Triggered

Love you all, praying for you. 
 
What triggers you?   Are you triggered?  Be honest… are you reading this Daily Huddle - to see if what I say is offensive?  Will you take offense?  Was Jesus triggered?  No, He was holy.  In the temple seeing people cheat the poor in the name of God.  It ticked Jesus off, and he overturned the money changers tables.  Get out!  You have turned my Father’s house, a house of prayer, into a den of thieves.  These guys were profiting off of the law that you had to sacrifice a certain kind of animal.  They jacked up the prices, they were profiting off of others’ needs.  Even under the old covenant, God’s requirements didn’t ostracize or prey on the poor.  If you couldn’t afford a bull or a lamb, you could bring a dove (you could catch one of those, it’s not like people had a ranch that raised them.)  Sometimes God wants you to stand up for what is right, to stand up for those who cannot stand for themselves – who have no voice.  That’s not triggered, that's righteousness.  And you will be hated for it, by the triggered.  The problem is, many people are standing up for ‘what is right’ these days, but they do not know what is right.  They stand up for what seems right, but they are deceived.  What man says is ‘right’ today, will change by tomorrow.  What God says is right is established for eternity.  What is the easiest thing to see in someone else?  Hypocrisy.  We always see it in others, rarely do we see it in ourselves.  What is hypocrisy?  Expecting something of someone else, that you do not do yourself.  Or accusing someone of doing something, when you yourself do the same thing – just in another area or in another way.  We live in a triggered culture, a cancel culture.  Some things are ok, other things are so bad you will be shamed into oblivion, lose your job, lose your voice, lose your livelihood.  It doesn’t matter how long ago the deemed offense was, nor does it matter the evidence or lack thereof, of the current issue at hand.  You are deemed guilty in the court of public opinion of the triggered minority.  Notice it is not just, fair, or equal, some things are completely ignored.  It isn’t based on current law, just current group-think.  There is no mercy, just favoritism.  Some people’s apologies are accepted, others are not accepted, depending on what group you belong to… they must be shamed and punished.  Yet other offenses, actual crimes, like assault, arson, theft, even murder are forgiven, while certain words or opinions are not.  You can murder a baby in cold blood, yet you cannot speak the truth about basic biology.  Why are you talking politics?  Another lie, morality is a-political.  God alone determines what is right and what is wrong, what is sin, and what is righteous - not governments or any political party.  Morality supersedes government or politics -  the only ones foolish enough to confuse the two – are the triggered.  You can decry one thing, and in the same breath do that same thing to someone else.  Triggered means to slander, accuse, with the objective to cancel. To remove someone’s right to speak, or influence, to ruin their reputation, and remove their ability to work or earn a living.  The Pharisees were triggered.  They caught a woman in adultery, and drug her before Jesus in front of everybody - demanding what should be done with her?  They cared little about the sin, they didn’t care what grieved or offended God, and certainly didn’t care about the woman.  Puzzlingly… Where was the man?  I’ve never heard of a woman committing adultery all by herself…  These people just hated Jesus.  People who hate are always triggered, and even more amusingly than ironically, they are the first to accuse others of hate.  They were trying to trap him.  If he exonerated her, he couldn’t be from God, because God cannot excuse sin.  But if he said, follow the law and stone her, then he would lose the people, they would no longer follow him.  They gleefully awaited his reply.  He didn’t.  He just started writing something in the sand.  After a long silence, finally he spoke.  “Stone her then…  but let the one among you who is without sin, be the one to throw the first stone.”  In the awkward silence that followed… crickets.  One by one from the oldest to the youngest, the accusers, the cancellers, the attempted murderers, slinked away with their tails between their legs.  So that left only One to throw the stone, and He could have.  He was without sin, and the law stated the punishment for the crime.  But Jesus merely asked her.  Where are your accusers?  Since no one is left to cancel you, neither do I.  Go… and sin no more.  Jesus just set her free twice.  He saved her life from certain death, and then, He set her free from the sin that would lead to death again.  Go, you are free, and free to sin no more.  Sin is never an excuse or excused.  You are forgiven, you are set free, and if you stop sinning, you will really be free.  Jesus never cancelled people.  He forgave them, he set them free.  He only exposed those who were triggered, the Pharisees, who put burdens on people they themselves didn’t do, and couldn’t live up to.  Jesus said, I didn’t come to condemn the world, I came to save it.  Because Jesus gave up his life, we can be free from the sin that once bound us!  And we can love others, with the compassion that He showed.  Righteous laws must be enforced, if you are triggered by anything it should be the injustice of hypocrisy, and the willful ignoring of righteous laws, by those in power who don’t agree with certain ones that don’t match their ideology - their religion of government control of people.  But triggered people, accusers, slanderers, trying to destroy others for what they themselves do...  They just do what their father does.  The accuser, the liar, and the father of lies, he is a murderer from the beginning.  You can be sure of two things -  God will bring Salvation for all who will repent and turn.  And in the end, He will surely bring justice.  Praying that you are not deceived by false morality… Praying that you are never triggered by what the devil incites division and accusation with.  But that you would be triggered by what triggers God.  Love, Forgiveness and Salvation – not free to sin, but free to sin no more.  Praying for you, that love will be your motivation, love for God, love for truth, and love for others.  Not excusing sin, but loving people into freedom from it.  It starts with sharing the truth in love.  If you love someone, you’ll love them enough to tell them the truth, not to cancel them, or shame them, but to save them, and raise them, so they can walk in every good thing that God longs to give them. 
 
Love you all,
dad