“The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.” (Prov 29:25)
Think of what a snare does. It catches you and limits your movement. It traps you. It takes away your freedom. So how are we snared by the fear of men? Every time we refrain from speaking or acting because we are afraid of what others may think, we restrict ourselves. Worse, we restrict God in us.
My friend Stuart Greaves has said that America’s love language is tolerance. There is almost nothing more offensive than being perceived as intolerant. Certainly tolerance - properly applied - is a virtue. But compromising His word for the sake of other’s feelings isn’t tolerance. It’s fear.
So I choose to be lovingly, patiently intolerant of tolerance, at least as the idol it has become in America. I know that may offend others, but avoiding offense is a false safety that just delays the inevitable conflict. Sooner or later we all have to choose either to confront or compromise, stand up or back down.
It isn’t just our culture. It’s a demonic stronghold designed to intimidate us into letting go of the standard of His word. It may promise peace, but the only real safety is found in trusting the Lord.
I look at so called tolerance being pushed on us by the media like this. You have a drunk in the family and everyone looks the other way. The family covers it up, lies for the person, doesn't confront it, and basically are codependent. Eventually the family becomes as sick as the drunk. If the family would confront and intervene, especially early when the problem is first discovered, the chances of that person being helped and not dragging rest of the family down would be greatly improved. I know this for a fact because this was my family. In the case of the Fort Hood shootings, it appears so far that this is what happened. People around the shooter looked the other way, maybe made excuses for him, but no one confronted the issue due to tolerance.
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