Baloney!
What do you think of when I say "That's baloney!" ?
I was writing to my friend Darryl tonight (check him out over there to your right -impart ministries)..... about some things I would refer to as the spiritual variety of that stuff we call baloney ......
I find myself asking....."what ever happened to that little gift we used to call spiritual discernment?"
It is scary to me.....watching God's people drinking from any old fountain at all. Let me digress for a moment, so we can kind of grab what baloney really is.
Bologna sausage (a finely hashed/ground pork sausage containing cubes of lard that originated in the Italian city of Bologna) is generally made from low quality scraps of meat cuts..... we call it baloney. That is also the origin of the slang word baloney, meaning "nonsense"......think useless, non-nutritious, tasteless stuff to fill the void.
So....when I say religious baloney, I am referring to religious nonsense, non-nutritious words from bad cuts of meat......water running through rust filled pipes, no life in the water, just contamination. And no body sees it. They've lost their taste-buds....can't tell the real thing from the counterfeit....just more religious words with no anointing, no power, no life to back up the words. It does not surprise me that the world isn't interested in what we have to say.
I've been involved in the food service business for almost 20 years and I can tell you this about baloney......no mater what you do to try to change it....it's still baloney.....you can slice it, dice it, chop it up or run it thru a food processor but it still taste like baloney. You can fry it, grill it, bake it or boil it.....still tastes like baloney. You can cover it with mayo, ketchup or BBQ sauce, dress it up any way you like to make it look like something else...even throw in some horseradish and you know....nothing covers up the taste of baloney.
It's not really that hard to tell. All we need to do is cultivate some taste-buds....cultivate discernment.
Ellen and I went to a local marriage seminar sponsored by the area churches to help people get their marriages together. I could taste the baloney the minute this guy opened his mouth. I was shaking my head in 10 minutes wondering why on earth this guy was brought in. My wife was poking me moments later (after watching the speaker interact with his wife) and whispering in my ear....."Phil....he doesn't even like her". That's called discernment. But he was the accomplished author with all the credentials, so why wouldn't we bring him in?..... You know, the saddest part was that the leadership that brought him in never saw it. There are no spiritual taste-buds left. ....no discernment left. Six months later, the guy divorced his wife.
I can tell you a hundred different stories like this......it's time for a change....I encourage you to pray with me for a restoration of spiritual discernment in His church. Will you join me in that? He cares....it's His church....
You know, it might just be time to replace some of that baloney with a few good old tenderloin steaks!
:)
I was writing to my friend Darryl tonight (check him out over there to your right -impart ministries)..... about some things I would refer to as the spiritual variety of that stuff we call baloney ......
I find myself asking....."what ever happened to that little gift we used to call spiritual discernment?"
It is scary to me.....watching God's people drinking from any old fountain at all. Let me digress for a moment, so we can kind of grab what baloney really is.
Bologna sausage (a finely hashed/ground pork sausage containing cubes of lard that originated in the Italian city of Bologna) is generally made from low quality scraps of meat cuts..... we call it baloney. That is also the origin of the slang word baloney, meaning "nonsense"......think useless, non-nutritious, tasteless stuff to fill the void.
So....when I say religious baloney, I am referring to religious nonsense, non-nutritious words from bad cuts of meat......water running through rust filled pipes, no life in the water, just contamination. And no body sees it. They've lost their taste-buds....can't tell the real thing from the counterfeit....just more religious words with no anointing, no power, no life to back up the words. It does not surprise me that the world isn't interested in what we have to say.
I've been involved in the food service business for almost 20 years and I can tell you this about baloney......no mater what you do to try to change it....it's still baloney.....you can slice it, dice it, chop it up or run it thru a food processor but it still taste like baloney. You can fry it, grill it, bake it or boil it.....still tastes like baloney. You can cover it with mayo, ketchup or BBQ sauce, dress it up any way you like to make it look like something else...even throw in some horseradish and you know....nothing covers up the taste of baloney.
It's not really that hard to tell. All we need to do is cultivate some taste-buds....cultivate discernment.
Ellen and I went to a local marriage seminar sponsored by the area churches to help people get their marriages together. I could taste the baloney the minute this guy opened his mouth. I was shaking my head in 10 minutes wondering why on earth this guy was brought in. My wife was poking me moments later (after watching the speaker interact with his wife) and whispering in my ear....."Phil....he doesn't even like her". That's called discernment. But he was the accomplished author with all the credentials, so why wouldn't we bring him in?..... You know, the saddest part was that the leadership that brought him in never saw it. There are no spiritual taste-buds left. ....no discernment left. Six months later, the guy divorced his wife.
I can tell you a hundred different stories like this......it's time for a change....I encourage you to pray with me for a restoration of spiritual discernment in His church. Will you join me in that? He cares....it's His church....
You know, it might just be time to replace some of that baloney with a few good old tenderloin steaks!
:)
