I ran across this article in my email box earlier this evening: “According to Christian broadcaster and author Tom McMahon, Pastor Rick Warren will be hosting an interfaith meeting next month with
30 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders “to discuss cooperation for
the common good of all Americans.” Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. plan mobilizes
churches to address global problems.”
Hmmmm …. as I contemplate this, a snippet of scripture comes to mind and I pull out my trusty Bible to see if I can find it.
Jeremiah 6:14 says, “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” (NIV)
Basically, Warren is ignoring the hemorrhagic wound that is sin. If you look at the tragedies that are poverty, disease, destruction, and death … these are the end result of man’s propensity to sin. I do not have time to write a lengthy dissertation on my observations, and I’d like to include a brief disclaimer here that there are situations in which people are stricken by such as these with little apparent reason. But hear me out as I comment in a “off the top of my head” fashion:
A. Poverty:
2 Thes 3:6-10 warns us against idleness.
Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother
who is idle and does not live according to the teaching[a] you received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8nor
did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we
worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a
burden to any of you. 9We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. 10For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
There are so many who would rather sit on their backsides and wait for the handout, whining about how poor they are, when they are capable of earning their keep. Nurturing envy for things they are too lazy to work for. Becoming consumed with bitterness bred by envy. Is it my imagination, or do other countries dislike America so because for a time we exemplified the hard work ethic that allowed our citizens to succeed? Not so much now that we’ve become a welfare state, apologizing for the “hardships” that so many of our citizens willingly choose to endure due to their lack of initiative. Poverty is the fruit of idleness and idleness is a sin.
B. Disease:
A disease that is mentioned numerous times in the scriptures is leprosy. When I looked leprosy up in my concordance, it said “a severe skin disease, figurative of moral or spiritual disease …” There are many that suffer various illnesses due to their lack of self-control — obesity or diabetes based upon self-indulgence, emphysema or lung cancer because of an addiction to tobacco, STD’s due to similar “if it feels good, do it” attitudes …
C. Destruction:
Greed, hunger for power, hatred for man based on skin color or ancestry … a short list, as I am certain there are many other motivations for the desire to destroy another human being, or an entire nation. And none of these motivations are based in love.
D. Death:
Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death.
Revelations 21:4 (NIV)
4He will wipe every tear
from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or
pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
As Christians, we are commanded to look out for “the widows and orphans” … to give with no expectation of return … but in doing this, we are modeling the love of Christ. We’re not intermingling with followers of false religions and expecting our efforts to result in world peace, as Warren is doing.
As more and more of the “evangelists” parading under the banner of “Christian” compromise on the most critical tenets of our faith, it would be advisable to remember the words of a simple child’s Sunday School tune: “Oh, be careful little ears what you hear …”
A Scribbler & A Shutterbug 
*nods her head at the Jeremiah verse*
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I have the hardest time with Rick Warren anything since the “Performance Driven Life” ooops I mean the purpose driven life! Someone from church sent me a daily devotion from his church the other day… although I believe the biblical message at heart was true…he, like that guy from TX…uhhh Joel Osteen (augh!) Telling people to just do this and all will be fine just isn’t truth. It isn’t something WE DO, its something that we allow God to do in us and what is EASY for some is absolutely excruciating for others. It’s people like them that give Christianity such a bad name. Lost and young in faith alike come in and try it…it doesn’t work for them and they are done with it lumping Christ in with crappy perverted Theology. OTOH others will come in to “control and work” themselves right into hell but claiming feel good theology! NEVER knowing Christ himself! Yikes! I’m on my soap box…I’ll get down now.Test the spirits!now I’m down!blessings! kathy
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Excellent post! I’m with you on this!@MTnesting – Move over on that soapbox. I’m right beside you. I have posted things about Joel Osteen and his Princess Bride, and have been told I should not speak that way about a “man of God.” Any pastor who refuses to tell his congregation that they have “sin” in their lives, is not a man of God.We need a bigger soapbox.
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