Tightly Bound to the Folly
Today's big political scandal is the undue scrutiny the nation's tax collecting agency exercised upon groups seeking to get the tax collecting agency's imprimatur to be tax-exempt organizations so they wouldn't have to pay taxes they'd otherwise owe being liable to give tribute to their lord, Caesar.
Now, yeah, the first part of that statement probably sounded something like this: "The IRS was unfair targeting conservative groups!" The middle part of that statement was probably met with a consenting shrug. I'd venture to say, however, that the last part of the statement was completely incomprehensible to those quite entranced by their devotion to Cain's minions.
But then they are doing exactly what God said they'd do.
Remain in a state of abject deafness, dumbness, and blindness, at the price of their own healing and salvation. Look it up. Right there in the sixth chapter of Isaiah. Quoted a few times by Jesus and by Paul, maybe others but I know at least them for sure.
All the screeching I hear about the IRS has me scratching my head. Excuse me, but what are you doing in the first place asking it to give any kind of approval to your group and its activities? Do you not do the things you do because you love others? Is not your mission and your goals a bold reflection of commitments to do the things God would want you to do to have things be right and true and righteous from start to finish?
I guess I just wonder. If you're actually doing all that, then what do you need Caesar for? What do you need the one whose job it is to crack heads of evil people when they dick with others? Excuse me, but are you afraid you will be one of those people? And if so, then why aren't you celebrating the IRS' foray into the most extensive investigation of groups that by the very virtue of formally requesting their services are declaring that they are in need of such rigorous examination?
When you apply to be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization (and now more controversially, 501(c)(4)'s), does not the agency by matter of routine require certain disclosures about money, purposes, laws and by-laws, and any other legitimately relevant items that certify an entity for the classification sought?
What's the issue?
"Oh, but the eeevil Obama administration wants to take down the wholesome conservative groups that are fighting for liberty and freedom and those fine things."
Annnd what does this "fight for liberty" stuff actually entail?
I know what it entails. It entails doing all kinds of things within the bounds of temporal government, ultimately mixing it up with the secular arrangement of the Roman Catholic Church whose task it is to summarily exercise condemnation against those who refuse to live by the true freedom in Christ's Kingdom, to valiantly flail about looking for an elusive "liberty" that is only rage and fear and destruction.
I do weep when I see so many so utterly lost in their deafness, dumbness, and blindness. I'm just as much saddened when I see churches so contemptibly impotent when they've signed on to be that very same 501(c)(3) non-profit body -- they don't have the faintest idea, as deaf and as dumb and as blind as anyone else.
Do you know what happens when you enter into that body of death?
You die.
Saw today a report that said the death toll in Syria is higher than previous estimates. It's in the neighborhood of 100,000. That's horrific. I'm a history teacher and we don't even think about the death toll of any previous battling-it-out between humans -- just off the top of my head the millions and millions who lost their lives in World War II. Look up the German and Soviet casualties in World War II and just ruminate on that a bit.
All of it because people have business with Caesar.
Guess what.
You can leave all of that and do business with Christ.
Please know Caesar is doing what he must do. Good stuff, that regulating people's rotten behavior, that checking out the qualifications to be non-profit, that putting on a grand show to keep people livid -- good stuff. Please, I'm not being sarcastic. I'm completely serious. It's what they do and they do it well.
But to be genuinely free and truthful and filled with joy and grace and the deepest authenticity of character and insight and all kinds of the very best from God...
Get out of that crap.
Leave it behind. Be the best "non-profit" of all and owe a debt of love to others and just do that. Do that because you love another and because you know Christ loved you with His life and because it is the most wonderfully exhilarating thing ever. Don't go to Caesar and ask his permission. What the pfxthchk is THAT?
But then, if you must, if you are not Christ's, if you are not Kingdom-bound, if you don't love others with His love, then yeah. Go talk to the IRS about it. They'll take care of your business for you, whether you complain or not. It's all the same. No matter what you'll still be their faithful.
And still deaf dumb and blind to the bountiful reality of the Kingdom.
