| | My Favorite Admonitions and my Replies
“Stop whining! Others have it worse! Consider the persecuted Saints, for instance...”
Don't think about your own problems, think about other people's problems.
If only I could get a banker to loan me money, then tell him not to worry about my piddly, trivial $10,000 while he has other multi-million accounts to consider. If I could keep other's attention off what I owed them, I would never have to pay anything back.
Would I be prosecuted if I just stole a few dollars, a candy bar? Why, there are so many, much more bigger criminals around! Why don't they “stop whining” and put their issues in perspective!
“All this whining is so un-spiritual - seek ye first...”
I guess all I need is Bible study and prayer to be warmed and filled in Jesus Name.
That's how your told to handle your problems, but when it is time for you to put out, tithe up, or do something other than pray, you are admonished “don't be so heavenly minded, you are no earthly good!” The church's ox needs to be dragged out of the ditch. My ox needs only prayer.
“Have an attitude of gratitude.”
If I beat you up and rip you off, can I get away with it if I admonish you to have an attitude of gratitude? “Be grateful I only broke your nose and didn't kill you”! Don't tempt me.
“God will bless you with riches in heaven if you suffer patiently”
When you ask me for money or to volunteer, I'll tell you to suffer alone, and God will reward you in heaven. So mount up on wings as an eagle, run and grow not weary, in the Holy Spirit's power. Loan me some money today, and I will pay you in heaven on Tuesday. Put your money where your mouth is.
“Wait on the Lord”
Yes, wait on the Lord for your tithes and your help.
I'm still waiting with Charlie Brown for the Great Pumpkin.
Do you mean wait with a basis for hope, or false hope?
“Give your burden to Jesus so he can make it a blessing to others"
Shall I reward those who have degraded me? One of my dear brother's in Christ once said I have a ministry with outcasts. He doesn't understand. Say I see employees on an assembly line busting parts they put in. So I tell the manager, and the manager says, “Scott, since you know the problem, go fix the what the fools are breaking”. Nay! Scott saith, "I shall beat the fools till they stop breaking what shouldn't need fixing”.
A red-neck I worked with expressed the sentiment well, “If he (manager) shoves us up his (rectum), does he think we'll come out chocolate?”. Clint Eastwood said it best, “Don't (urinate) on my back and call it rain”. Unless, of course, you can find a good Christian excuse to give Jesus the glory for it!
God willing, no evil predator will mistake my what little if any virtue I have as the vice of weakness. Isn't that called “tough love”? Only when applied to sinners, never saints!
“Give you burden to Jesus, he will carry you, though you don't know it.”
Yes, I have read “Footprints”. And gave my problem to the Lord, and this is the result. How do you know this isn't God's will?
“I don't hear others complaining and moaning like you”
Maybe they are too dumb, unaware, guilty or humiliated. Maybe they believe all the excuses and admonitions they're given to feel grateful for their exploitation and neglect, and ashamed for complaining.
“God will make everything work out for the good, wait and see”
Most of all I've waited for God to pour out all the spiritual blessings and gifts that are preached about. I guess its just not God's will, because I can't see a just God making me miserable my whole life to see things come together in the last five minutes of it.
I wish I could borrow a lot of money, then tell the lender don't worry, have faith, it will all work out.
Giving people cause for hope when there is no plan or activity to bring about what is hoped for is another method to degrade their will and initiative, its a way to control them.
“Church is for worship and service, it isn't a social club. Your priorities are messed up.”
That's easy to say. Maybe its true. At the end of the day, if people are not sociable, loving and kind, there will be few snobs to worship and serve. Jesus said God wants to be worshiped in spirit and truth, which I have often not found in churches. When I feel the warmth of God's spirit in a church, rather than projections of shame, guilt, fear mixed in with promises of love, joy and peace I don't experience, I'll be back.
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