things that piss me off

I love imaginative titles.

#1 When people try to win arguments by being persuasive rather than being right. (It's rather insulting, when you think about it.)

#2 The safe philosophies of Christians on how they interact with homeless people.

It's not our responsibility to control what someone does with the gift we give them, is it? Then the love becomes conditional. Did God tell you He would only forgive you and withhold His wrath and grant you inheritance if you promised not to abuse your stewardship, not to stray from the path, and to never get mad at Him or cuss Him out to His face; to miss a few Sundays of church or ignore a convicting word? So what if "they're going to buy drugs or alcohol with it"? God the Son gave away all that He had knowing some of us would buy drugs and alcohol with it. Eventually, some of us realize the wealth that we're squandering and sober up but He did not make that a requirement; He did not take a vote at the beginning of the world: "OK, by a show of hands, how many of you will accept & love me, obeying my commands all the days of your life? Good, good...and how many of you will spit in my face, curse, reject and deny me until the day you die? ... Ouch. Dad, what do you think of these numbers? ... ...Alright, fine, I'll go anyways." If the guy sleeping on the sidewalk is not "the poor" that we're supposed to take care of, then who is? (If everyone who walks by assumes the same thing, these people won't even get money for the things you DO approve of them having, like food, will they?) What on earth does a Christian have that he can hold on to? What, with the perfect God within, can we possibly have need for? Give and then, if you're concerned (about the other person, not about your self), pray. Pray against addiction or other deadly behaviors. (Heck, we can be praying that for ourselves, too.) Pray for a way out. Pray for a miracle. Pray that you'll see them again - and give again. Pray in faith that your gift would go where it should. Give so much that they wonder.