A Peculiar People

... Recently, I was called a narrow minded Christian by a Catholic. Now, to begin with this is not an anti-Catholic article from some hard shelled Baptist. Then again, I am a rather thick skinned baptist old fossil, aren't I?

1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

... When God calls out the people that are His, He is quite clear that this is not to be a Saturday Night Hay Ride in the country with your best girl. I have used the KJV of this verse because of it's to the point use of the expression “peculiar people.”

... When I was a kid my family life was very dysfunctional and everyone knew my older brother and my mom were were ex-cons. As if that were not enough, my mother wanted me to stand out and bought me cloths to wear that no teen-ager in his right mind would ever put on, flaming red pants? So, you know that I wore those trousers just long enough to get my rear end kicked in the Grave Yard after school, of course that was the very first time she forced me to wear them.

... For this and much more I grew up with my mind buried in Superman, Bat-Man and other hero comic books. My step dad was a WWII and Korean War Vet that only talked at all about it when he would get drunk. I'm not sure if he ever knew it but he took the place of Superman in my life. Unlike the other teens I grew up with, I could not wait to join the Army and go help people.

... When God called me in November of 1965, He scared the daylights out of me. At the age of 22 I was a foul mouthed alcoholic that needed his mouth washed out with the Tide Factory. I would not surrender and repent for better than 22 years more but when I rode my motorcycle my jacket stated very plainly what I knew to be fact, it said in big bold letters, “God is Alive!” With my running from God, out of ignorance, I made it into the unit I wanted to serve in and that was the Killer Spades. It was said of them that they left no one behind. As we would swoop into the middle of a fire fight at three in the morning with both the gunner and myself hanging out the doors, telling the pilot the location of the tree limbs and where to swing the tail I could almost hear the theme song for Superman over the rock and roll music, blaring on the ADF and the scream of the engine and the popping of the blades. There was a kid down there that Med-Evac had refused to pick up because of the fire fight.

... I suppose that being such an odd person, in the first place, made it easy for me to accept the idea that God did not want me to be like everyone else, I never was anyway. If we, the Christian Believers, ever find ourselves compromising the Word of God, for any reason, we, simply put, are not! We are not following God and we need to immediately ascertain the condition of our Salvation. i.e. When Jesus sent the disciples out to witness to folks He told them to kick the dust off their feet, as a testimony, and to move on to them that would here and receive what they had to say. The LORD did not say that they should sit down and find a happy medium that would be acceptable to them.

... Those that will not accept the truth are lost already and it would please Satan to no end for the servants of God to just sit there and argue. When I used to do that, I did nothing more that to waste my time, I could have moved on, with the same result, and possibly found another that was seeking and could be helped. Because this is my position I am often called strange, narrow minded and even, no Earthly good. You see, there is Kingdom work to be done and there is a home that I have never seen that I am homesick for and who knows, maybe the next person I lead to the foot of the Cross will be the last one and Jesus will come bursting through the sky and demand that I come home.

... Please, always read and study the Word of God but never try to make it fit.