Good Wednesday morning! Is there a difference between you and the world? We hear about this difference; we even read in the Bible that we no longer belong on this earth, that our home is now in Heaven with Jesus. The differences are shown in both extreme examples and less obvious ones. Here are a few that I've seen recently:
1. An openly gay actor is known for his habit of tearing one page out of every Bible he finds in hotel rooms. Of course the page contains a certain verse in Leviticus that states: "Do not practice homosexuality. It is a detestable sin." To detest is to dislike intensely; to hate. God gave the law of Moses, so we can read that God hates the sin of homosexuality. The act of tearing out the Bible page reminds me of those who used to burn their draft cards or notices to report - burning the message does not relieve one of the duty. Most people who do not believe in Jesus do not tear pages out of hotel Bibles. However, there is still a great difference here. When you and I go into a hotel room and see a Bible, we are glad. I like to see the Bible on the lamp stand, right beside the lamp where it is obvious. The difference is in the value: the Bible has great value to us. Not only would we not tear out pages, but we are glad of its presence.
2. A celebrity in an interview chides a reporter for lowering his voice on the word "divorce", telling him that it is not a dirty word. Experience has taught us differently. Divorce harms both parties, the children, and God does not like it. Seldom will you see a man and a woman act with more meanness than in a divorce. A few years ago I heard about a wife selling all her husband's hunting and fishing gear for next to nothing so that he would not get it in the settlement. While that has a certain humor to it, we do tend to value our hobby gear a bit too much sometimes, there is also a note of mean in that tale. As a never-married person, my example is probably very tame in this matter. Some of you might have some chilling examples of your own, but we don't need to darken the morning.
3. Most university classes on religion will treat all religions as things to be studied from a dispassionate distance, and that all religious extremists are the same. We know that Jesus is not a religion and is certainly not the same as the many religions of the world. Some would say that we don't "know" in the same meaning of the word as what the "-ists" and "-osophers" know. Faith is certainty and no it doesn't quantify well for study. We know that Jesus is the Son of God in the same way that Peter did; we believe what Jesus said about himself. I cannot say that I have 26lbs of faith and Burt has 25 or 27lbs, we cannot measure faith in quantity. And that tends to drive those who would study our belief in a scientific manner just a little nuts.
4. "You had a lucky break!" said when someone lives through a traumatic event or avoids that flight that crashed. Events will lead up to our choosing to believe in Jesus. However, while the world says "lucky", we see the hand of God guiding us to exactly where He would have us to be when we face that one critical choice: do I believe in Jesus or continue to believe in my "luck"? We soon realize that luck is a vaporish thing and runs out quickly. We also know that belief in our own strength is a false god. The world will tell us to be strong, to believe in our self and abilities. Throughout our lives our own strength has fallen short so many times we cannot help but wonder how people cannot come to believe in Jesus. I suspect that most of us came to believe in Jesus through running up against the wall of our own weakness in some manner. If a person never faces up to their own weakness, in other words continues to believe that he or she is strong, that person will never see the need for God.
5. We have an adversary. This point is almost as contentious as belief in Jesus. The world doesn't want to believe in either Jesus or the Devil. We see the comic devil, and the monstrous devil, but seldom do we see the Adversary, as Jesus and Peter warned us about, in our media. Horror movies show us a devil that no one would fall for. Comics show us a devil that is silly. The Bible paints a different picture, one the world would rather not hear. When the Serpent told Eve that she would become like God by eating the forbidden fruit, he lied. As we know, Adam and Eve became like the Serpent by eating the fruit and it took Jesus to open a path back to God. The world would prefer to believe that we can save ourselves by a whole slate of actions that can be difficult to keep. The world would also have us believe that the only real enemy is our own weakness. No, we know that there is an entity interested in our destruction.
6. Ahh, I think I could continue all day in finding differences between those who believe in Jesus and the world at large. You have work to do and I need to get on it too. A parting thought for the differences we see today: You are not an accident of evolution; you are a creation of God, who loves you!
Praise God for the day!
Bucky
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