_
A few years ago I wrote a homepage piece in my webzine about doing business with Rome and insisting on death. Check it out, you'll know what I mean there.
Now, yeah, the first part of that statement probably sounded something like this: "The IRS was unfair targeting conservative groups!" The middle part of that statement was probably met with a consenting shrug. I'd venture to say, however, that the last part of the statement was completely incomprehensible to those quite entranced by their devotion to Cain's minions.
But then they are doing exactly what God said they'd do.
Remain in a state of abject deafness, dumbness, and blindness, at the price of their own healing and salvation. Look it up. Right there in the sixth chapter of Isaiah. Quoted a few times by Jesus and by Paul, maybe others but I know at least them for sure.
All the screeching I hear about the IRS has me scratching my head. Excuse me, but what are you doing in the first place asking it to give any kind of approval to your group and its activities? Do you not do the things you do because you love others? Is not your mission and your goals a bold reflection of commitments to do the things God would want you to do to have things be right and true and righteous from start to finish?
I guess I just wonder. If you're actually doing all that, then what do you need Caesar for? What do you need the one whose job it is to crack heads of evil people when they dick with others? Excuse me, but are you afraid you will be one of those people? And if so, then why aren't you celebrating the IRS' foray into the most extensive investigation of groups that by the very virtue of formally requesting their services are declaring that they are in need of such rigorous examination?
When you apply to be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization (and now more controversially, 501(c)(4)'s), does not the agency by matter of routine require certain disclosures about money, purposes, laws and by-laws, and any other legitimately relevant items that certify an entity for the classification sought?
What's the issue?
"Oh, but the eeevil Obama administration wants to take down the wholesome conservative groups that are fighting for liberty and freedom and those fine things."
Annnd what does this "fight for liberty" stuff actually entail?
I know what it entails. It entails doing all kinds of things within the bounds of temporal government, ultimately mixing it up with the secular arrangement of the Roman Catholic Church whose task it is to summarily exercise condemnation against those who refuse to live by the true freedom in Christ's Kingdom, to valiantly flail about looking for an elusive "liberty" that is only rage and fear and destruction.
I do weep when I see so many so utterly lost in their deafness, dumbness, and blindness. I'm just as much saddened when I see churches so contemptibly impotent when they've signed on to be that very same 501(c)(3) non-profit body -- they don't have the faintest idea, as deaf and as dumb and as blind as anyone else.
Do you know what happens when you enter into that body of death?
You die.
Saw today a report that said the death toll in Syria is higher than previous estimates. It's in the neighborhood of 100,000. That's horrific. I'm a history teacher and we don't even think about the death toll of any previous battling-it-out between humans -- just off the top of my head the millions and millions who lost their lives in World War II. Look up the German and Soviet casualties in World War II and just ruminate on that a bit.
All of it because people have business with Caesar.
Guess what.
You can leave all of that and do business with Christ.
Please know Caesar is doing what he must do. Good stuff, that regulating people's rotten behavior, that checking out the qualifications to be non-profit, that putting on a grand show to keep people livid -- good stuff. Please, I'm not being sarcastic. I'm completely serious. It's what they do and they do it well.
But to be genuinely free and truthful and filled with joy and grace and the deepest authenticity of character and insight and all kinds of the very best from God...
Get out of that crap.
Leave it behind. Be the best "non-profit" of all and owe a debt of love to others and just do that. Do that because you love another and because you know Christ loved you with His life and because it is the most wonderfully exhilarating thing ever. Don't go to Caesar and ask his permission. What the pfxthchk is THAT?
But then, if you must, if you are not Christ's, if you are not Kingdom-bound, if you don't love others with His love, then yeah. Go talk to the IRS about it. They'll take care of your business for you, whether you complain or not. It's all the same. No matter what you'll still be their faithful.
And still deaf dumb and blind to the bountiful reality of the Kingdom.
_
A few years ago I wrote a homepage piece in my webzine about doing business with Rome and insisting on death. Check it out, you'll know what I mean there.
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