A True Liberal, Part 3 

Dobro utro & conicheva!

Didja understand that?  Good.  We're in the same boat.

Correct me, JOYce, if I'm mistaken but that's the Romanian (Rumanian?) greeting for Good Morning.  And a good morning it is!  Best one you've ever had.

Yesterday it was San Francisco Bay French Roast.  Today it's Kona -- the straight stuff.  Before I had a chance to get very far along in writing today's Coffee Break, Tony Cardenas brought me some real Kona.  Hey!  This is good stuff, folks.

For those of you who don't know Tony, he is a corrections officer for the State of Washington, a parole/probation officer -- but that's his avocation, not his vocation.  His vocation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  For some time he pastored Celebration Christian Center here in Sunnyside, and now he is working with the Salvation Army in Grandview.

We get together every Friday morning at 6:00 AM for breakfast, sharing and prayer with a group of pastors and leaders in the body of Christ.  Tony is one of those who gather together, and this morning he returned from some travels with some fresh Kona.  Thanks, Tony!  Mmmmm.... Mmmmm.... Mmmmm.....

OK, people.  Get your cup poured.  If'n ya come by River Worship Center, I'll pour you a cup of Kona.

My bad yesterday.  I called David Severy "Gary."  Dunno how that happened.  I was responding a few minutes earlier to a fellow named Gary, and I guess I had "Gary" on the mind when I was writing.  Anyway, it was Dave who sent me the reference to Isaiah's prophecy on liberals.  Dave has his own blog, too, and he sends me his writings regularly.   This guy is quite the poet, folks!  You can find him at www.lambspoet.blogspot.com.

It's been awhile since I've had such a volume of responses to a short series of Coffee Breaks, but these articles on being "liberal" have provoked a series of comments that run the gamut.  Some people have gotten irritated -- maybe downright angry -- that I would highlight the fact that Jesus (and all true Christian believers) are in fact "liberals" and not "conservatives."  Others treat this as humorous, and some treat it as "tongue-in-cheek."

The issue, folks, is more than a matter of semantics.  We really need to get our thinking straightened out!  And we need to get our terminology correct.  I'm not a liberal, or a socialist, or a "left-winger" by today's hi-jacked and misused terminology.  But neither am I a "conservative" when compared to the way God defines "conservatism."  I am a true liberal.  Maybe that's how we need to redefine ourselves as faith-talking, Bible-believing, Spirit-walking Christians.

Understand?

I'm not a liberal.  I'm a true liberal.  A true liberal is one who gives for a living.  Neither am I a "religious conservative" by today's definitions.  I'm not religious: I'm a Christian -- and a Christian (if indeed he or she has a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ) is anything but religious.  Religion is a substitute -- a counterfeit, if you will -- for the real thing.  Religion substitutes rules and regulations for relationship.  Religion pretends to please God through the keeping of rituals, performance of various sacrifices, and/or the keeping of certain rules, laws or commandments.

Christianity, on the other hand, is a living, breathing, love-relationship with a living, breathing Jesus Christ.  There's nothing religious about it.

There's only one commandment for the Christian: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love (agape) one another; as I have loved (agape) you, that ye also love (agape) one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love (agape) one to another."  (John 13:34-35)

Huge difference, wouldn't you say?

Back to what I said a second ago, a true liberal is one who gives for a living.  I'll quote for you from a piece that Ann Mellon (of the Copley News Service) did back in 2005 before we moved to Washington.

Get by Giving

Perhaps missionary work appeals to you. We can’t all be Mother Teresa, but there’s nothing keeping us from working in that direction. Go to your nearest convalescent home and sing a song for the residents. Ask a neighbor if she needs her lawn mowed. Or a car washed. If you’ve never done such a thing, you might be surprised by what happens.

When you show that much care for a stranger, just imagine the quality of care you could offer your employer. Positions are often created for such compassionate and creative men and women.

And while heartfelt gratitude is always welcome, most of the time that alone won’t pay the bills. How can you turn helping others into a full-time career? The ministry is just one way.

Ask Regner A. Capener what he does for a living and he’ll tell you that he gives. And it’s true. Having spent years building churches in the Arctic, Capener is now a pastor in Mission, Texas, where he continues to share good words and deeds with people every day. His philosophy on giving as an occupation is simple.

“It may seem unorthodox,�?notes Capener, “but the principles incorporated into tithing and giving and sowing all yield prosperity when we do it in obedience to God’s word. We don’t just give. We sow.�?nbsp;   

You can read Ann's entire piece at http://www.jobjournal.com/article_full_text.asp?artid=1585.

Ann's title to this piece highlights the difference between society's contemporary "liberals" (who "get" by taking other people's money to accomplish their ends) and a true liberal (by God's definition) who gives for a living.  A true liberal has love as his or her driving force.

Back to the verses that Dave highlighted for me.

"The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.

"For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

"The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.

"But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand."  (Isaiah 32:5-8)

Don't you think it's about time we changed our usages of words like this to match what God's Word says?  Instead of calling today's socialists and "takers" "liberal," let's call them what God's Word says they are: "churl."  You do understand what I'm saying, don't you?  Our hi-jacked English language has been perverted by those seeking to be seen as something other than what they really are.

