Staying free is war (not a battle) Part 1

Aug 21, 2009

Welcome to this blog. Heinz is my name, like the famous tomato sauce. Jesus made me a Christian and it was bloody. Many matters matter and i’d like to be inside a mattering matter when it matters, because the blood that freed me is too worthy to be wasted on purposeless freedom.

Staying free is war (not a battle) PART 1

blog heinz1 - blog heinz 1 august 2009

 

I have figured out why the movie “Braveheart” never had a sequel; It’s easier to GET free than it is to STAY free.

 

 

 Getting free comes with

  1. •moving speeches,

  2. •seeing one’s enemy clearly,

  3. •fighting a well-defined battle,

  4. •belonging to a brotherhood and

  5. •a dandy dollop of dignity.

 

Staying free requires

  1. •understanding while being misunderstood,

  2. •insight while being out of sight,

  3. •clarity in subtle, foggy and philosophical battlefields and

  4. •having courage while being discouraged.

 Standing on a battlefield with brothers against enemies is easy. “Them bad. Us good”. Killing them = freedom. Being killed means they decide the fate of my wife and children. See? Easy!

Standing in the city, 2 years after victory, having to remain free from philosophical erosion, cultural peer-pressure, moral decay and children growing up - sick and tired of your war stories - is not as easy as the movie’s rollout credits suggest.

I am appalled how quickly we become domesticated and homogenized. This blog is dedicated to all those who have more blink in their eyes when they tell of their unsaved and/or newly-saved days than now. Let me dedicate this also to those who have testimonies from decades ago of God’s power, but are left with longings for more, here and now...

                            [I hate the “good old days”, just for the record.]

Here is my point; The fight for freedom never ends.

Over the next couple of blogs, I’d like to explore this reality.

Why do freedom fighters become decadent daydreamers so easily, so quickly?

 We have lost the courage to actually say something.

The terminology of “engaging with culture” has taken on a life of its own. Sound the alarms! It forms part of a new way of thinking, posing as intellectual, but lacking the needed bravery. Of course it is good to engage the culture if you have a genuine evangelistic heart for the lost, but what about the many that can simply sign up for a less embarrassing genetic modification that mutates Christianity into something sick? Why have we become so unwilling to confront culture? Because of the fundamentalist bible bashers? They were unloving, principle-centered and irrelevant; So what? Of course they missed it. Of course they were pharisaical. Of course it is easier to use them as our argument for passivity than it is to dare evangelize. Should we really swing all the way to the dark side of proving how suave and understanding we have become as the church?

Watch this clip on youtube, called “interview with an atheist”...

 

There can be several reasons for the awkward Christian silence. 

1. We might still be trying to come out of all this alive and dignified. (Matt 10:39) 

2. We might be conceptually trapped in all our traditions, institutions, mutual honouring and historical prowess; Unavailable to the demand of truth for our time, because we don’t want to face the frown of our fathers. (John 5:44)  

3. We might have become sterile messengers, due to a lack of intimacy with God or a collapse in private, first-hand experience. (John 3:11,12)  

4. We might base our decisions on consequences, not revealed truth. (Luke 12:22-31)  

5. We are unconvinced, out of touch, uncaring and not weeping like Jesus or the prophets. (Lam 1:16, 2:11,19, Matt 23:37-39)  

6. We might think ourselves too “young” to speak. (Jer 1:7,8)

 

How many more reasons could we give for stopping ourselves from sharing the gospel clearly?

    ...to be continued...