A special
WORD FOR THE "hunt 'n pecker" CRITIC A special
WORD FOR THE "hunt 'n pecker" CRITIC
So you ask: What's a hunt 'n pecker critic? Well... that's a pretty complex subject, because you'd swear... when your eardrums have been assaulted by one (either the religious or non-religious judgmental kind)... that you've almost heard from God Himself... with their stain-glassed tones... and voluminous thunderings. Why, you'll know... when you hear 'em. They're sorta like God, but one of their own making much like the publican in Luke 18:11 whom we read: stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank thee that I am not as the others are..."
Paul writes to the Corinthians (the Los Angelenos of his day):
"... henceforth know NO one after the flesh: yea, though we knew Christ after the flesh, contrary now... henceforth we know Him no more.
Therefore if anybody (any ONE) be in Christ... they are a new creation. Ancient things (the first Adam, the old man takes a hike!) Ancient things go away. ALL become new.
And ALL of God, who brought together (reconciled) us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of... condemnation? NO! R E C O N C I L I A T I O N !! (bringing together):
In that manner, God was in Christ,... condemning? NO! God was in Christ reconciling (bringing together... not tearing apart) God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, NOT inventory-ing their slip-slides to them... and God placed to us the word of condemnation? NO! reconciliation (bringing together).
Now then "Seniors" (brethren... you who are spiritual) for Christ as though God called you through us: we request for Christ, YOU (YOU who desire to know everybody's business after the flesh...) YOU be reconciled to God.
For HE made sin for us... Him who knew NO sin; that we become right with God in Him (certainly NOT in any censorious judge of others while complacent condoners of themselves... nor in their grandma!) For HE was made sin for us; that we in gratitude to HIM... become right with God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
It's almost funny to read, if it weren't so true. If you are on somebody's Check List... of deeds and do-do; if somebody - in their delusion - thinks they're going to hand God the Father and Judge of His creation... (the creation that Christ Jesus loved so much that HE died for)... If any professional nit-picker of others thinks they're gonna hand GOD an inventory of all YOUR past, present and future actions... they are damn-fools! - both in the church and out. Scripture calls them: the CURSED of GOD. And they are! So just ignore 'em. Every hunt 'n pecker critic! All of 'em. NO EXCEPTION. They're always a bunch of perverts - in the church world and out!
Last time I read it, Paul was still saying the same thing to each of us. Paul says examine yourself not examine others.
Jesus, the One who was despised and rejected of all mankind, the One who was feverishly watched by the supposed caretakers of the Scriptures of His day…, the One who was spied on, and tested, and mocked and hated… the One they often called, “Good Master” (when you can almost hear in their cynicism, “Hey Einstein”), the One whom they plotted against and finally murdered… all the while the common folk heard Him gladly…
… Jesus, in His final words to His followers… on the night He was betrayed and His life was sacrificed a ransom for the whole world… He said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love you; but because you are not of the world but I have chose you out of the world…. He who hates Me hates My Father, also.”
“These things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts… for an hour is coming when everyone who kills you [remember Jesus said, if we hate in our hearts, we are already murderers…] will think they are offering service to God. And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me….” (John 15-16)
Growing up here in Los Angeles - the great city of the world where friendships and commitments are about as deep and enduring as a good California sun tan, I concluded that old Corinth and L.A. have much in common. Because of that, I've appreciated studying various commentaries on 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Recently, I was given Dr. Ockenga's commentary on 2 Corinthians, The Comfort of God. Here's some of what he wrote (page 257ff):
“Though Paul seemed at times to lose, he won the great battle. History proves that to us, for though the great decline from Pauline-ism is evident in the writings of Irenaeus, it was rediscovered in Augustinianism. It was again lost in the dark ages and recovered in the Reformation. It has been obscured in our day, but there is beginning to be a new revival of Pauline-ism.
