The Jerry Springer Has Sprung Out Generation
One of my daughters likes to watch women fighting on television. Its reality shows about girls her age (in their 20’s) pulling each other’s hair out and duking it out. My generation’s motto was make love not war, except Talbot Village in Indy where they were smoking marijuana ended up getting into hard core drugs and then people were getting knifed. My generation solved its problems with drugs, sex, rock n’ roll and protesting. Which lead to a variety of other problems. The current generation wants to solve their problems with their fists.
Several of my daughters have gotten into fist fights with women. I had one daughter who came home from junior high with two black eyes so I switched her over from public school to a private school. One of my daughter’s friends who was a cheerleader was suspended from school for a fight. It was a racial problem of black girls pushing her around in the hall. I was thinking about this scripture recently while my daughter was watching that television show:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9
When I first became a Christian, I had a dream of a violent black man choking me to death. The Lord spoke to my spirit to get racial prejudice out of my life or it would choke me spiritually. I asked God to forgive the sins of my father and mother in their racial prejudice, and to also forgive me. Walking out getting rid of the white supremacy attitude has included the school system I chose, and the church I chose to attend. We can say we are not prejudice, but it is another thing to really “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk.” Prejudice can work both ways for each race of people. My daughters have had a chance to have many friends from other nationalities besides blacks, including Hispanics and Indians. It’s living in the real world and the world of heaven is not a world of all white people. Although, there was some racial persecution in their schools, it gave them a chance to mix with the real world and to be able to integrate better in a work place.
And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. Revelation 5:9
Facing Darth Vader Rage in People
The Star Wars movies have a way of making Darth Vader so ruthless to the point that his power looks rather cool. There is nothing cool about facing a Darth Vader in life. I’ve had several of them through life, and they are not cool. Like Darth Vader they are ruthless people. Attacks on our physical well being and emotional well being in life are going to come. They can come from family members, people at church or the public. Darth Vader at church? I have a relative that was a young convert at his church and he made a pulpit for the pastor. He heard someone criticize the pulpit he handmade and he never set foot in church again. I’m not condoning not attending church, because of other Christians having foot in the mouth disease..many do. The devil knows what “gets our goat.”
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. Romans 14:13
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. Romans 14:13
The Devil Gets Our Goat? "Race horses are very high-strung animals. Goats are often used as companion animals, to keep a horse calm. Someone wanting to fix a race would slip into the barn the night before the race, steal the goat, and then an upset, distracted horse would run a bad race. Hence, if you are upset and not at your best, it is said that 'someone has gotten your goat.' Further, this cliché has been replaced by the modern slang idiom, “push your buttons," meaning successfully annoying you or even angering you. Not as colorful imagery as the original expression, but much easier to understand for people in a modern technological society.”
My daughters work in retail and they deal with people in the grocery store that have attitude problems. My grandson wakes up in the morning and he is a bear. I told my daughter to stop calling me Momma Bear, start calling me “Mary has little lambs.” This morning my grandson said he did not sleep well and he had an attitude problem. I told him that if he wakes up and is not such a whinny baby, his day will go so much better for him. Why when I talk to my grandson, I am talking to myself?
When I worked for a chancellor at a university, the vice president’s secretary of the university, and I would make jokes that we would hide under a desk if a student started shooting a gun, and we were not taking any bullets for our boss. It’s a society full of rage. I know professors who had their cars egged by students, because of giving a student a bad grade.
When I worked for a chancellor at a university, the vice president’s secretary of the university, and I would make jokes that we would hide under a desk if a student started shooting a gun, and we were not taking any bullets for our boss. It’s a society full of rage. I know professors who had their cars egged by students, because of giving a student a bad grade.
Traffic was backed up on 10th Street due to construction, and I let a car pull in front of me. A person behind me shot in front of me, slammed on their breaks, gave me the middle finger, then drove up a little bit and slammed on their breaks again and gave me the finger. That person was letting me know that they were not happy about me letting that car go in front of me and that they had to wait. I asked God to “bless them.”
When I get a negative email from a Christian or anyone, I ask God to “bless them.” The Bible says to bless and curse not. I’ve even had some people “point out” how others have mistreated me in life. I’ve just told them that I don’t have to worry about being mistreated because God will take care of it. I’m not to take account of mistreatments or wrongs in life. Love keeps no records of ill treatments or wrongs (1 Cor. 13:5). There is a place for letting God take vengeance. I’ll cover that in my next blog.
