I am a bit vulnerable today. My 14 yr old dog (that's 69 yrs old in dog years) is not doing well and I fear the worse. I have never had a more loyal, faithful, gentle, obedient dog.
When I get vulnerable like this, my tolerance level goes down - especially with Christians and religious people who just don't get it. And 1 Timothy 2:4-6 is one of those passages that I just want to ring some necks and shake some sense into Christians and religious people. It can't get any clearer or any more black and white!
Two things...
First: God wants ALL men to be saved. And guess what "all" means? It means ... "all". That is every single person you see in the store, on the street, driving a car, walking by your house, working out in the gym, sitting across from you in the committee meeting, sitting two rows down from you at the baseball game ... "all"! It is the unwed pregnant teen. It is the buddy who seems to be possessed by drinking beer and naked women. It is the couple who are living together. It is the man or woman who is living the gay lifestyle. It is the next door neighbor who has friends over and parties loud into the night. It is "all". You cannot name one single person - not one - who God does not want to be saved.
And let's stop making a big deal out of the word "saved". Fruitcake extreme Christians have given this word a bad connotation. It simply means that God wants "all" to know, trust, and follow Jesus Christ and to be "saved" from the muck of sin.
C'mon Christian! We have shut the door on "all" men in the name of being a mature Christian and wanting to "grow deeper". Nothing else shows the immaturity of a Christian and being "un-like" Christ more than when they surround themselves with and build their own little Christian world around them! And nothing confirms in the mind of the non-churched or person who does not have a personal relationship with God that Christians are strict, irrelevant, too good for them, disconnected from life ... more than the Christian who does not hang out and build friendships with "all" men!
It's time we say no to 2-3 Bible study groups each week and the church softball league. It's time to join a gym, volunteer on the school's PTO group, have a backyard bbq and invite everyone on your street. It's time we pray and aggressively seek to fill our churches with people who are missing that personal relationship with God, and other churches and Christians have turned away. It's time we program the single most time when those who do not know God personally are more likely to come to church (Sunday mornings) with them in mind.
I am so thankful for Meadow - a church, although far from perfect, that has the priority of being a place those who have been bored, by-passed, or burned by other churches and Christians - can come and not be turned away and will understand the greatest message and won't feel like an "outsider".
SECOND: It is clear that there is "ONE" mediator between God and us - that is Jesus Christ. It is not Mary, or Saint Barney, or the local pastor or priest. It is Jesus Christ. It can't get any clearer than that! It doesn't matter what you learned or heard in confirmation or parochial school or church last Sunday...if anyone taught you to pray to anyone other than Jesus - they are wrong. If anyone taught you to depend on anyone or anything other than Jesus to get right with God - they are wrong. And that's not my opinion. That's what the Bible says in clear black and white.
Now...I need to hit "save" and do something else before I get in any more trouble.