Take Me There

During the past few days, I have been considering some things that I have been reading and hearing concerning the future of our movement. I am weary of rhetoric... Rhetoric that changes nothing.... Not a single opinion regarding these issues has changed, regardless of how much posturing, pontificating, postulating, or other forms of posting has been done... I am convinced that, where issues of outward holiness are concerened, opinions will be similar to the brotherly relationship of Isaac and Ishmael... They are brothers, but they have differing core values, and entirely different methods of expressing and executing these values/agendas... Debate will be constant... Tempers will flare... This may come as a shock to you, but I might never come around to your way of thinking on a particular issue...as dismaying as this might be.... However, this morning, my heart aches in my chest... Something inside longs to be fulfilled and satisfied...my soul is a sponge...a vacuum...a repository which, to be brutally honest, is unfortunately devoid of the element necessary for its true satisfaction in this particular area... I am not referring to us being able to reach a consensus on the forum, a middle ground where all parties can come together and sing cumbyah, a place of blissful utopia where there is no difference of opinion... Rather, today, thy cry of my heart is, "Take me away..." Take me away to a place of meaningful purpose...not a place of trivial pursuit... I need a place of renewed passion for the real... I need a place where things are settled in me... I need a place where questions are answered... Recently, I have become aware that I can justify just about any change of 'standard' of 'issue' if I think long enough... My mind will break down data to a place where everything is relative if I so desire... Guys, this is the easy way... However what I am craving this morning is another place... Take me away... To a place... A place where... James 1 is revealed and expressed: 19Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. God, take me to a place where relativism is not allowed to dilute pure religion... I will not continue this, if my religion is relegated to simple vanity, repetition, and rehearsal of tradition alone... God, help me to recognize the right of my brethren to apply that, "perfect law of liberty" without my criticism... Most importantly, help me to learn the crux of pure religion--to keep MYSELF unspotted from the world... I live in a world where sin cannot be relegated to a list of black and white rules... That would be great, but impractical... The world is changing at a rapid pace, one in which it is my responsibilty to keep myself unspotted from the world... This requires my following of the Spirit as I navigate through life and its pitfalls, and applying the principles of His word in every situation... Rules can be affected by relativism...principles remain unchanged... Take me there, God... A place where I can really find and exemplify pure religion... I am not there now... Jesus, take me there...