Eritheia

In my quiet time the other day, I came across the passage in Galatians 5:20, which mentions the acts of the flesh. For your reference, here's the NIV version:

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

As I was studying this scripture, I recalled some time ago reading in one translation something phrased much differently than the NIV version. Of course, things get lost in translations, and a lot of it is left up to the interpretation of the translators. The Living Bible used the phrase " the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group."

Having remembered that, I decided to investigate with my handy Bible app called the Blue Letter Bible. (BLB is a tool that utilizes concordances and other sources to help dig a bit deeper into scripture.) The word that I came up with was eritheia.  

Strong's Concordance defines it as this:

1) electioneering or intriguing for office

1a) apparently, in the NT a courting distinction, a desire to put one' s self forward, a partisan and fractious spirit which does not disdain low arts
1b) partisanship, fractiousness

In this hyper-partisan age, I find it dangerous that we're not willing to attack the seed of dissent that has easily been sown in our churches. Some of the most contentious bickering has come from people who claim to be believers.

I, too, have felt the pull of partisan politics in my life. In my chosen career field, I read about it daily. However, we're not called to be tools in a shouting match used by political parties to cast a divide across the country in order to gather votes and/or influence.

In fact, much of Galatians 5:19-20 describes the political climate in America. Discord, hatred, jealousy, factions, distension, selfish ambition — any of that sound familiar?

From personal experience, I'd like to run down the caveats of getting too involved in partisan politics:

• It takes our focus off Jesus and puts it on a political leader. Any time we put our hopes on a person and not on our Father, we commit idolatry. 
• We lose our joy. People and ideas often let us down. We can spend our lives hoping for a utopia that will never come, except from God. Besides, how can you tell people about the goodness of Christ if you're too worried about what the government is doing.
• We lose sight of our mission field. Everyone we come in contact is part of that field, whether they are liberal, conservative, gay, straight or any other group. If a person doesn't know Jesus, we should be focused on introducing them to Christ — not winning an argument. 

It's likely that in any situation, we can win an argument and lose our minds and souls in the process. To me, that's much too high of a price to pay. 

A backslider's story

It's been months since I've updated this blog.

It's not hard to see why most people don't bother. Life gets in the way. You don't have as much time. It's too hard to come up with something interesting.

For me, it's been about one thing: My wavering walk with Christ. You probably won't be shocked to find that most folks have a hard time maintaining a consistently close walk with their Savior. I, on the other hand, have found my walk rife with ups and downs.

A few months ago, I was in probably one of the steepest lows I've experienced since being a Christ follower — so low, in fact, that I contemplated taking my own life on several occasions. The reason I'm here means that God still has some work for me to do, and I'm thankful that He's been with me through this time.

In the middle of that, I no doubt caused many family and friends to have some sleepless nights. I could feel a lot of anger, frustration, insecurity, hopelessness and depression. I would often post on my Facebook wall how sick I was of life and how often I wish I would have the guts to simply "end it all." Friends and family called, but I really didn't want to talk to anyone.

Then the call came.

It was a family emergency so serious that it shook me to the core — something I could scarcely believe.
It would be logical to assume that a blow like that would be the one that did it for me. I would finally give up and take my own life. That didn't happen. At the point when that call came, it stopped being about me.

What changed?

My attitude changed. I had gone from bitter to believer once again. I realized if I was going to help my family get through this, I would have to man up. The only way I knew how is through my walk with Jesus.

Each time, I'm reminded of this scripture:

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. John 15:4

That's about as simple as it gets. If you don't plug your TV into the electrical socket, it's not going to work. Stay away from the Source of life, and you can expect death.

Losing our walk with Christ is a lot like forgetting blog posts.

"I don't have time."

"I have too much on my mind to have to spend time with Him."

"But there's a great show on TV right now!"

"I'll do it later."

When later comes, you don't care anymore.

Our pastor often makes this statement, and I believe — through experience — that it's 100 percent true: If God seems far away, guess who moved. Jesus said he would never leave us or forsake us. If we don't feed our spiritual self, he dies. It reminds me of what Jesus said:

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:4

Our walk with Jesus was never going to be easy, but we can rest assured that He won't drag us along if we're not willing to go.