DESPERADO
“Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses? You’ve been out riding fences, for so long now. Oh, you’re a hard one, but I know that you’ve got your reasons. These things that are pleasing you, can hurt somehow.”
For some reason, these verses sung by the legendary Eagles have reached into our hearts for ages as a way of encouraging the traveling loner to halt his isolation. Those who hear the song once, remember it forever, regardless of the age of the listener. The song initially had astrological words prior to “a more western feel” and the new words were added prior to its 1973 release. The song has inspired a television show, a Seinfeld episode, a Linda Ronstadt tribute, the surrender of an armed bank robber, a spot in the Circle B Chuckwagon Show in Branson, and most importantly, it gets me and the members of my family to sing when it comes on the radio. How about you?
The idea of the desperado may seem heroic to some, but does it have a place in the spiritual walk of Christianity? No. Proverbs 27:17 states “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Hebrews 10:24-25 states, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” I believe the Bible, through these 2 verses and hundreds of others, indicate that there is a call to worship Christ within the confines of a body and not as a lone ranger cowboy.
Let me put it another way. If the church (referring to the body of Christ worshipping the Lord together) is not important to one’s walk, why would Christ refer to it as his bride? You dog gone bet church is important and any lasting decision to refrain from worshipping the Lord in a corporate setting…well…show that to me where that is acceptable in the scriptures. It’s not. We must commit our lives to Christ, and we must do it now.
Friends, when it comes to forever, are you taking your time in committing your life to Christ and worshipping the Lord? In other words, are you gambling on the queen of diamonds? For if your life is an individually lonely gamble…she will absolutely beat you if she’s able. Yeah, we might have earned some of the finer things in life, perhaps they have been laid upon your table. But is it really worth 40, 50, 60 hours a week of your life only to aspire to want the things one can’t get?
Sadly, for those who never give their life to Christ, despite what the song says, the prison is NOT walking through this world alone. The prison is walking through hell alone. In hell, the sky won’t snow, the sun won’t shine, and there will eternal separation from the Lord. So my suggestion would be “to come to your senses, come down from fences, and open the gate.” “You’d be let Lord Jesus love you, before it’s too late.”
DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH FAITH TO BE AN ATHEIST?
As most people, I live in the normal world, have a normal family, and live a normal life. And because I act in the normal way, when someone says “God Bless You” or “God Bless America” or the ever popular season greeting “Merry Christmas,” I thank them and go on my way. But every now and then, when I use these colloquilisms in my speech, a person says, quite harshly, “I’m an atheist!”
I am not sure what they mean exactly when they feel that that is an acceptable response to a cordial greeting. It would be sort of like telling a person to have fun in today’s sunny weather and them responding that it rained last week so leave me alone. Regardless of belief, it’s rude. Besides being rude, the more I contemplate the matter, it also is very sad. The Bible is clear in Mark 11:22 when it states; “Have Faith in God.” It is more than a suggestion, it is a command.
So just for the chance happening that somebody reading this friendly little article and happens to prescribe to the belief that there is no God, then I have some questions to the atheist:
1. Are all the anthropologists over the last 200 years who spent years digging up the more than 4000 archeological dig sites proving the Bible to be true…are they all liars?
2. What are odds that 700 years before Jesus died, a prophet would say that the Messiah would die on two pieces of wood when there wasn’t any such form of capitol punishment created at that time? Also, what are the odds of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem coming true? Odds of Jesus being betrayed by exactly 30 pieces of silver? Odds of about 1000 more prophecies all coming true?
3. If evolution says a monkey formed into a man. What are the odds that at the same moment one monkey became one man, that another monkey happened to become a woman and they actually ran into each other?
4. Since we evolved from a single cell microorganism, even though the last time I checked my very own spit has 17 cells, are you prepared to call your spit Great Grandpa?
5. Is gravity also false? I mean, we can’t see it—just evidence of it.
6. If the sun was just a few miles farther or closer to the Earth, no life would exist. Temperatures would either be too hot or too cold, science has proved this. Did this happen by chance?
7. If everything in the world is inorganic and created by accident, how do you explain the conscience? And why are certain conditions such as murder and lying consistently judged by every civilization if society makes up their own conscience?
8. Since you believe that there is no God, this means human beings have no specific purpose. Are you willing to honestly admit that your life meaningless?
9. Since as an atheist you admit to philosophically being meaningless…is your wife also meaningless? How about your mother? Go tell your kids that they are meaningless too if you have that much faith.
10. Sadly tons of children die every day. After they die, tell me where they are. Please don’t be wrong about it either because it would be evil to mislead their grieving parents wouldn’t it?
Look, I know there are some things in the Bible that with only human knowledge may seem tough for our palate at times. Okay. But I could give hundreds, no, thousands of more questions such as these that would absolutely demand answers for atheism to be right. Let’s face it, it take umpteenth amount of times more faith to be an atheist than a Christian. In fact, it would take so much, it really wouldn’t be faith at all—it would be foolishness.
Despite the atheist not believing in God, God still believes in the atheist. There is still time to repent of the false graven image made in the mind, and turn your life over to Jesus. He forgives completely. Please read the above column with love, I really care about life—especially what happens at the end. Hope this made you think. Again, Jesus forgives completely.