Let's stop calling homosexuals and lesbians "gay."  They're not!

Let's stop calling Christianity "a religion."  It's not!

"Conservative" means stingy, self-absorbed, drawn-in, tradition-bound, opposing change -- NOT Christian, NOT giving, NOT freedom-loving, NOT willing to put one's life on the line to stand for a nation with the spiritual, moral and ethical values our founding fathers stood for.

"Liberal" means giving, sacrificing oneself, speaking truth even when it isn't popular, meeting the needs of others from your own source of supply, looking out for the needs of others -- NOT supporting a perverted agenda that destroys lives, like homosexuality, homosexual marriage, abortion, euthanasia and the like; NOT seeking ways to tax the rich, NOT seeking ways to raise more taxes so you can fund a dependency-lifestyle.

How about the latest in the perversion of the English language: "secular progressive"?  What a farce!  Secular means you abandon all mention of and dependence on God.  Progressive means you are forward-thinking, forward-looking, and forward-acting.  Secular Progressive?  Balderdash!  One cannot abandon their hope, their trust, their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have any hope whatever of progressing in any area of life!

Get it?  Our terminologies have been raped, hi-jacked, pillaged and burned to the ground!  What is supposed to represent righteousness now has been changed to represent all that is vile and refuse in God's sight.  What is supposed to represent evil and wickedness is now presented as "mainstream," as the "norm" of society, as forward-thinking, as good and right.

A person is considered to be biased, guilty of "hate crimes" and racially prejudiced if he or she speaks out against sin in any form.  Believe it or not, as I write this Coffee Break, there are two bills pending in two different state houses, and one before the U.S. House of Representatives that would make any preacher who preaches from Romans 1:18-32 or I Corinthians 6:9-10 calling homosexual acts, or lesbian acts, or bestiality a sin to be guilty of a "hate crime," punishable by fines and imprisonment.

Hate crime?  That's about like calling a surgeon a "hate-monger" because he tells you that you have cancer and will die if he doesn't operate to remove the cancer.  I've yet to meet anyone who actually hates a homosexual.  We hate the sin because we know it destroys lives, and we're not interested in seeing people die when they can have life and freedom in Christ Jesus.

Murder by abortion has become a "right," and people who espouse this form of baby-killing are called "liberals."  They're anything but!  Not what God calls "liberal."  They take the lives of the unborn because having those children will "inconvenience" them.  That ain't liberal, folks!  Not by a long shot!

Well, I've sort of gotten off-track, and yet not really.  Let's talk about the body of Christ as "conservative" for a minute.

There really are portions of the body of Christ that one could legitimately call "conservative."  They hang onto dead traditions.  They penny-pinch.  They have a poverty mindset.  They see prosperous believers as being heretical.  They see folks who walk in the Spirit and operate in the Gifts of the Spirit as being "fanatics."  They accuse those who minister in the realm of deliverance as casting out demons by the prince of demons -- not realizing that they are blaspheming the Holy Spirit in so doing.

Now THAT's "conservative."  It sure isn't "liberal!"

I did a scan one day of the Bible from beginning to end just to see how many times the words abundance, blessing, wealth, prosperity, and riches (and their variant forms) occur with reference to all that God has promised, and all that Jesus provided by His redemptive work on the Cross.

Want to take a guess at the number?  Try more than 900!  Does that sound "liberal" to you?

Want to know how many times we are warned against trusting in riches?  How about a dozen times?

It's a funny thing.  The "conservative" Christian (I hate that term!) is quick on the draw and ready to warn you that God doesn't want Christians to prosper or be in health, or live an abundant life full of riches; and he/she is always ready to drag out one or more of the dozen quotes from Scripture warning you against seeking after riches.  Try getting those same "conservatives" to remember any of the 900 times (the number actually exceeds 900) where "abundance" and "prosperity" are the will of God, His heart's desire for His people, or the manifestation of His blessing in their lives.

Of course these "conservative" Christians also don't want to take responsibility for their sicknesses, their diseases, their needs, their poverty, their lack of living life to the full, until it overflows.  They're always ready to blame God (Well, I guess it was the will of God for Sam not to receive his healing.  God just wanted to teach him something through this disease.) or accuse God in some way because they didn't receive what they asked for.  Better yet, they fall back on Satan's old ploy, "Yea, hath God said?" in the errant belief that while God may give it to some folks, He doesn't make it available for all, and is therefore selective.

Brother!  Now THAT's conservative!

I'm going to end today's (and this series) discussion by once again saying that if there ever was/is a true liberal, it's Jesus!  Everything about Him spells liberality.  Everything about Him spells the giving of oneself.  Everything about Jesus is a life of abundance -- in EVERYTHING!!

That said, you'll never hear me again refer to myself as either a "conservative" or a "conservative Christian."  From now on I'm a true liberal .  Understand?  You'll never hear me refer to myself as a "liberal" because of today's abuse and perversion of the term, but you will hear me use the phrase: true liberal!  That's what Jesus is, and my heart's desire is to emulate Him in every area of my life.

That OK with you?

What you have today is what you said yesterday.

Blessings on you!



Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657

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