Day 3007 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Psalm 119:104 NIV

Much has been done and given in order to help us understand what's at stake. And yet it still seems as though our ability to respond in underwhelming manner continues to shine through despite the efforts to help us realize the severity of this fight.

It simply couldn't be clearer as to what Christ thinks of us. He showed Himself and His stance as He hung in our place. His opinion of sin and what it's done to His people is blatant. The confusion therefore lies solely within our hearts. We know how much He values us and despises the sin that's kept us apart from Him. What do we make of it all? That’s the question, and the answer to that question will in fact determine which path we end up walking.

I don't know how many people read these posts every day. In all honesty, I doubt there are many. I get it, it's often a lot to read. I've tried to shorten these daily ponderings in the past in order to better accommodate the attention spans and rather hectic nature of normal life. But they always come out quite long and so I therefore venture to imagine that, should someone be willing to read them, even then, I can't really imagine a constant keeping up with all these daily thoughts.

You ought to live in my head! Trust me, 2,000 words a day doesn't crack the surface.

Anyway, my point in that minor aside is that there's a rather constant theme amongst many of these posts, and if you've read any number of them then you likely would agree. The overall tone of these discussions tends to be largely aimed at the fire and brimstone approach. It's generally heavier and more cumbersome and quite personally argumentative. It's largely a daily account of the many, many, many, many endless ways in which we could be doing better.

And if you're among those who have read a few of these daily posts, you'll have seen that sin is quite obviously public enemy numero uno. We do talk a lot about sin and our penchant for preferring it. And while I know that's likely at least part of why these posts are as unpopular as they seem to be, to my mind, there's already plenty of folks talking about the positives of our faith. Plenty of posts about the promises and hopes and endless peace toward which we're aiming.

There are plenty of messages covering the reward offered. But if we don't attack the things that lie in our way and seek to undermine our efforts to live by faith and honor God as our Lord, well, we will miss those pretty promises that comprise most of the posts that many repeat.

So why do I tend to keep going there? Why all the talk about sin? Why the constant questions aimed at helping us all delve further into the reality of our condition and the things that we ought to be fighting for, fighting against? Why don't I just pick out the parts that make us happy and give us hope?

Because I know firsthand just how far I am from being the kind of person living the kind of life that honors God. And what's strange is that I don't even consider myself a pessimist. Just willing to admit the reality of where I am, what I've done and how the two have combined to create this massive wall of misdeeds that keep trying to pull me under. And if we're all to be honest, we all have a great many things that are warring against our souls and threatening the very hope that we only have because of a literal miracle.

But if all we focus on is the good, the happy, the promises that await, we may very well end up missing the path that leads us to them. Simply because we weren't willing to pay any attention to the seemingly minor rubble that we think too insignificant to amount to a stumbling block that causes our course to veer violently from the home we want to find someday.

I want to make something as clear as I possibly can: the heaviness of the topics and honesty of these posts is in no way meant to come down on anyone. In fact, it's to lift us higher by helping us realize that we have plenty of room to grow should we find the courage and willingness to attack the things which are hindering the deepening of our faith and the relationship that it's meant to be.

Again, though, I assume that many have wondered why not sprinkle in a few of the happier posts a little more often. Why not mix in a better blending of the calls to action and the applause for accomplishments already made? Why not a little more positivity as seen in society’s expectation of constant validation? Because what's the point in happiness that will be ruined as it ultimately proves to have been built on a foundation of laziness and laxity?

Hey, just calling it how I see it, and again, I see it in my own walk. And to me, it's unacceptable.

I don't like the person I've been. I don't like the life that I've lived. I despise so many of the foolish things that I do. I hate that the world peddles its filth like some sort of harmless hobby when I know personally the danger it poses and the scars that it leaves. And as I read more, study more, try to try a little more to do a little better every day, I'm left realizing only more and more just how wrong I've been all this time. And I refuse to keep risking salvation for a fleeting moment of rest or peace or comfort.

But sadly, that's a trade that many are making, and that many are encouraging others to make. As we've been talking about for a couple of days, sin is being downplayed so much in this society that many see next to no issue in it anymore. Wickedness has gained such ground and stolen so many souls that others are seeing only this worldly sense of gain in letting go of their own morality. In other words, sin is winning and people are agreeing to accept defeat.