“… Paul’s life was abundant in labors and sufferings. He suffered more than the other apostles. When we was called, God said to Ananias, “I will show him how great things he must suffer.” Five times received he thirty-nine stripes. There is no mention of those in Acts, and yet it means that Paul was scourged as Jesus was scourged, not once but five times. Thrice he was beaten with rods. We have the description of the time at Philippi when he was left with a broken, bleeding back, lying in the stocks in a dungeon. We have the record of his stoning at Lystra, when he was left for dead. We have three unrecorded shipwrecks endured by Paul, and one stretch of two and a half days he spent in the water. Many were the perils he enumerated—the weariness, the hunger, the thirst, the cold, the nakedness, the fasting, and the watchings he endured.
“Such is the one who seven times calls himself a fool as he enumerates these deeds. He evaluated this life by saying, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,” and all the world would agree that he was just a plain fool.
“If this life were all, such deeds would be foolishness. They would justify the charge of madness, of being beside himself, of being inexplicable.
“Then Paul was a fool, and there are ways in which we Christians must be plain fools for Christ’s sake in the eyes of the world. One is our way of believing. Another is our way of living, and another is our way of dying.
“Christian truth is utter foolishness to the world. Christians believe in the sovereignty of God…. This Doctrine of Sovereignty is repudiated by the world [including even the church world]. Men either make God identical with the world or an abstraction of force. That one should believe that God has a plan which is being wrought out in the midst of the wrath of men is considered folly….
[As Charles Tindley’s lyrics Beams of Heaven describe: There is a God who rules above, with hand of power and heart of love….]
“The second foolish thing Christians believe, according to the world, is the fact of revelation. The believer accepts the fact that God has spoken, has revealed Himself, His will and His purpose. He believes this revelation is given in the Bible, that the Bible is the Word of God…. Those who accept the Bible’s claims and the Christian teaching about revelation as a means of knowing the things of God, otherwise closed from men, are called fools by the world.
“Another foolish thing which Christians believe, according to the world, is the doctrine of the atonement. The Christian teaching believes in a substitutionary, satisfactory atonement for man’s guilt, made by Christ to God, thereby reconciling God to men. This is declared to be a legal process of imputing man’s guilt to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness to men. “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
[Dr. Scott would often say: God treated His only Son—Jesus Christ the way we deserved to be treated, that He might treat us the way His Son deserved to be treated.]
“The world is willing to talk about the example of Christ, the nurture of the Christian faith, the governmental atonement, the love of God manifested on Calvary, the acceptation of the death of Christ as if it were the death of all, but it rebels at the vicarious satisfaction of Calvary…. This doctrine of the cross, which is our Gospel and our hope, is foolishness to the world, and it is even hated by some.
“In modern terms, people who accept Christianity in place of evolution, revelation instead of the authority of reason, and atonement instead of merit, are fools….
“When John Wesley was dying, his face lighted up, and he proclaimed, “Best of all is that God is with us.” It became the watchword of Methodism. When Livingstone died, he was on his knees in prayer, and so was found by the natives of Africa. When Tyndale died, outside the gate of Brussels by strangulation and burning, he prayed, “Oh, God, open the King of England’s eyes.”
[Cambridge professor C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity, asked the probing question:
“Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of the Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what is will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else—something it never entered your mind to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance.” (Mere Christianity; pg 50-51)]
“Let the world call me a fool. I still will stand on this rock, I will trust this God, and walk in this way. Think of the man God calls a fool. He who says there is no God, he who trusts in riches, he who believes not the Scriptures, is a fool, according to God. Far better is it to play the fool in the eyes of men for a season, as Paul did, than to be pronounced a fool by God forever."
For all the rest of the 21st century sophisticates who still think this stuff is foolish and an incredible waste of their time… well, enjoy your time for now. As a punk kid, I was always gripped by the reality that if I were right in my understanding, then this place, this puny life… is all the closer to eternity lost I will ever be; but I also realized the sobering truth, this is all the closer to eternity gained that some will ever know. If Christ be not raised from the dead, then I readily admit… I AM a fool... for living the way I live... for acting the way I act... and believing what I believe. If Christ be not raised from the dead... then I AM a fool.
