They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John. But do we dare say it was merely human?” For they were afraid of what the people would do, because everyone believed that John was a prophet. So they finally replied, “We don’t know.” (Mark 11:31-33)
Read: Numbers 2:1-3:51, Mark 11:27-12:17, Psalm 47:1-9, Proverbs 10:24-25
Relate: If I were in America I would not be voting for Trump. Since I am not, and do not plan on returning over the next four years, except for maybe an occasional visit, I am not voting, but if I were. The reason I don’t like Trump is because I don’t like his platform. I think his immigration and refugee views are horrendous. I think his leadership style is polarizing and not healthy for a 21’st century head of state. I do not think he has enough respect on a global scale plus his ethnocentrism will do more harm than good with regards to foreign policy. I don’t like Trump’s support for Planned parenthood and his statements against abortion of late strike me as disingenuous. Honestly, I haven’t looked deeply into his economic or educational platforms but for me these are lesser issues. I think the economy is more of a congressional concern and our educational problems are best solved at the state and local level.
Like I said, I wouldn’t be voting for Trump, but these are all seriously legitimate platform concerns. If someone else with different priorities and different views felt there was legitimate reason to vote for him, more power to them. Unfortunately, of late many people who might seem to shamed into not admitting that fact. I hate how the popular social media trend has been to satirize the poor man. Comparisons of him with Hitler, memes of all sorts using unflattering photos to ridicule him, taking soundbytes and turning them into “drunken rants”… seriously, America? Grow up. A politician should win or lose based on the public’s agreement or disagreement with their politics. When success or failure is instead dependent on people’s view of the rants or reactions of others, we all lose.
Since I want to be an equal opportunity offender, I will now swing in a completely different direction and say I am not a fan of the prophet Muhammed. He was a moey grubbing, bandit warlord. He exemplified a backstabbing Machiavellian politician long before the Prince was penned. He had delusions of grandeur and he was a pedophile. Some could say some of these views are nothing more than my personal opinion of the man, but they are all very solidly grounded in historical fact. Unfortunately, very few people would know the basis for these facts simply because very few serious historians are willing to publically take a real look at the man. They are far too afraid of what others might say or do if they did. For the same reason, few sociologists, or professors, or politicians are willing to take a firm stand on Islam as it is interpreted and followed in our modern world. People are far too concerned with other’s opinions to explore and then voice the truth.
React: It is so easy for us to look at what those Pharisees did and voice our criticism, but how often are we doing the same thing? I have given two widespread current examples but how often am I doing the same or similar on a more personal level? How often, when asked a potentially controversial answer have I failed to respond with the full, hard truth for fear of how the questioner might react? When Jesus asked a controversial question to the Pharisees they hedged their bets answering, “We don’t know.” In effect Jesus response was, “If you are unwilling to voice what you believe you will hear nothing from me.” I wonder if God might be saying the same to me today, “If you are unwilling to speak and act on what you know to be true, then do not expect anything from me.” Is my own fear of others inhibiting God’s blessing on my life?
Respond:
Dear God,
Be my only fear. All too often when I take my eyes off of You and on to others, my fears and concerns soon follow. All too often what I know to be truth tends to get drowned out by the useless nothings driveling from my mouth in a vain attempt to please others whose opinions do not truly matter. Give me the wisdom to see, and then the courage to speak and live out the truth no matter what other reactions to it might be. Be my first and only passion and let everything else flow out of my desire to please You.
Amen.
THE RIVER WALK 
Amen. Lord, be my only fear.
Excellent reminder that we are required to stand up and say with our mouths and lives what we believe to be true-regardless of ridicule or condemnation. I am truly dismayed at believers’ refusal to speak boldly about what is going on in American politics right now. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Hi Beejai: Thank you for spelling it out. I totally agree. Not just with Trump and Muhammed but that many are afraid to speak out and worry about what others may think. I’m not one of them. I applaude you.
This is what I’ve been going through on my blog. I’m finally speaking the truth without fear of the consequences. And I am bolder each day for it 🙂
I’m getting there, slowly but surely
For me living in this country and being Christian…..I don’t like the spirit that Trump brings…..his anger…..his aggression against anyone who disagrees with him. This man who many Christian are backing in America does not even come close to modeling the spirit of Christ.
In that regard he is simply the logical end to the direction our political system has been headed for a long time. I don’t really blame him for simply being better at the “game” than those around him. Honestly, there hasn’t been a politician who has truly run a Christian campaign and then lived as a Christian in office since Carter and his presidency shows that one cannot simultaneously be a good Christian and a good politician at that level. The system is broke.
very, very true about jimmy carter..
Beejai,
Anything that I read concerning Islam,I do so with a critical eye. Being an African American, I know how history can be slanted, as I sure that we all are. I wrote a paper on Islam in seminary and tried very hard to find unbiased sources, needless to say my conservative professor took full advantage of his red pen. That being said, I totally agree with the premise of your argument and a copy of the prayer will grace my bathroom mirror
as a daily reminder that only fear of God should control my actions. Amen and amen.
I appreciate your view, but if I may ask, who would you vote for if you did vote?
In most states there are a few independent candidates who gained enough petitions to be on the ballot there, but not nationally. It looks right now that it will come down to Trump and Clinton, and I would probably chose one of those minor candidates over both, easily. In the primaries, Ben Carson.
