Cushions or crosses: Take your pick

Pillowtop?  Memoryfoam?  Individually pocketed coils?  What is best?  I went
around shopping for a new bed around 2 months ago.. since my current one was
coming apart in the fabric on the pillowtop portions of the mattress.  I tried
out a number of mattresses in one store.. and wasn't truly satisfied.  Then I
went to another store, and told the salesman what I was looking for.. and he
suggested this one mattress.. which I found out about a month or so after
delivery to be only medium firmness, rather than soft.  Thus, after having the
bed only about a month, even though I found one that would be as soft as my
previous model, I decided to keep what I'd originally bought.. since even
though there *was* a model in the store that had the softness I wanted.. it
was $500 more expensive.. nearly double the price I'd paid for the one I had.
Thus that is the one I'm sleeping on today.  It's alright.. it's not hard to
sleep on.. I just miss the softness of my previous mattress.

Yet I think I can learn from this.  The world is full of people who want a
nice cushion to spend their time on.  It's full of people who do all they can
to enjoy a nice restingplace all the time.. where they can receive much human
acclaim, and hardly have to lift a finger to get it.  This is the world of
the pharisee.  At least.. the pharisee of Jesus' time.  They were the leaders
of the Jewish people.. spelling out how a person was to conduct themselves in
life.. even if it meant putting heavy and hard-to-bear burdens upon the people
who listen to such teaching.  And today isn't a lot different in the world of
the so-called "Christians".  Many people who are paraded about on TV, radio,
or at meetings of fellowship seem to have answers to give to the world.. but
they often seem to be forgetting some of the most important parts of the
message of the Gospel.  Sometimes, in fact, it's more than forgetting, being
outright denial *of* the truths Jesus taught us.. all in the name of making
"being a Christian" more peaceful with the unbelievers around us.  So many
professing "Christians" will preach all about Jesus' dying on the cross, and
yet they will, in huge error, indicate that every single person who is hearing
the message deserves to be nailed up on the cross instead of Jesus.  This
includes the young prospects who might want to embrace faith in Jesus as a way
to live.. a horrendous idea at best.. since it targets the emotions of the
young in a way that few lies can.. teaching that even the youngest of sinners
deserves death for what they've done.  Jesus did not die in our place.. but
rather *for* us.  He purchased, through His death, forgiveness for our sins..
as well as the power to become God's children, rather than simply God's
creations.  These two gifts are not given to any who pray, but rather to those
who acknowledge Jesus as God's Son.. not as His own Father, God.  No one needs
to speak a sinner's prayer to be accepted into the faith.  Take a look at the
Ethiopian eunuch The Holy Spirit had Philip minister unto.. he believed Jesus
was the Son of God.. and was baptized.. already being born again and saved by
his faith and confession *of* that faith.  Philip didn't lead the eunuch in a
"sinner's prayer".. he didn't need to.  This prayer, though it may cover bases
often not explicitly stated in a message preached by an evangelist, is not a
necessary part of coming to faith in Christ.  The only thing that is necessary
is to believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God.  After this happens,
the people who have done so need to be baptized.. leaving behind their
previous lives for a life that is lived for God and Jesus from then on..
surrendering to *both* of them as their Lords.  The person who is baptized
symbolically "dies" in the water, and comes up a new person, who has embraced
the new life in Christ as life from the dead.. a life that is the only life
that can bring a person into eternal bliss.

Plus.. since so many people have assumed that Paul's writings in his letter to
the Romans give rightful standing of the leaders of a society to punish evil,
mankind has been full of professing "Christians" who have killed their
enemies.. punished evildoers with chains and imprisonment.. as well as
transfer of funds from their hand.. and stood tall in their thrones by which
they can eradicate evil from the world by the sword.. a sword that Jesus
promised those who live by it to be guaranteed to die by it.  So many people
have taken on "justice" as a virtue of any society.. apart from the very love
that Jesus poured even on His own murderers *while* they were killing Him.. a
love that prayed unto His Father to forgive them.. not to punish them.  This,
alongside the lost art of thanking God when He counts us worthy to receive
persecution for the name of Christ, instead attempting to eradicate all
persecution of all proposed "faiths" (as if all religions are equal), has left
a dull thud upon the world where the sound of Christ's love from His own cross
should be shouting.  Mankind has attempted to make peace between dire
enemies.. which those who acknowledge Jesus properly and those who refuse to
truly happen to be.  Only those who acknowledge Jesus as God's only begotten
Son can be headed for eternal life.. and only those who live diligently *in*
their faith in Christ *will* inherit such eternal life.. not merely those who
are speaking a lot of words to pacify the masses.. apart from speaking the
pointed truths that lead inexorably to a decision to either diligently endure
in faith unto the end of one's life.. or receive the only other road.. one
that leads to eternal pain of everlasting punishment for refusing to take God
and Jesus at Their Word.

Mankind is full of people who will tell you "I'm okay, you're okay, let's just
enjoy each other, regardless of how immoral the diversity of our differences
might be."  Mankind has so made peace with camps of sinners that they are
flourishing in numbers far beyond the size of Sodom and Gomorrah.  They have
infiltrated our governmental mansions and taught the world that actions which
God condones.. such as the reproof and harsh rebuke of any who might partake
in such sinful lifestyles.. are wrong in their actions, since they were either
born in such a way that they *must* partake in their sinful ways (ways which
they refuse to call sinful, but rather view as merely another form of
diversity.. just as much as the diversity of skin tone).. or have every right
to be "different".. and those who would comment in ways contrary to their
chosen lifestyles hardly have God's righteousness behind them.

This is our world today... making peace between evildoers and righteousness.
This is what the world of democracy has attempted to do.. refuse to call evil
"evil" and good "good".  Only that which can be shown to naturally cause
visible harm is labeled evil.. including the outspokenness of righteous
Christians who eschew unrighteous behaviors as rebukeable sin, rather than
just another valid lifestyle.  The love of the pleasures each "diverse" sinner
is taking in tricks those who refuse to acknowledge God's truth by faith into
believing that such pleasures, which feel perfectly normal and good.. happen
to be just as normal, and thereby just as righteous, as pleasures that God,
Himself, is noted in the Scriptures to condone.  It is only by the
acknowledgement of God's truths *by faith* that people can be righteous.. both
in character *and* in action.  Yet since our nationality is full of people who
refuse to acknowledge God.. even stating that it is wrong for the government
of our society to do so.. (which is so extremely foolish, as only those who
truly acknowledge God rightly have the right perspective to lead anyone).. our
nationality is heading down a slippery slope.. one which only leads its
citizens unto extreme indulgence of sinful pleasures and lifestyles.. and
refuses to lead them unto the only life that is worthy of being lived.. one
that acknowledges God in every breath they take.  Apart from acknowledging
God, both in a nation's leadership, *and* in its laity, a nation cannot be
truly living a valid life.. and is simply biding its time until the very land
it's in vomits them out just like it did the former inhabitants of Israel's
"Promised Land" when God led Joshua to bring them into it.