Why I'm NOT Thankful

Thanksgiving - an obscure holiday commemorating struggles that early American Puritans, fleeing religious persecution, endured. Or, if you're an oblivious agnostic or atheist... funny people, in clean black-and-white clothing, smiling and eating potluck luncheons with "Native Americans" (don't get me started on hypenated-Americans - another post for another time).

And although I could pontificate and extol the nobler practice of (actually) being thankful the other 364 days of this particular year, I'll forego it in lieu of communicating something else ENTIRELY, and with a slightly warped sense of relief (humor).

As South Carolina's most prolific gruntled veteran, I want 44% of the state (and 51.5% of the national electorate) to know why I am NOT thankful for certain things:

I am NOT thankful for...

1) wrath - defined as: vengeance or punishment as the consequence of anger

Because the last thing we need are individuals behaving badly after general elections - no matter who the electorate inadvertently put back in office - just because the country is on the precipice of a fiscal waterfall.

2) greed - defined as: excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions.

Because the last thing we need is a government taking more from those who built their own businesses - who employ the majority of the local citizenry - to the point where they cannot afford to provide benefits for those they'll (soon) have to let go, to say nothing of having to shut their doors permanently.

3) sloth - defined as: habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness

Because the last thing we need is a country that discourages success and drives its point home by continuously re-gifting a growing majority of those in lesser circumstances with funds they would have had to earn for themselves.

4) pride - defined as: a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

Because the last thing we need is a group of individuals in the government with an unwritten mandate to facilitate class warfare for the sake of the haughty egos in a certain marble-lined town up north - completely out-of-touch.

5) lust - defined as: a passionate or overmastering desire or craving (usually followed by for)

Because the last thing we need are public servants who are more interested in accommodating their own comforts prior to - and often to the exclusion of - that of their electorate (read: constituents)... and then to escalate the threshholds of their comfort at the taxpayers' expense.

6) envy - defined as: a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.

Because the last thing we need to believe - as a people group - is that someone else has something they shouldn't, that they didn't earn (read: build) that - to internalize that to the nth degree, to the point of influencing law (read: legislation) in order to corrupt, steal from and otherwise vandalize our free-market economy, our neighbors, and public places (respectively) - also, see "wrath", above.

7) gluttony - defined as: excessive eating and drinking

Because the last thing we need is to cope with the desperation of our country's economic slip-n-slide by immersing ourselves in alcohol and "comfort food"... effectively pulling out of society and draw up tight within our holes we call "homes", with no deep and abiding fellowship, not even light social interaction with our own partisans.

I'd like to thank dictionary.com for all the definitions - without their support, this topic wouldn't have been made possible... and the smell of the color 9. MMLIA

Committing A Crime of Commission

Are you committed - do any of us do the deep and important things conscientiously (by commission)? I'd like to think I'm that deliberate - but are ANY of us committed consistently?

Consistently committed to one's job, one's spouse, one's children or one's church - regardless of the object of our commitment, I have wondered... hat commits us to do so?

Words, for the most part - and they are mighty weighty things.

Is it any wonder that 21st century America is a VERY litigious society. What you say can get you in trouble! To not know this is like the two 1970's cast-offs coming up from under their rocks in the GEICO commercial, having a major epiphany.

But why? Why do words have weight? Well (that's a deep subject), its because our words define us and divide us... both warm us and warn us... follow us and foil us... and on anon (apologies, Shakespeare).

Take the enlisted man's oath into the United States Army:  

"I, (state your name), do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Those words? Words that express our commitment to something larger than ourselves - a commitment.

Or take the words of Matthew, e.g. the Gospel According to Matthew:

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." (Mat.28.18-20.esv)

Those words? Words that charge us to do something much more involved than we might initially understand - a commission.

Now this got me thinking (no, not the steaming cup of tea before me), the "Great Commission". You and I both know there's no proverbial "half-steppin'" or "knockin' it in neutral" regarding how we are to approach fulfilling the Lord's mandate.

Being consistently committed - either you're all the way in or outta the pool (bent, but floating, Baby Ruth's aside).

What is being emphasized in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 28, Verses 18-20? Hint: it's not what the words appear to be on the surface - throw it in low and plow deep, friend.

Obedience? Yep, no argument from me there. Action? Absolutely, the Gospel demands proof of our obedience. Faith? Jesus has the cred' for sho' (sorry, was that too ghetto?)

All true - but the chief take-away is DISCIPLESHIP - and all throughout Baptist-dom, brain synapses are exploding, arteries are hardening and little old ladies are shaking their canes and walkers at the sky. A crime has been committed (gasps: hide yo' wife, hide yo' kids)!

"But the Great Commission is about evangelizing the lost!" No, your LIFE should be about evangelizing those who do not yet know Him. Jesus isn't calling us to maintain the status quo through this edict - He's calling us to bump it up a few notches.

We, as committed, True Believers (apologies to Stan "the Man" Lee of Marvel Comics fame) need to consistently re-evaluate the Great Commission each-and-every morning. Why? So glad you asked.

If any have EVER had the privilege of leading someone to the Lord, we know it's AWESOME; but, first, the Spirit has to come upon them - and since we do not know when He (the Holy Spirit) chooses to come upon any/all... we're to be ready in-and-out-of-season to share the risen Christ.

"Okay, you've just explained evangelism - isn't that what we're to do to fulfill the Great Commission?" Someone's not listening.

What happens to the typical new True Believer - should someone lead him, through the Spirit's prompting, to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? Well, sadly, what TYPICALLY happens is whoever leads them to Christ, leaves them alone - either by going back home or going back over to their side of the church.

Discipleship is KEY to sustaining a godly witness, a Christian walk... and Jesus knew this.

He (Jesus) did not say, "Go therefore and lead the lost to a saving knowledge of Me, hoping that they'll be baptized and consistently be discipled by the church down the street..." No, but Christ does require us to "make disciples" - it infers a consistent commitment, a radical one in this day and age.

"You mean I gotta be a pastor to someone - isn't that a pastor's job?!" Ah... no sir, it's actually EVERYONE'S job to teach, mentor and disciple - not just the pastor's. And all of us should be doing so in-and-outside-of church, consistently.

Now, some will have a supernatural dose of these things - the Spiritual Gifts of Teaching, Pastor, Exhortation (not extortion), etc. - but ALL True Believers are expected to use whatever Spiritual Gifts they have been given to this end. Let's keep in mind that the character in which these Spiritual Gifts are to be rendered can be found in the Fruits of the Spirit (see Gal.5.22.esv).

Hey, here's a RADICAL idea - if the Lord has pressed it upon our hearts to lead someone to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ... then the Great Commission is (and must be) the next logical step - only when its being fulfilled, when we adhere to Christ's command and commit to making them DISCIPLES by consistently surrendering ourselves to be poured out into the lives of these new True Believers will GOD be honored through our individual lives. MMLIA