Are You Kidding Me?

I started surfing blogs tonight. I kinda wish I hadn't really. I was sifting through a sampling of Christians blogs and I am now sick after reading some of them.

One Christian man was criticizing Christian songs on a blog called Missionary Joe. It was all about how a song written by Hillsong is perverse because it says that "Jesus stole my heart and I am in love with Jesus" or something to that effect. Some people on the post contended that Christians can know God's love but cannot really be in love with Jesus. WHAT?? That is ludicrous right there. Also, to think that songs like this could be taken sexually?? Just weird. I do understand the concept of having music preferences in praise and worship but this wasn't even an argument in that.

Then there were several debates on judging Christians, their motives and their ministries by what they were wearing. If you want to be sick, read the whole thing at Carmon's site. I mean seriously. One lady went as far to say that she feels that she should be able to tell if someone is a Christian by the way they dress. There was a large debate over earrings and tattoos and if rock and rollers or men with long hair could really have a deep relationship with God. I thought all the people that were this narrow minded were all dead by now or at least too old to know how to turn on a computer.

I did read several cool Christian blogs and I don't mean to go on about the ones that made me ill. I think people forget in their religious cocoons that Jesus was snubbed by the religious leaders of his day for hanging out and being too much like the riff-raff of that day.

I mean seriously!! By the way, if anyone who reads this would be someone who gets upset about outward appearances or would leave a church over song choices, you should know I am a female that does not own a dress, my hair is three different colors and my ears are pierced. My husband plays the bass guitar at church, I like having drums in music (the louder the better) and sometimes the youth group ends up in a mosh pit during songs about God. My belly button was pierced at one time, too. I still have a scar from it. If you have stomached that and are still reading, you should also know that I love God fiercely. I am IN LOVE WITH GOD. I know he has stolen my heart. There is no where else I could ever go. God is my love. My first love. My consuming love. I constantly yearn for more of God. And that could never be turned into a perverse thing. It is the farthest thing from sexual.

Many people had the sentiment that because Christians are set apart, we should look different and act different. I don't mean acting different so that Christ is evident in our attitudes and actions, but acting different as in superior (that was the attitude or inference). I wrote a post on Christians that walk two inches above the ground and how upset that makes me. It blows our ability for people to even feel like we are on the same planet, walking with the same issues and feelings. How would anyone ever come confide their shame in someone who acted as if they never had any? And if you have a Savior, you should have been convicted of shame somewhere along the line.

People do not want to fill a mold that is stamped out. (Especially me!) They want to be free. And true freedom comes in Christ. This is from the Message Bible, so it is probably discredited by a lot of people who wrote that garbage, but here is Scripture:

Eph. 1:7-8
"Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the cross, we're a free people - free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free either. Abundantly free!"
Eph. 3:19-20
"Live full lives, full in the fullness of God! God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!"
Eph 4:7
"But that doesn't mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift."

Does this sound like a God who wants everyone to look, act, talk and think the same?

I do not condemn women who feel that they should wear only dresses. I don't laugh at men who wear the outfit of the church everyday. (That would be kakhis, polo shirts and the hair parted on the side. Okay, maybe it is a bit funny.)

I cringe to think that people hold up a standard of outward expression that is supposed to equate to the inward heart. Shame on you! God expects us to have wild dreams. He is creative and expressive. He made us in his image. We are free. He gave us our personalities, our talents, our expressions each different than the next.

I am very upset that people think this way. People need the life-saving gift of God, but they don't need this garbage of changing who they are from the outside. Yuck!