I’m giving you two stories from my past to show you that God may not call us to face Darth Vader…chop off his hand or even tell Vader about God’s love. God may move us to a different location than face Goliath. It’s called giving us a way to escape. I’m not called to be a doormat Christian. I’ve worked for several difficult managers and directors in life and I find giving kindness when they had a nasty attitude helps because many of those people had marriage problems or family problems when they came in the office that they took it out on others. I also will say “God bless so and so" when they say something to offend me.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
Work example:
I worked for a CFO at a hospital. I got the assignment through an employment agency where the company paid my fee on contract. Within the first two weeks my new boss yelled at me two or three times. It really bothered me. I asked his former assistant how she handled this and she said that “it rolled off her back.” My being a new employee this was overstepping his boundaries. I stood up to him and told him I was not going to be treated like that and put up with his ill behavior. Once I stood up to him it got better, but I told him I could not work with a man who took his problems out on others. I had interviewed with the Human Resource manager to get the job that was a puppy dog and had no idea my boss was like that. They said they would let me out of the contract so I could leave. When I was leaving, all the managers came up to me, and said that they understood why I would not want to work for him. After I left, the hospital went under financially and closed down. When I told one of my former bosses about him yelling at me, he said he completely understood why he was yelling, with all the financial problems that hospital was going through since he was the chief financial officer.
Past Life Example:
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Cor. 10:13
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' Matthew 6:13
When I was a teenager, there was a biker chick (a woman who hangs out with motor cycle guys) who was always trying to beat me up. She reminded me of those tall roller derby women who knocked each other down roller skating. She was at least six feet tall and had bags under her eyes. I’m 5’7”. She did not like my friend who had dated her boyfriend in the past. It was guilt by association. It’s sort of like committing a crime and you are along for the ride and then you have to pay the consequences. I had to pay the consequences for my friend running her big mouth about her boyfriend she was dating.
I called her “Roller Derby Queen.” She would show up periodically at the local neighborhood hangout which was Burger Chef with three other girls threatening to beat me up. I’m not sure why the devil treated me so rotten when I was faithfully serving him. I was a faithful recruiter of evil and getting other teens to take drugs and yet the devil drove me into the arms of Jesus. I guess the devil must be insane.
Fighting the biker chick would have been signing my own death certificate. She always had a group of friends around her and they carried knives. One time I had a friend with me and she told them to leave me alone and they punched her in the face and knocked her glasses off. My friend’s boyfriend came running outside of Burger Chef and told them “if you are going to act like a man you can fight like a man.” They pulled a knife out on him which he quickly got away from them. He was a very muscular guy who lifted weights and even 3 or 4 biker chicks were no match for him. The biker chicks got their motorcycle boyfriends and all came over to my parent’s house banged on the front door, and told my parents they wanted to kill me. At the time, my parents were in their late 50’s; much freaked out and said I was not home. The biker chicks and their boyfriends gave our house a front lawn job with their cars and motorcycles which seemed to suffice for the time.
The next time I saw them, they followed my girlfriend and I home in my car from a teen dance at Westlake Country Club. It was a car chase all the way close to my home which was around ten miles. I knew if I pulled into my parents’ house, they would beat me up when I got out of my car. Where were the police when I needed them? I mean I definitely never sought out the police if I was smoking marijuana. It was late at night and yet I could find no police on the streets I could wave down. No cell phones back then. I turned off my lights and drove 50-60 mph around corners through Gateway Drive housing addition to lose them. I did lose them that evening.
A few months after the car chase, I became a Christian, I went to Northwest High School orientation to take some evening classes to earn more credits to graduate, and I ended up sitting straight across at the cafeteria table from Roller Derby Queen. She was right in front of my face, and she had the same mean look on her face. I prayed about going to evening school there, and had visions of her beating me up in the hall, while I was telling her “Jesus Loves You.” I was relieved that there were no classes I could take at Northwest High School that I needed for credit, I ended up at Broad Ripple High School evening program. Later, I heard this woman had three abortions. I looked at this woman as a Goliath in my life rather than a miserable woman who needed Jesus. Obviously, God did not call me to witness to her, and risk getting beat up in the hall during my evening school classes.
Last Halloween, the Lord led me to “lay low” during that weekend. I don’t question why God tells me to do something I just did not have a “liberty” to go to single parties that weekend. Paul escaped for his life in a basket and so did David from Saul, and yet David defeated Goliath. It’s being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading to when we are in danger and when we are not.
A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. Proverbs 22:3 & 27:12
When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive. Proverbs 28:28
When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, men go into hiding. Proverbs 28:12
Like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I was only joking!" Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. Isaiah 26:20
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