While they are upsetting in and of their selves, they are not who I am most upset at. I am really upset with real Christians. Especially the big hitters of our faith. You know them, especially in the reformed circles,  John Piper, Mark Driscoll, John MacArthur, Sproul, Ravi Zacharias. The men with a public voice, with public outlets. WHERE ARE THESE MEN? Probably reading poetry, writing sex books and slaying sin (so long as the sin doesn't require actual slaying).
Westboro Baptist is not christian, they are not believers. They claim to be our brothers and sisters in Christ yet they are wolves. And not like Joel Osteen kind of a wolf. Joels danger is that he is lulling thousands of Christians away from the true faith with his smiley feel goodism. He is actually the extreme opposite of Westboro. While he is full of lovey dovey huggy doctrine, Westboro is full of rage, anger, hell and damnation doctrine. Neither talk of grace or Jesus' redemptive power of the cross. Both are wolves. But Westboro is the most vile form of a wolf that we have in the flock right now. Not only do they have a congregation filled with members spewing this hatred and evil garbage but they have captured the attention of the nation, maybe even the world. They have believers and unbelievers looking at them in disgust, shaking their heads but so far the courts have not silenced them and they continue.When unbelievers see them they see the name Baptist, and Church attached to their actions. WHERE ARE THE MEN? Every time these people make the news, the real Baptists the real Christians should be on the news too; on the blogs, on facebook, on Twitter, on the Today show talking about how these people are NOT our brothers and sisters. They are not true Christians. We are representives of Christ. When we accept Him as Lord and Saviour, He comes and dwells within us. We are to defend the Gospel, to fight the good fight. WHY are we not fighting? Why are we not up in arms about THIS?? Why aren't true Christians there wherever the Westboro people are, shouting from the top of their lungs, THESE ARE NOT CHRISTIANS!!!! When the Westboro group pickets a funeral, real Christians should be there, not picketing, but serving, trying to shield the family from these people, serving at the wake, bringing food, cleaning up, loving these hurt people. Showing the family true faith, true Christianity.
 Have true Christians become so lazy, so sluggish, so cowardly that we are willing to turn a blind eye at Westboro? Or do we think that the Gospel, that Christ Himself, isn't worth defending.

a rant about straight lines

Have you ever made two lines side by side on a piece of paper? one free hand and one with a ruler. both lines can look the same but when you line the ruler up to the freehand line it will most certainly NOT be straight. it may be going in the same direction and it may LOOK straight but when compared to an immovable perfectly straight ruler it will come up lacking. Will it get you to point B? Probably. Is it perfect? Probably not.
So?
This is the point. when we point to the Bible and say : This is why we home church...." People always say, well 2000 years of church history can't be wrong.

uh yeah. maybe

You see, maybe I just have no patience when it comes to people who disagree with me, maybe it's because I'm a ich with a capital B.... I don't know, but it seems to me like in the whole scheme of things Satan has one goal, One and only one goal and that is to divert glory away from God. If that is his only goal in life then doesn't it seem plausible that he has used the sinful actions of men, over the years, to slowly take glory and focus off of God. not in a huge way like the Holocaust did or when a man murders a person for the "hell of it" but in a subtle sneaky, quiet way. A way that seems right to a man, but in the end leads to deatjh. If we are to believe that wide is the road that leads to hell and we look around and there are a million little churches all across the country and they are all set up the same and they all have approximately the same style and format of worship. doesn't that cause you to go hmmmm. and at least take a pause to reevaluate things????? then in the same verse it says that narrow and hard is the road and few travel on in...and you are sitting in a church within a denomination that is hundreds, if not thousands of members strong.... doesn't that make you pause and go hmmm?????  Why can you not humble yourself and say God, dude, I DON'T have all the answers and I just want to be where you want me to be, no matter what that looks like, even it it means I'm all by myself wearing a purple chicken suit in the middle of wriggly field," and really really REALLY mean it. It;s sooo hard to do what you feel God has called you to do, to be the odd one.To have your friends and family say "what? you aren't going to church anymore? you're going to sit at home? who does that?" to be sneerrd at and defriended on Facebook. I was in the middle of a conversation with a guy two days ago, I was a member of his church a year ago. He asked how I was, good I said, asked about his wife and kid, good he said, then he asked if I went to the church across the street from my house, no I said, we're just friends with the pastor and his son. we actually house church.....screetching tires then, dead silence.... dead....I think I even heard a facebook cricket, I saw a dry tumbleweed blew in from farmville. WOW. harsh dude.

Anyways back to the post.
       I'm not saying that if you go and sit in a church building every Sunday that you're wrong and I'm right. I just think that it's an issue every christian should pray about and then whatever God tells them to do they should do that. Point blank. if you feel God has told you to stay in a church that has a paid professional preacher at a pulpit every Sunday and you leave to house church I believe you would be in sin. if you feel God has called you to come out of that and into a house church and you stay where you are, you are in sin as well. But to say that people who house church are equal to Mormons or J. witness. that's just mean. But it's all good. I mean we're all grown ups right?

So, to kinda, I guess, wrap up the whole post. Satan is tricky right? he uses lost of means to distract God's people from giving God glory. The most enticing of which is power. isn't that what he tempted Eve with? Knowledge is power. the knowledge of good and evil, THAT is some powerful stuff and just like that she was in sin. He used mostly truths, with a smidgen of lies and that is all it took to distort the whole view of perfection. So sad. Are we going to say that in 2000 years of church history that has NEVER happened? That THOSE men, ALL of those men were perfectly straight and never even the least bit off???

See the funny thing about a straight line is, if you get off course by even a fraction of a hair, and you never look back and correct, one day you'll look up and find you are MILES off course. The straight line is HARD,,,, it's difficult and lonely and only one person ever drew it perfectly. And he drew it in sand.