It’s a dangerous game to play with one’s heart. But I’m not talking about the romance of the weekend, or the pink and purple color scheme. Not the aisles devoted to flowery cards. Not the wrapped candies and bouquets.<\/p>\n

I’m talking about the church again. The Church of Christ is an amazing thing- it’s lasted over 2000 years, and has grown, and flourished in the US and many other countries. In communist states, it is fought and hunted and oppressed, and the people who devote their lives to that are stronger than we will ever know. But here, in America, we don’t realize that the battles we must fight are inert, suppressed, and mental. We must fight our longing for comfort, and our desire for peace and “normality”. And we must guard our hearts from the evil one, who will go to any lengths to take them from us.<\/p>\n

Once again, I am a bystander, watching the same scenario play out among my former brothers and sisters in fellowship. I stare in helplessness as the familiar becomes more important than the fellowship. As inactivity is sought over labor. As leadership of the church of Christ is given, once more, to men.<\/p>\n

I’ll do what I should. I’ll say what I can. I’ll ask, I’ll remind, I’ll beg, and I’ll be ignored. So be it.<\/p>\n

But thanks to you, I’ve been robbed of the hope I had in man’s humility.<\/p>\n

Don’t break too many of my friends’ hearts, please.<\/p>\n

They need to give them to God.<\/p>\n

Not you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a dangerous game to play with one’s heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[908],"tags":[50,148,156,223,361,391,856],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-amercia","tag-christ","tag-church","tag-day","tag-god","tag-heart","tag-valentine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n