Controversy Rages On!

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    I've had to call on my favorite 1%ers to protect me.

    I'm buying mass candles.

    I'm 72 hours into an absolute fast.

    A call has been placed to my insurance man to increase coverage now that death threats are imminent.

    I've applied for a permit to carry.

    Power of attorney has been granted to...

    I feel like a scrawny shepherd boy being chased in the desert by a brutish king.

    Forget being disremembered for my 60th and 35th if you know what I mean.

    I'll never be able to upgrade my pony.

    Yeah, it will be a bestseller; but I'll be long gone before...

    Help me, Jesus!

    They want those precious...keys!

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    Uh, now would be a good time to look to the right and click on "Controversy Comes to Belvidere Church" to review why I'm in such a desperate state before riding against the wind avec moi.

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    Of course, I'm just having a little fun and exercising a little preventive medicine just in case...

    It has been interesting in a penitentially reflective kinda way.

    Did you see all of those comments at the bottom of the last edition?

    Whoa.

    Not since my favorite local street preacher told me when the world was gonna end and I shared it with...

    Funky.

    Amazing with all that's goin' on out there that who gets keys to the church should cause such...

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    I knew I could/may get into lots of trouble over who gets keys when someone really close to me asked in a rather condescending way if I really think every member of the family should have a key to "open" areas while exercising some common sense about other "limited access" (aka offices/studies) lock-downs.

    Response: "Well, uh, I dunno for sure; but I'm just trying to follow Jesus; and I can't imagine or even re-imagine Jesus keeping keys from family members or even...If someone can give me a good reason other than stuff like control, prestige, power, and..."

    The conversation ended.

    But it reminded me of another conversation with Tony about 25 years ago in Kansas City.

    Actually, it was when I was a really young and famous pulpiteer making enough $ to upgrade my own mule - Psst!  There were folks who would have helped me back then even without me asking and now I can't figure out why they haven't helped celebrate that 60th and 35th and... - and I invited Tony and Phil to speak and sing to our officers and church.

    I'll never forget Tony telling us what his son Bart said as a young boy while they were together in Haiti.

    Tony had counseled Bart, "Now if anybody asks you for money, don't give anything to them or they'll just keep asking for more."

    Bart: "So?"

    Tony said he never had a good answer for Bart on that one.

    Then Tony talked to us about Matthew 25:31-46.

    I kinda feel it's related to our thing about, uh, keys and, uh, other, uh, stuff.

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    Snyder on Tozer: "He measured everything in the Church by this one criterion: Does it exalt Jesus Christ?...To Tozer, it seemed that Christianity was in the hands of those who wanted to be more like the world than like Christ...big business...show business...Madison Avenue advertising..."

    Tozer on authentic faith: "I do not care what Plato said...Let Plato kneel before the authoritative Word of God...[The Word of God]...is not the result of a group of religious people meeting together, having a board meeting and deciding...I do not go to priests, pastors, bishops, or doctors.  I go to God and His Son, Jesus Christ...We have bushels of religious gatherings but only once in a great while is God in the midst...[The true Church]...is a living organism born of the Spirit, washed in the blood of Christ and joined to the Body of Christ by a mysterious operation of the Holy Ghost called regeneration...Could it be that the conflict is not with a harlot, a gambler and the worldly businessman, but with the religionists?...Shall it be a religion or shall it be Christ?  Shall it be churchianity or shall it be Jesus Christ?  Shall it be pride or shall it be humility in Jesus Christ?...Jesus will not walk with the proud and scornful."

    Speaking of keys, read Matthew 16:19.

    I don't pretend to know all of what He meant there; but it seems to me that the really important keys are His...and He doesn't keep 'em from anyone in the family.

    Go back to Bart.

    Go back to Jesus.

    Who gets keys?

    A little common sense...and Christianity will...

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Blessings and Love!