But, He did raise. And He will return.
And in the meantime, there will come a time, look around even as you drive home today… look around. You will be able to identify it… the time when knowledge will increase exponentially… there will also come a time and perilous times when those about us will become more lovers of self... rather than lovers of God.
In the 1950s, a poll was given: What percentage of citizens thought they were VIPs… VERY important people, not just important… but VERY important people? The answer then… was 12%.
In 2007, the same question by the same polling group was asked. What percentage of citizens thought they were VERY important people? The answer… which will not surprise many was: 84%
We will be able to identify the times… troubling times that must come. For those branded as fools by this dying world... my suggestion: don't stand in the world's way, don't feel the need to correct their fatal error. Be thankful they've left us to our "folly".
And in turn, we will leave them to hurry up ‘n stand in line for their ticket to buy and sell and get on with life... controlled by the bureaucratic powers and systems that govern and ensnare the denizens of this world, who are ever more boldly beginning to show their iron hand since the end of 2008. Who would have thought?
Hurry now! Just go ahead and get in line because they’re now telling us there’s an economic crisis (really, the merchandising of men's souls... looking at mankind and seeing only $$$ signs)... a crisis of global proportion going on. They also tell us not to fear since they’re the ones who are going to deliver us from it all… even though they can’t deliver us from a single pot-hole in our streets.
So get in line all you VIPs. Don’t delay! Join in one more hearty chorus of the past Century's death-mantra: "Only the fittest survive"... as you elbow your way to the front of the line, otherwise you’re not going to be able to buy or sell... at least without their permission.
And as you’re pushing feverishly to the top of the dung heap… don’t for one moment… worry your sorry-ass or peanut-sized head about me. I don't give a God-damned about the inflated opinions of this arrogant world gone wild. The only opinion I care about is the opinion of Him who died for me. I'm just a fool... for Christ's sake.
Reggie Keith
As I already said... no constructive criticism desired... only encouagement! Thanks.
Hey... I bet you've never considered the following:
GOD truly has a sense of humor. And is HE still in charge of earthly things? YEP! Certainly HE's in charge of the English language.
In PG-13 world of public education and dumb-assed political circles at every level of correct politics, you will often hear teachers call some classroom clown and trouble-maker a: H A S S L E in class.
In the more mature audience of adults, we just let 'em have it and call 'em an A S S H O L E
And how about GOD? Well, check out Exodus... and HIS many conversations with His leader Moses. On occasion, they argued back an forth... more than once GOD says to Moses, "They are YOUR children..." and Moses fires back, "GOD, those children are the ones YOU gave me. They're YOURS!"
What do we learn from this lesson? All the children of creation, especially the pharisaical ones clothed in their ass-holiness... everyone of us sometimes... even GOD's Word calls 'em: A... S O U L!
Don't it almost sound holy!! Methinks knowing human nature and the way mankind listens to God... usually half-crocked and not paying much attention... somebody tried to make a "silk purse out of a sows ear"!! And I'm sure it wasn't GOD!
FYI (or FWIW) -- Booking Up by Linton Weeks Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 18, 1999 wrote:
"Everybody's a critic. If you doubt that, visit the Internet. You'll stumble on opinions galore -- informed and uninformed -- on just about anything you can imagine. And many things you've never imagined. Take books."
"The Internet is the perfect way for someone who enjoys reading to recommend books to a passel of people at one time."
"Reggie Keith teaches at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. On his Web site, he has a suggested reading list of more than two dozen titles and he gives a synopsis of each one. His taste is eclectic. He speaks highly of theologians C.S. Lewis and Reinhold Niebuhr. He also prescribes wooo-OOOooo writer Whitley Strieber. Go figure."
"An outspoken man, Keith even criticizes critics in a passionate essay, challenging movie reviewers to act out scenes and music critics to play the instruments themselves."
"Keith doesn't link his suggestions to online book stores, but lots of critics do...."
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
