Skip to main content

Good Things


       The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly. (Proverbs 15:4)

        One of my friends reported that she’d seen interviews with college students who had gone to Florida for spring break in spite of warnings about the Wuhan coronavirus. They weren’t going to let the virus interfere with their fun. The governor of Florida finally closed down the beaches.
         Young adults aren’t the only ones with this sort of attitude. For years, people have told me that we only live once, that they’ve worked hard all week, they deserve to be able to kick back and have fun. So, let me begin with a disclaimer. The purpose of this blog posting is not to tell you that you are not to be happy, that you’re not to have fun, be amused, or experience excitement. It’s not here to rain on your parade or be a party-pooper.
       But…
       There are people who seem to think they deserve to be happy, to be amused, and to be excited. I know people who seem to have the goal of shutting down their minds and throwing responsibilities out the window. There are people who insist that they should be allowed to do whatever they want as long as they believe they aren’t hurting anyone, and it involves consenting adults. There are those for whom amusement, happiness, and excitement become the end.
         Consider the popularity of movies, TV, video games, amusement parks, restaurants, malls, trampoline places, hair and nail salons, and bars with loud music.  The point is that it doesn’t require that something be bad for you for it to separate you from God. The positive separators are better at separating us than the negative separators because we recognize the harm the negatives ones do more quickly.
Like so many of the others, the belt of truth and the sword of the Spirit are vital weapons but in this case, the breastplate of righteousness may seem to work against us because the happiness created by doing good can create the separation we’re trying to avoid. This is one of those cases when we can say, “WDA!”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more