And that that kind of thing is at all acceptable when we claim to be a people following a faith that hinges upon a Savior hanging in our place because of the true severity of our sins, it's absolutely mind blowing and heart breaking all at the same time.

I get that nobody wants to carry around this constant weight of guilt and regret always keeping their joy somewhat at a distance. Nobody wants to feel so ashamed that they can't bring themselves to look in the mirror. I get it, I've been there. I stay there. But the thing is that if we never look in that mirror and see who we've become and judge the lives we're living, then how can we grow? How can we improve if we won't admit that we need to?

How can we follow Christ more closely if we refuse to address the sins that remain between us?

I can't tell you how many times in recent years that I've wished I could just let it all go. That I could just lighten up and calm down and ease up on this fight. But it's a good fight for a reason. And that reason is that we can never be good, but we also can't be better if we don't fight for it. And considering our preference to overlook things, to take things lightly, to let it all go, we're very much at risk of letting it all go a little too far.

It may not seem much of an issue to let grass grow as it grows fairly slow. But if given enough time in which you keep letting that grass grow, eventually it will take the house.

Not sure when it happened, but I think one of the big problems in modern religion is that people have bought into this assumption that we're not to hate. We've been fed this idea that we can't be angry. We're made to believe that we can't fight back too viciously as it might cause a little discomfort among those watching. We can't rock the boat but so much because we're supposed to be nothing but love and peace and happiness.

And while that's all good, and all of those things should be aspects of our lives, they cannot be allowed to form the fullness of our understanding of faith. Our Savior Himself flipped tables and chased people out of the temple because they were misusing it. He called people to repentance for the mistakes they were making. He argued with the Pharisees and confronted their false messaging.

He fought back and spoke against the sinfulness of man, so hard in fact that the society of the time couldn't take it, couldn't risk it, didn't like it and had to resort to some rather violent tactics in order to get back to their normal lives of thinking they were good enough.

The problem with the church today is that nobody wants to kill the preachers.

It's all about keeping folks coming back. It's about gaining the followers that help us feel as though we're accomplishing something really big and really popular and really worth our time and effort. It's about pleasing itching ears, and talking about sin and our numerous failures to fight against it just isn't going to win the selfish victories we've been taught we must win in order to be considered acceptable and successful.

Thus, the truth has been traded for a lie all because the truth is entirely confrontational. It's offensive. It hurts us. And we don't like that. Simply because we've sadly agreed to stop fighting for more. We've stopped fighting for better. We've stopped fighting for those around us. We've stopped fighting for Christ. And we've settled for trying to remain likeable instead.

We’ve let the grass grow to the point that our foundations are cracking.

The more I read the Bible, I only realize more and more just how unpopular it is. I realize more and more just how hated everyone in that book truly was. I realize more and more just how hated our Savior still is. And I realize that one of the most obvious things lacking throughout Scripture is the one thing that many seem to be adamant on having today.

Comfort.

The Bible isn't an overly happy book. It's not a story with nothing but happy endings. It's not a message aimed at telling us how good we're doing. But in this modern world of social media followers and pleasing people from the pulpit, that's a lot of what we people think our faith to be. It's become nothing but happiness and peace and prosperity and acceptance and encouragement and a complete lack of problems, issues, challenges and responsibilities to face all of the above with a kind of relentless vengeance that refuses to allow the things of this world to hinder our growth in Christ.

I post so much about these things we can be doing better because that's the point. It's about getting better. It's about growing our faith. It's about getting stronger in our stand against the schemes of the enemy. It's about fighting for the promise we've been given, not simply expecting it to show up. And so, in complete honesty, I hate everything that is risking my eternity, your eternity, our peace, His message, our hope. If it is against Him, against me, against you, against truth, I hate it a little more every single day.

Because I know how He feels about it. And if I'm to do this the way He asked me to do it, then going easy into our final slumber is not good enough. Faith is not a field of flowers in which we rest patiently waiting for the Lord to come. Faith is a battleground upon which we war for the souls we're carrying with every ounce of trust and hope and strength and courage we can possibly glean from the One who fights for us.

The goal should not be to reach the end of our lives with energy left. The goal must be to fight this good fight with all we've got, leaving everything on this field and dying like soldiers going home. Not expecting a reward. Merely hoping to finally have some peace from the battle that raged against us, and that we ourselves raged against in return.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold