Comfort: Curse or Blessing?

Don’t misunderstand me, or Mr. Marinov.  We do indeed believe that God is in control.  However, if we as Christians stand back and do nothing while Christianity and, more importantly and to the point, Christ and God are attacked, what can we hope for? God doesn’t need my defense, but as Christians we either defend Him, or deny Him. If we sit back with our hands out and do nothing like the growing generations of ‘welfare babies’ our nation, and the socialist agenda are raising, can we hope for a better life while we await Christ’s return? (Before you speak up, no, being on welfare is not in and of itself bad.  Being on welfare when you have the ability to earn your own way, is bad.  In the Christian sense, it’s like a Christian who never gets past the initial salvation and never matures, always needing to be fed and led by others.)

Does Jesus instruct Christians to sit back idly and wait on Him to return?  I don’t think so.  Matt 16:24 says

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.“

That implies to me an active existence.  That implies visibly “carrying” the “burden” of Christ as part of our labor.

He tells us in 1Pet 5:8-9

1Pe 5:8-9 NASB  Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  (9)  But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

That says to me that we are to be vigilant, and that we are to resist evil and hold firmly to our faith (a part of which is to share it boldly).  There will be suffering, but I expect that it’s worse to suffer while doing nothing for your faith than to suffer while actively serving.

But let’s not just look at the easy verses that seem to support my position.  There are some that when taken out of context and without study would seem to say that we should simply roll over and let evil doers have their way.  Let’s take this well known passage from Matthew.

Mat 5:38-48 NASB  “You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ (39)  “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. (40)  “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. (41)  “Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. (42)  “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. (43)  “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ (44)  “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45)  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (46)  “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (47)  “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (48)  “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

One commentary from biblegateway.com suggests that “… Jesus utilized hyperbole precisely to challenge his hearers, to force us to consider what we value.”  The commentator goes on to say “… we should be so unselfish and trust God so much that we leave our vindication with him.”  What I take away from this and other commentators, and my own reading is that we are to serve ACTIVELY, and share the Good News.  The retribution, or judgment for evil is ultimately not ours to give.

So, when laws are being written to take away our free speech, when we are being told we can’t talk about God, when things are being done that cause pain and hardship not only to us, but to our brothers, do we just sit by passively and say “God is in control?”  NO!  I agree with Mr. Marinov.

We are to speak the word and truth of God boldly, even at the risk of retribution.  We are to pray.  We are to seek out good, Godly men for offices of the land and work to get them elected.  We are to counter the world’s lies with God’s truth.  If we sit and do nothing, effectively denying God, then I believe we hasten his judgment.  We are lukewarm, and will be spit out of God’s mouth if we do not stand for and with Him.

Rev 3:15-16 NASB  ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. (16)  ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

So, do not allow yourself to be comforted when there is not comfort.  Do not allow yourself to become numb.  Stand up for what is right while you can still stand.

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I Refuse to Be Comforted

by Bojidar Marinov, Feb 03, 2010

Come on.

Now.

I hear you’re feeling down.

I can ease your pain…

(Pink Floyd, “Comfortably Numb”)

I refuse to be comforted. I refuse to listen to sermons that assure me that “whatever happens, God is in control.” I refuse to read and listen to pastors, authors, and leaders that comfort me with God’s peace when everywhere around me I see God’s war.

When they banned prayer in schools, the Christians in this country were assured that in these “last days” that’s what was expected to happen. They were supposed to take comfort in the fact that Jesus was coming soon. He didn’t. And while Christians were learning to be comforted with this open attack against their faith, Roe v. Wade came. Again, words of comfort followed. Meanwhile, tens of millions of unborn children died in this government-sanctioned sacrifice of infants. Only a precious few brave men and women stood against it; the majority were comforted that “whatever happens, God is in control.”

The pulpits never gave a call for action.

Long before that the Federal government took over the control of our money supply. As a result, millions of fathers and mothers in this country saw their lifetime savings disappear in financial meltdowns where the value of their labor was offered in a massive burnt offering to the Mammon of the centralized state. Again, we were all comforted by our pastors and leaders that “God is in control,” and “He will provide for us.” Moral and industrious people worked more, made less, and the wicked kept devouring everything in a Keynesian orgy of debt and consumption. The pulpits again comforted but never gave a call for action.

They started cracking down on Christians by passing laws to silence Christianity: “Hate speech,” “separation of church and state” and all the other mantras. In a nation that was founded to proclaim the blessings of Christ, Christ was now pushed out of public life. Pastors and authors and theologians responded by . . . more comforting words. “See? He must be coming soon! 1968! No, 1988! 1989! 1996! Have comfort!”

No call for action.

Christian children were ridiculed and ostracized in schools and universities. Their faith was mocked by professors who knew nothing about their fields of study but knew everything about Marx’s Communist Manifesto. The churches started losing their young men and women by tens of thousands every year. Colleges and universities that were established to nourish and expand the Christian religion and knowledge were now openly enemies of Christ.

Again, the pulpits were silent. Except for a few comforting words. God surely must be in control.

We don’t even notice anymore when things like that happen. We are so comforted that we don’t even think of raising our voice in protest anymore. We surely value our peace and comfort—that’s what our leaders have taught us.

We have become comfortably numb.

But I refuse to be comforted. I refuse to believe in peace when I see God at war. I refuse to believe that God makes all these things happen only to teach me that He is in control and nothing else. I refuse to believe that these are blessings when I know very well they are curses. And I refuse to accept curses for comfort.

The Bible tells me that God teaches my hands to war. And my hands are itching for a fight. I don’t want to sit idly when the heathens are taking over God’s earth. I want to be out there defending it. I want my pastors and leaders to lead me, not comfort me. I want them to teach me to fight and overcome. There must be instructions for victory in the Bible. I mean, real victory, not abstract dreamy “victory” of being rescued in clouds. When we lose elections and a Communist, homosexual, or a Muslim gets elected, I want my pastor to tell me how we can elect a Biblically-qualified candidate next time. When they pass a law to ban preaching the truths of the Bible, I want my pastor to teach me how we can fight and repeal that law.

When they build an abortion clinic in my town, I want the pastors to lead their congregations in protest and teach them how to shut it down. When the liberal media attack my faith, I want my pastor to teach me how to reply and present Christ in such a way as to make them helplessly gnash their teeth in their inability to present a coherent answer. When my child is assaulted by Marxist professors in college, I want my pastor to equip me and my child with comprehensive Biblical worldview that brings down their vain imaginations.

Moses didn’t comfort the Hebrews in Egypt. He made them uncomfortable. He made them realize what they were missing: Liberty. He gave them a sense of urgency, not comfort: “Eat it with the shoes on your feet and with your staffs in your hands. No time for comfort!” He didn’t comfort them in the wilderness. He made them fight. No words of comfort came out of his mouth; no messages soothing their consciences. God is in control, he said in Deuteronomy 28, but that control isn’t necessarily good for you. It will be a curse on you and your children if you become comfortably numb. You better never become too comforted.

The Angel of the Lord didn’t comfort Gideon when he was threshing wheat. “What are you doing, mighty warrior? Hiding like a rat?” Elijah did not comfort his generation; he asked many uncomfortable questions: “Who are you going to serve, God or Baal?” The prophets did not deliver messages of comfort to Israel; they called Israel to war, to action, to repentance.

This great country, the United States of America, was not founded on sermons of comfort. The Pilgrims and the Puritans didn’t stay back in England and find comfort in the fact that “whatever happens, God is in control.” They took action. The political architect of the American Revolution, John Witherspoon, President of the College of New Jersey and signer of the Declaration of Independence, considered by most people of his time to be the “spiritual father” of the colonies, did not comfort his spiritual children; to the contrary, he worked tirelessly to instill a message of discomfort and urgency in them:

There is not a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.

Had he comforted them, the USA could have never been founded. And we wouldn’t have the freedoms we have today.

I want to have the same spirit as the Founders. And therefore I want my pastor to be like John Witherspoon. Don’t comfort me; teach me to fight and win.

Many pastors I have talked to complain of the growing influence of “para-church” organizations. No wonder. If churches give no message of victory, someone else will. And they will gain influence. People follow leaders, not drug-traffickers. And messages of comfort and peace in times of discomfort and war are nothing more than anesthetic, a narcotic to escape reality; and those who preach comfort and peace when there is no comfort and peace are spiritual drug-traffickers, not spiritual leaders.

Therefore I refuse to be comforted.

I don’t find comfort in the fact that God is in control. It makes me shiver. If we as Christians are silent, passive, compromising, His control will bring down judgment. His control will make pagans rule our land, ban preaching, take our children, destroy our property. Exactly what is happening now! I can’t find comfort in God’s judgment, and a pastor who preaches comfort in the face of God’s judgment is not doing God’s will. I refuse to be comforted. I want to be taught to turn the tide; I don’t want another dose of anesthetic.

I refuse to be comforted.

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