I stand on the Cross.
It seems that every few days or weeks we hear of some so called “Rights” group suing or threatening to sue over the Cross or Prayer at public meetings or symbols of Christmas like Manger displays. And don’t get me started on the whole Ten Commandments argument, that is something that has meaning not only to Christians but to Jewish people and Muslim’s as well and is at the very foundation of our laws. But these people continue to threaten to sue over the display of them anyway.
In almost every one of these suits or threats, the offended party claims the so called “Separation of Church and State” argument.
I for one am sick of it.
Let’s set this separation of Church and State thing straight once and for all. That phrase is NOT in the Constitution and NEVER was. What the 1st Amendment does say is, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
You can argue that the Cross or Prayer in the name of Jesus or a Manger display does recognize one faith over all the others, but it does NOT, in and of itself, establish a religion. A Cross on a hill or a Prayer at a meeting, or the posting of the Ten Commandments does NOT make a law.
Does the sight of a Cross rise to the level of offence to those who do not believe in Jesus, that they are really harmed? Is that Cross threating them or forcing them to believe what we believe?
The Congress has never and never will pass a law establishing one religion over another or one version of Christianity over any other. It’s NOT going to happen. That kind of thing is the very reason why this country was founded. Our Countries founding Families left the Old World for the New so that, among other things, they could worship God in the way they saw fit. And that is why the framers of the Constitution wrote the 1st Amendment the way they did.
And there is one other thing that is NOT in the Constitution, “The Right of a person to NOT be offended.”
To those who are offended by my belief in Jesus, I say that I am offended by you trying to force your beliefs on me and trying to stifle my “free exercise thereof,” so there! Now we are both offended, what are you going to do about it?
It is High time that we as Christians stand up for our “Rights” to worship the God of the Bible, to call on His Name, to see His Cross and His Manger and NOT be shamed into hiding our Love for the Lord who gave us life and who gave His life for us.
God has blessed this country from the start precisely because we allow our people to worship Him in Truth and in Light. No other country in the history of the world has been blessed in quite the same way as the United States of America. We also allow people to believe or not to believe, we don’t force anyone one way or the other. That is God’s way as well, He doesn’t force us to believe, and He gives us freedom to except Him or reject Him.
Because of that, I believe God has protected us and guided us throughout our history. Even through the darkest part, the American Civil War, He kept the country together, sadly at a terrible cost. The seeds of that war were years in coming and I believe the seeds of another division are growing again.
God will not keep protecting this country if we continue to trash His name and His word.
We see the seeds of division almost every day in our News. The poor against the rich, the Black against the White, the haves against the have-nots, it’s all over the News. And even more to the point, those who are against Christ and against those who follow Him.
I have to ask the question, WHY?
What harm does it do to believe in God, in Christ and the Bible?
What harm is caused by believing in Jesus, who tells us to “love our enemy and do good to them?”
What harm to follow someone who tells us to “pray for those who despitefully use us?”
What possible harm is caused by believing in a God who tells us to “Love our neighbor as ourselves?”
As I see it, there is no harm in any of us following Jesus. The only one, who is truly offended, is Satan. He is the one who would destroy anyone who follows Christ. He is the one who will do anything he can to bring down those who believe in Jesus. He is the one who hates everything God has created.
To those atheists who deny the existence of God, I have this to say, “Why is it of such importance to you, why can’t you just let us believe as we what to believe? We allow you to believe what you want to believe. Who is being more tolerant here?”
Why can’t they just say to themselves, “Oh, those poor deluded Christians and their Bible, it’s just so sad that so many believe in fairly tails,” and leave it at that?
If we all worshiped a rabbit and believed that once a year that rabbit brought colored and candied eggs to all the children of the world, don’t you think the rest of the world would pity us, but leave us to our delusion?
Why is it so important to those who do not follow Jesus, to bring down those of us who do?
To my thinking, the very reason why they all think this way, proves the very existence of the God they claim to not believe in.
To me it is silly to waste your life and your energy on trying to deny those who follow Jesus that right, when it really doesn’t do any harm to you and your right to not follow Him.
To fight so hard to deny those of us who believe in God the practice our faith in public, makes no sense.
The only person who is truly offended by Christ and those who follow Him is Satan. It makes no sense for anyone to take such great offence at the sight of the Cross, for example, unless they are letting Satan control their thoughts. And if Satan is behind all this Christian hatred, then there must be a God because if Satan is real, then so is the God he opposes. It is not logical to have such hatred against something that you don’t believe in and don’t think is real, unless something else is controlling your thoughts.
What is wrong with the Cross?
It is the symbol of a belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God who took the sin of the world on His shoulders and died on it. It is the symbol of a risen Lord who lives and reigns both now and forever.
Again, I have to ask, what is so wrong with seeing a Cross, unless you are being controlled by something very deep and dark.
The Christian faith has brought much good into this world. The Bible is at the root of most of our laws and our freedoms, the very freedoms those who don’t believe in God wish to trample underfoot.
The God that I follow will NOT force Himself on anyone. Those who tried to force Christianity down the throats of the unbelieving world were not truly following Christ’s teaching.
The only way to God is through Jesus Christ, His Son, but you must come willingly. You must believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and except His death on the Cross as payment for your sins.
God wants you to love Him as He loves you. But in order for there to be true love, there must be a choice, and that choice is up to you to make.
I can’t force an atheist to believe in God, all I can do is try to tell them why I believe. All I can do is show someone the things that God has done in my life and the things I have witnessed. All I can do is point them to the Bible and other books written to answer the questions they have. After that, it’s up to them to believe or not to believe.
There is a WAR going on and it’s been going on since the beginning of time between God and Satan. I know that God is going to win that war in the end, but Satan still deludes himself and those who follow him into thinking he has a chance. He hates God and everything that God stands for so much that he will do anything, use any trick, to deprive God of those who would follow him.
As Jesus says of Satan, “He is a liar and the father of lies.”
As I said, I can’t make you or anyone believe in God or follow Jesus, and I don’t hate anyone for not believing. I will and we should as Christians, pray for the unbeliever, but I will not, and we should not sit by silently while those who are offended by Christ, trash our Lord and our Savior.
I call on those who believe and follow Jesus to stand up for Him and the Bible, to pray for those who don’t believe; pray that God would open their hearts to the truth.
I also call on those who believe, to stand for the Bible and Jesus in those City Council meetings and School Board meetings, to support those who stand for Jesus with your vote so they can be our voice in the fight to protect our right to believe and to follow and to worship as we see fit. Yes, and to also protect those who follow some other belief and their right to worship or not as they see fit.
I know that there is only one way to God, but I cannot force someone to believe as I do. There are many different religions in this world and many different belief systems, and they can’t all be right. It is up to you to decide what to believe in.