It’s not unusual to find bullies in the classroom and the workplace, but I think we can also find them on the religious landscape. We often hear stories of someone who is a physical light-weight learning karate to keep from being picked on. As new believers I think we’ve all felt the stigma of being a Scriptural light-weight. But when you think about it, we really are no different that the Apostles and early disciples. Going up against the Pharisees, they couldn’t depend on their personal relationship with the Lord to protect them from bullies. It was their knowledge in the Word that made them heavy-weights. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15 NIV)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Bullies are found in every aspect of life wielding their effects by every manner imaginable, because bullying is a very basic personality trait in people, and people are everywhere. Bullying is not first about position and control. Good people who have the benefit of others in their hearts and the truth about life in their minds can be found in positions above others effecting control over many. Ronald Reagan comes to my mind quickly. A lot of good mothers and fathers come to mind, too, who are portrayed by bullies as bullies for disciplining their own children.
-----The basic personality trait of a bully is seeking self interest to the exclusion of any other’s interests. It doesn’t matter what the interest is. It could be comfort, wealth, power, or simply emotional gratification. What completes a bully is having the position to gain that self interest at the expense of others. Generally, that is one or more side kicks, either in the form of individuals or sociological groups and organizations. And if they are bullies who get position in government, their sidekicks can even be laws.
-----Bullies have worked for many decades to turn science into a sidekick. They proudly proclaim, by weight of their created sidekick, that everyone now lives in a post-Christian world. They dig little bones-turned-to-stone out of the dirt and line them up in a way that looks like one came form the other, until, they claim, an ape stopped grunting and started talking, which they insist was your granddaddy. And you had better close your Bible and believe it too, or those who teach your kids, and all your kids’ friends, as well, will call you a fool and teach your kids to do the same. And none of them will have any hearing of your Bible, because as far as they can see, your Bible doesn’t have any little bones-turned-to-stone. Or so they claim.
-----Actually, it does. Polystrate fossils are all it needs. These are fossils, usually petrified tree trunks, which extend through more than one geological strata and are petrified and coalified by the minerals existing in each strata through which they extend. Not only do each strata represent “tens of millions of years” in the minds of the bullies, but there are a lot of Polystrate fossils throughout the world. A philosopher, renowned by the bullies themselves, once wrote that no number of facts can prove a theory, but only one can disprove it. That is why the bullies stay mum about Polystrate fossils. And that illustrates a third characteristic about a bully: even lies are useful strategies to them.
-----Such as they are, the Bible generally has little effect upon bullies. It is a book meant for your knowledge of the truth so you will stand strong in whatever storms beat at your foundation. It is the gentle and loving behavior extending from your foundation towards a bully that is most likely to effect him. And they do need that effect, for there comes a post-post-Christian era that will be quite hairy and unending for all who do not lay down their bullying ways.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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