Your blog is a different realm altogether. It’s beautiful. Here’s hoping you’ll check out my blog too. 🙂
great blog..but here is my problem with the majority of false christians in america today..If you voted for bush jr and cheney not once but twice…who then then started a bogus war of ignorance and immense profits for the U.S. military complex i.e. the iraq war in 2003 – a country that had nothing to do with 9/11…A war that killed more than 400,000 innocent iraqi civilians – women and children always include.you are nothing more than a false christian..If you care about life, then you must care about all life on this planet..not just american lives..And, don’t get me wrong now – the democrats were just as responsible for that bogus war as the republicans..And, I am not even going to mention what is happening in syria and the proxy war between USA and Russia that is literally killing 100s of thousands more from either bombs and/or starvation…women and children always included…Here’s another thing I know about false christians in america..If Jesus were born in America in the last 40 years, he’d have been shot to death in a hail of bullets by a false christian american who would then claim, “stand your ground” as his legal defense because he found Jesus’ message threatening..Americans’ guns and greed are killing God ever so softly and it’s being done on purpose..Mahatma Gandhi (not a christian) was so much more christian than the majority of christians in america during the last 40 years it’s almost comical…
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, you soldiers of the cross,
Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
When was the last time you stood up for Jesus? In the elections,at national level?
In your personal life?
Do not accept lies with fear.
With God all things are possible. Only believe.
Reblogged this on ChristianBlessings and commented:
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, you soldiers of the cross,
Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
When was the last time you stood up for Jesus? In the elections,at national level?
In your personal life?
Do not accept lies with fear.
With God all things are possible. Only believe.
Pingback: My Article Read (3-5-2016) – My Daily Musing
I’m curious, Beejai: have you done any deep reading of the Qu’ran?
I have. I have read an English translation cover to cover twice and do have a review over at Goodreads.
Ouch! Being that there are 2200 reviews of the book on Goodreads, I’m not sure how to find yours.
lol. I would guess you can look me up then scroll through my reviews.
How are you listed? Still as ‘Beejai’?
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1267014390
Well, we have a difference in perspective.
I spent a lot of time, after 9/11, going around to various religious communities and when negative things were said, countered “You know, I was at the mosque/church/temple and this is what I heard them say…” Eventually the Islamic community was invited into our Thanksgiving Interfaith celebration, and their contributions have been gentle and humble, much more in comporting with my sense of the text.
The principle difficulty in dialog with them (as I have discovered in discussion with a Shia scholar at work) is that they deny the resurrection of Christ. I consider why that unfolded here: http://everdeepening.com/2014/12/29/islam-and-christ/
Don’t get me wrong, there are huge numbers of kind decent and loving people within Islam but that is in spite of the Quran not because of it.
There are two things to keep in mind when reading the Quran. 1) English translations are far more moderate than the Arabic (technically only legitimate) origi nal. 2) Muslim scholars have a theory of abrogation to explain away conflicts in the text. That theory basically says the later command negates the earlier. Since most of what we call the moderate texts (There is no compulsion in religion, etc) were written early on when Islam was a persecuted minority, they were later abrogated once Islam had siezed power.
So those in Islam like Mustafa Aksol who argue for focusing on the few moderate texts and ignoring the rest are a very small minority in Quranic scholarship.
My Shi’ia friend at work denounces any readings that justify pre-emptive violence as a perversion of the text – and he provides detailed analysis to back up his claims. Mohammed (pboh) said that he left two things to the Ummah – the Qu’ran, and his family that would interpret it. Many of the violent interpretations were explicitly countered by his heirs. Of course, the Sunni’s tend to reject that part of the lineage, as Sunnis were established in the Persian court that murdered many of the heirs.
This was true in Catholicism in the Dark Ages, where civil authorities made heresy a capital offense, and then went about picking lines out of the Bible that will allow them to dispose of “inconvenient” people. Between the French and Spanish Inquisitions, which exemplified this trend, we have the Catholic Inquisition, when priests were sent around to oversee the trials and prevent this kind of abuse.
So I try to recognize sectarian differences and the influence of political opportunism. In that regard, I find that parallels between Saudi Arabia (with its Wahhabis) and the Spanish Court of Ferdinand (notoriously aggressive and violent) are illuminating.
And there is nothing in the Qu’ran that compares to the edicts in Deuteronomy. Basically, those are a clearly stated prescription for genocide.
To be fair, before I started reading it for myself and studying what Muslims would say to each other rather than what they say to the West, I thought pretty much the same as you.
amen
powerful what you wrote, keep insirng
In the same way it is so easy to be displeased and feel annoyed at small little everyday things and doings of those close to us, but how many times it might be us behaving or reacting in a similar manner. When it comes to ourselves being aware of such a behaviour is so essential. Only then can we hope for our patience to deepen further.
Reblogged this on "Extremist" for Tolerance, Moderation and Respec.
I totally agree with your comments about Trump. If I were a Republican, I’d vote against him in the primaries to keep him out of the general election, but I think that the Republican and Democratic parties need to be a thing of the past. I am independent and proud of it, but I will be voting for anyone that is not Donald Trump come November.
On a deeper level, I also agree with your words about truth and fear. I find myself struggling with similar in this day and age. I am so afraid to live out my faith and my beliefs (which don’t match most conventional ones) for fear of repercussions. I pray for courage to truly be myself each and everyday. Thanks for the great post Beejai!
God used King Cyrus to accomplish what He wanted done, He can use Trump or whoever He chooses. Christians have their minds made up without asking God what He wants done. The kind of person they are looking for does not exist to the extent they are wishing for. Not one person running fits the bill. People start asking God what He wants you to do and vote for. Bible readers, remember Samuel was looking on the outside trying to pick everyone else-not the right one. God told him he was looking outside instead of the heart. What are you all looking at. Are you discerning the heart? My disclaimer-I’m not trying to tell anyone who to vote for. I’m just suggesting you seek God because no matter what you think He knows best. Blessings.
Reblogged this on Truth Troubles: Why people hate the truths' of the real world.
Thank you. Your post has motivated me to research Muhammad and his history.
I like the way you embedded the video in your blog. That was cool. I agree with you on Trump… everything you said I agree with. Keep posting the truth!