It’s Not Complicated        by Carl McMurray

 

Have you been paying attention?  Our world is in a mess!  But there’s a reason for it.  Our world is made up of people and people in general are in a mess.  Good and natural desires have been turned into “rights” and “needs” and “can’t live without…”  Covetousness, materialism, envy, and greed are working us to death, stealing our hearts from loved ones and filling us with the deceit of happiness in pleasure someday, somehow.  Lusts, adulteries, impurities, alcohol, and selfishness are ripping homes apart at the seams.  Fathers who try to lead, mothers who respect and submit, and children who obey are mocked and slammed, and sadly it even comes from other believers sometimes.

 

      Yes, you read that right. Christians must live in the world, but unfortunately we often let the world live in us. When our rest and recreation is found in the pleasure of covetousness (gambling), the world is us.  When we try to defend and just use “a little” of the most destructive and deceitful drug in America (alcohol, by statistics) the world is setting in.  When we trade the nobility and character of the “sporting attitude” for trash talk and winning no matter what, don’t look around for the world, it’s in us.  Abusive talk, threats, rude behavior, profane and careless speech, denigrating authority, disobedience to parents, pedestaling children above our spouse, disrespecting the elderly – these are the activities of a self-centered person that lives for the moment, cares little about others, and is guided by their own feelings rather than the Lord of Light.

 

            All is not lost, however.  The most insidious temptations and pressures and the most twisted tale of consequences can be ironed out with pin-point accuracy by God’s living and effective word.  The spirit tells us there is no uncommon temptation (1 Cor. 10:13).  There’s nothing that can’t be dealt with.  Jesus showed that all things come from either God or man (Matt. 21:23-27) and that we make choices all the time in what direction we will go – toward eternal life or condemnation (Matt. 7:13-14).  When every word or activity is boiled down to its basic substance, I believe it can be described in a way that can make the difference…for this nation, this town, this church, your family, and your life now and in eternity.  It is said this way, “There are only two choices on the shelf - serving Christ or serving self.”  Which will you choose?