Being a Christian Publisher is not easy. It’s gotten a lot more difficult of late in the political climate. Add to that a few evenings of wrestling with God, and my heart and soul is aching. This evening I read the testimony of a man who allowed God to put him in a very uncomfortable position. After coming out of a gay and drug addicted lifestyle, God asked him to walk into an affirming gay church, and tell them that he was praying for them. This was a very long social media post that I’ll post the link too, but not go into the details. This is not about the gay church, this is about the sins of every man and woman, beginning with me. The short version is, the gay Pastor accepted the man’s prayer God no doubt moved in that event in a powerful way. But as I read the love of that man, who didn’t go into the church to call someone out, he went in to call on God through his obedience to doing what God had ask, I felt God wrestling with me again. And I heard the words, “I didn’t call you to call them out, I called you to call them to repentance.”
Tomorrow morning I’ll be running a story that some will want to call “vindictive, sour grapes, retaliation, etc.” Call it what you want. I’m calling it obedience.
My first faith based public argument as Ridgeview News was when an elected official thought I was challenging his Christian faith. I honestly wasn’t, I was challenging his life. His faith was between him and God but I felt his politics weren’t backing up what he said he believed. I said to him, “You call yourself a Christian, but…” and then I don’t remember if I even concluded the sentence, but I remember his reaction. “Don’t you talk about my faith!” I knew I had struck a nerve and I knew it was a God moment in my life. I did not feel worthy of it, because I knew I wasn’t any better than the politician. I just had a bigger mouth and a higher calling. I was the enemy of dead religion.
I just finished the book of Genesis and in that book 32:24-25,27-28 it reads about Jacob:
[24]And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. [25] And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. [27] And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. [28] And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Jacob’s name literally meant deceiver. In years past he had stolen his brother’s birthright, and deceived his blind father, and was returning to face his brother who had threatened to kill him. But God met him on the journey and there beside the brook Jabbok, Jacob and God had a wrestling match. Yes… Jacob lost the match but he received a new name, and a new purpose – he was no longer Jacob the deceiver, God renamed him Israel, the beginning of that Nation and the power behind it.
New beginnings often times come out of a wrestling match.
When I heard the words of God telling me, “I didn’t call you to call them out, I called you to call them to repentance,” I wondered how that could happen in the role of Reporter of secular (worldly) news.
This time, God wasn’t only using me in the story, He was using my family. My daughter has just lost an election and in the process of that loss she stood up to the fiercest fight I have seen in Calhoun County in the political realm and never backed down. Her grandfather would be proud. What began as a new and challenging position that I believed God called her to, changed over night to a position that challenged her physical and mental strength. The day she dared to question a political bully, her life went from reward to their relentless pursuit to get rid of her.
And they did. Or so they thought. A few days after the election she filed an ethics complaint on a local and State official.
I’m sure they’ll deny it. But if God calls us to do it, He’ll bring us through it.
It’s not an act of vindictiveness. Because believe me, if I had followed through on the thoughts in my head after election night, that would have been vindictive. The action coming is to bring to light the continued darkness that plagues Calhoun.
When I was called to serve God in 2010 as “The Jesus Chick,” I knew God had called me to my own Community and it wasn’t going to be easy; just as the Lord had said in Matthew 13:57-58:
“[57] And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. [58] And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
I’ve heard countless people say over the past years that they love our community and they want to see it flourish. God will not bless anyone, any community or any Nation that plays church. Jacob would not let go of God until God blessed him, but it took a repentant heart and a willingness to go back to the old paths and face his brother.
So tomorrow when I release what I am going to. Love me or hate me but you’ll have to take it up with God.
