Christ-like hate

If i hear "it is what it is" one more time I'm sure i'm gonna puke, honest. It really hit me last week how much I hate this phrase. I know hate is a strong word, but i hate this phrase and everything about it in very real Christ-like hate. How can this be? Common now Bryan, didn't Jesus say love your enemies? Doesn't the Bible say God is love? Absolutely! But trust me, God hates a lot of things and I was witness to many of them yesterday...
So it is what it is... in Connecticut strip bars are legal under the guise that all parties concerned are "willing" I suppose. But God hates it, and I will make no apologies about that statement. God hates the fact that His creation is being sold or rented for use outside of His beautiful original intent. I hate driving by larger than life signs on the highway telling me what "love" is about. I have a wife and two young daughters, one is two and a half, the other is 14 weeks. Each time I see a billboard about "love" or "dancers" I think of mom's and dad's who drive by these signs who have children caught up in this exploitation. I'm not looking forward to the day when I have to tell my daughters about these signs they see everyday...it's called sin kids and it destroys lives, homes, families, dignities...and it's really ugly and why is it allowed? Because most folks in pews like to sit in pews...
So I followed a sign yesterday after finally being convicted that I live a life of "it is what it is" by simply driving by these signs and complaining and doing nothing....I pulled off the highway on my way home from a meeting. I had tons of things to do but that was a lame excuse to not help break chains of exploitation. So the place was right off the side of the highway and I parked my truck in a central location, dropped the tailgate and sat there in my collar praying for an hour in silence; I prayed for the girls who were being exploited and the men who were exploiting them, for a state government that makes money off this exploitation, for the wives of the men who saw me and stuck their ring fingers inside their pockets, for the kids who went the to Subway next to this place and saw all this action, for my daughters, for the parents of the girls who worked in places like these, for parents whose sons went to places like these, for the kids who's mom's worked in places like these, for the kids who's dads went to places like these...and I began to day dream of a day when the Church would rise up and hate the things that Jesus hates....not the people, He loves them, but the ugliness that we have all become blind to.
Thankfully nobody approached me (I was ready but scared) I sat shivering from the cold, hyperventilating in nervousness, and thankful that God has so transformed my life that I hate the things that He hates....
...so i sat their praying, not yelling, carrying tears on my cheeks, no sign in my hands...and by God's grace perhaps one person saw the love of Jesus saying no....and was changed
So it is what it is,
It ain't what it's gonna be (when Jesus makes all things new)
So what are you gonna do about it?
I can't take any credit for what i did...
...see I met a bunch on 2o something kids last year at a youth conference (Rock the World) who stood against a wall outside the strip district in Kansas City every Thursday night for a year...they took in prostitutes and helped them get their lives back...this kids inspired me
...i also know of a bunch of people in a small church who are planning to minister at a truck stop in the center of the country that is known as the second largest hub of human trafficking in the country. These are people you would never expect to do this, but they are getting ready.
...all these folks understand what it means to hate like Jesus....to love the broken caught up in the horrible ugliness of this broken world, to see the cashmere under the burlap, and what to pour the love of Jesus on those whom have had a truck load of crud poured on them...
So what are you going to do about it? It doesn't have to be big, but it does have to be something...and it has to be in love...
I was changed yesterday...my heart broke a little more, my prayers became a more focused, and my priorities in life shifted..
b