If you are one of the one hundred and seventy followers of this blog, then this post is intended mostly for you. I humbly ask that you read it – all of it – before you make any decisions about whether or not you will continue to follow The Oyl. For those who do not follow The Oyl, but who happen to find this post anyway, then I would ask that you consider the likelihood that it is not a coincidence you are reading this. So, to both followers and casual readers alike, please, please, read this entire post and give it some serious, sober consideration before you decide what to make of it. It’s important, to me, you and the whole of mankind.
For the majority of my life, I thought of and called myself a Christian – but I wasn’t. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I fell under the condemnation of Matthew 7:21-23, where Christ says that many will call Him Lord, and claim to follow Him, but He will send them away saying “I never knew you.” You see, back then, I was one of those ‘Christians’ who give Christianity a bad name. I called myself a Christian, but I lived according to how the secular world told me to live. In a word, if it felt good, I did it, believing that as long as I wasn’t hurting anyone and did a little good now and then, I was a good person and Christ would save me. I was a fool on his way to damnation.
Then, a couple years ago, I was asked to lead my Sunday school class. Now, I knew enough Scripture to know that Scripture says the teachers will be judged more harshly, so I figured I had better take the job seriously. This caused me to not only read more Scripture, but to ask God to help me understand it from His perspective, the way He wants us to understand His word. In turn, that caused me to start to study Scripture for the first time in my life, and that is when I discovered I was not a true Christian. In religious terms, I had never ‘converted,’ but in practical terms, I was pretending. I talked the talk, but I was doing anything but walking the walk. That’s changed – in a big way.
This page, and my other blog, The Road to Concord, were started when I was still looking for a way to use Scripture to justify my political views. However, as I spent more time studying God’s word, I found I not only spent less time writing about politics, I spent less time worrying about them. That’s because I ran into a group of people who – though they were political – understood that you cannot achieve those things that are important in this life without looking to the things that matter most in the next. In short, I ran into our founding fathers – the real founders of this nation.
When you read their personal letters and not what the history books or the pundits or anyone else says they thought and believed, you will find the founders of this nation pointed to God every step of the way. They looked to God for guidance and help; they relied on Him; they trusted Him; and they gave Him the glory for every success they had and repented with every set back or failure. They fasted and prayed together, and lived – as best they could – according to the way Scripture tells us to live. As a result, they built the greatest nation in the history of mankind. I wonder, how many Americans realize that the founders also dedicated this nation to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God of the Bible? It’s true: they did. In fact, it was George Washington who led the dedication.
The past few weeks, I have had a difficult time trying to write anything you might consider ‘political’ – at least, political in the sense most people would think of when they hear the word. This is because my world view has changed, and with it, my understanding of the problems we face. So, starting today, The Oyl will be going in a bit different direction. No longer will I merely hint at my faith, or the Scriptures that have been influencing my life. From now on, I will loudly and proudly trumpet them because they have led me to Christ, and Christ has changed me. Now I want to share what I have been experiencing with whoever will listen. But don’t worry, I am not an evangelist. I’m not going to try to force you to convert to Christianity. That’s not true Christianity, anyway. I simply want to explain the new understanding I have of our world, what is really wrong with it, how we got here and how it can be fixed. At the same time, I also want to warn anyone who will listen about what will happen if we continue down the path we’re heading. It’s all in Scripture, we just need to pick up the Bible and actually read it.
Oh, and it helps if, before you start reading, you still yourself, humble your heart and sincerely ask God to help you understand His word. Ask Him to show Himself to you, and keep at it – and mean it. Scripture says that, if you will do this, you will find Him, and I can tell you from personal experience, it is true. But you have to be sincere, and you have to stick with it. Try it for a few weeks and see what happens. Get a Bible and just start reading. If I might, I suggest you start with Matthew and just go from there.
I’ll start posting again on a regular basis. I hope you’ll be staying with me. More than that, I hope I will get a little more feed-back from you. I want to hear from you. We learn best when we learn together (yes, I got that from Scripture).
The Oil for Your Lamp 