09 20 07 Lessons Learned?

I had an opportunity to respond to a discussion question concerning the consequences of the Crusades for my on-line Humanities class. Let me share my opinions with you. It became a time of worship for me!

“How blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen to be his special possession…...”
(Psalm 33:12)

Are we still reaping the consequences of the Crusades?

Oh this is a great topic for sure; one that will no doubt step on toes! I do feel we are still reaping the consequences of the Crusades, since every Sunday morning we still have a battle over the First Gospel, the First Baptist, Full Gospel, Half Gospel, the Church of the Left-Handed retired quarterbacks....., whatever! My church is better than your church.....Only one denomination has the name right, and they are nothing but a cult. Are we Christians the supposed to be the church of Jesus Christ and are we not the latter day saints?

Being raised Roman Catholic for the first 20 some years of my life and not allowing the Lord to grab hold of me until I was 33, I come from good (or bad) experience. After accepting Christ as my personal Lord and Savior and yes, being born-again, I realize all the selfish and bigoted things an organized denominational church can put on people. Many lives have been sacrificed for what they believed was biblical, because they were told so, not because they believed it in their hearts!

Catholics murdered Muslims, Muslims murdered Catholics, and now Muslims are murdering anyone who isn't Muslim! When will it stop?! Christ died and rose for liberty from the law and freedom to worship in Spirit and Truth! This is what we need to fight for and what we need to share with people. If we fight, we need to fight for peoples' freedom to worship the living God and a right to hear about Him. We won't even fight for our kids' rights to hear the Gospel in public schools and in the public square, yet Paul was able to debate these things in the middle of the Roman cities and seemed to enjoy it, thank you very much. I sometimes think what it would have been like to be Paul!

How far have we come? Have we learned any lessons? Not really, we're still fighting for all the religious reasons, instead of a right to a relationship with the One who is Peace!