Jesus is a badass.
This may help. There’s a wide cast of characters coming on this stage. Play your instrument, and you’ll be just fine. This is the most important time of your life.
I am a Drum
One of the things that I was most afraid of when I started hanging out with God was that I would have to turn into a “church lady”. I was so afraid of pretty dresses and always smiling, because frankly, that’s just not me. After I had started getting to know God, I simply told him of this fear. The main way God speaks to me is through music, and at the time, I was listening to an acoustic version of a song where all of the band members were not playing their instruments. I heard him say, “You are a drum. You will always be a drum”. I thought about this, and drum seems to fit my personality. I thought it was pretty cool.
I started paying attention to the song. It just didn’t sound right without all the instruments. It was a good song. But it wasn’t great. It was like a Mumford and Sons song, with only 3 members playing. In that one moment, I realized that God was okay with me being a drum. I was born to be a drum. I also realized that if I let the other instruments do their job, the song would be better. I saw how a drum can bang and be loud and obnoxious, or it can work with the other members of the band, and create something awesome. It is always still a drum though.
Once I knew I wasn’t expected to become a flute, I could actually respect the flute. Everyone has something different to bring to the song- and the more the merrier. Have you ever heard The Tran Siberian Orchestra’s song, “Christmas Eve Sarajevo”? They have their sh#t together. They respect the song, and let everyone play their part.
I think God’s song is love, and it is always playing. Sometimes, love is gentle and sweet, like a harp or a string quartet, but sometimes, it is fierce and violent, like the drums or electric guitars. Lately it seems as if the instruments can only fight and tell each other that they don’t belong in the band. I think maybe a false conductor has snuck in and either told everyone that they are the only important instrument or that they are too small to be a part of the band. Either way, the band has some serious problems. How do we solve it? I have no idea, but I have a feeling that if we can just accept the instrument that we were created to be, and possibly even let the other instruments be who they are, that the song that trumps all, will unfold. I guess I will simply try to enjoy the song, and hopefully step up when it’s my turn to play.
Here’s the song. We are scary to many right now, but don’t let that be a stumbling block.
This story is actually about people forcing their will on innocents. And who no one standing up to them.
Round two has us. We’re standing up to those that force their will on the masses.
The “we” is many walking in “Christ in you”.
Peter said, “Gold and silver, have I none, but what I have, I give to you.”
What did he have?
The Holy Spirit.
It is courage. It is bravery. It is discernment. It is wisdom. It is might. It is justice. It is truth. It is love.
It’s given freely, just like the memes and info here.
He has chosen to dwell within those who let him.
That was not here in the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is now. It changes everything.
A body is made up of organs and bones and tissues, and many very different things. A bone doesn’t have much in common with an eye.
I have never in my life seen so many people from crazy different backgrounds come together for a common goal, like what is happening here. It is biblically historic.
The body is coming together.
You seem to serve a very small God.
He can speak through any version you happen to have in your hands. The enemy isn’t near as powerful as you are giving him credit. His main weapon is “God won’t use you, or God won’t talk to you.” He’s a liar though.
Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find. Let God show you how powerful and mighty and brilliantly clever he truly is.
But just know, he’ll probably show up in the “taboo” version. Hopefully you don’t walk away. You matter to him. Let him show you.
Sometimes I call my closest female friends/family “woman”, because I was shown how utterly invaluable and awesome they are- by Jesus. If he said it, it was said in the exact opposite of condescension.
Good one.
I’m not here for Q. I’m here for the anons.
You’re arguing with someone that has real wisdom……
The word was made flesh and dwelt among us….. the word was God…. God is love.
The people in Moses’ time loved judging and condemning each other so much that they demanded a law. That’s where it came from.
God, Science, Big Footed Rabbits, and ADD.
“You will know them by their fruit.”
I fully agree with this. I have transformed though-here and now- not in the future. I have gone from a a fear-filled selfish ass, to not such a fear-filled selfish ass. I’ve seen the hilarity of trying to “clean myself up and follow the law.” It’s totally impossible and breeds nothing but self condemnation and hopelessness, the exact opposite of what Jesus says he wants for us.
He does help in the here and now though too. He is teaching me to love, but I have learned enough to know I have a long way to go. I’m okay with that and so is he.