Sometimes kids feel pressure to join the neighborhood gang. The kids may be overtly threatened and ordered to join the gang. Once they've joined the conscripts wear the same colors, follow the same rules, and participate in the same criminal and self-destructive activities as the guys who volunteered.
The police, the rival gangs, and the other members of their gang treat the forced members exactly the same as they treat the volunteer members. For all intents and purposes, they are the same.
When you complain about people in the church who don't want to change, who aren't really about Jesus but are just about their little cliques of power, who are hypocrites and who don't seek after true Biblical spirituality----- you're right to complain about those people.
But, when you just go along with the same old thing cause you don't feel like dealing with them; when you silence your own voice because you don't think they really want to hear what you have to say; when you suppress your gifts because they don't appreciate them; when you decide to stop showing up and just let them keep on making all the decisions like they always have------ then you have essentially let THEM force YOU to wear their colors, follow their rules, enable their decisions, and imitate their complacent behaviors.
You've become one of them.
There is no neutrality.
Fight for God's Word. Fight for God's will. Even if you have to fight with God's people.
The police, the rival gangs, and the other members of their gang treat the forced members exactly the same as they treat the volunteer members. For all intents and purposes, they are the same.
When you complain about people in the church who don't want to change, who aren't really about Jesus but are just about their little cliques of power, who are hypocrites and who don't seek after true Biblical spirituality----- you're right to complain about those people.
But, when you just go along with the same old thing cause you don't feel like dealing with them; when you silence your own voice because you don't think they really want to hear what you have to say; when you suppress your gifts because they don't appreciate them; when you decide to stop showing up and just let them keep on making all the decisions like they always have------ then you have essentially let THEM force YOU to wear their colors, follow their rules, enable their decisions, and imitate their complacent behaviors.
You've become one of them.
There is no neutrality.
Fight for God's Word. Fight for God's will. Even if you have to fight with God's people.
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth
Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership
development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about
the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .
If this message helps or touches you, please help
support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116
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