These Things Should Not Be

​So often in Bible class we walk across territory that speaks to us through a megaphone.  As we look at the landscape of America, it is easy to see the degradation everywhere.  Just recently the beloved Hallmark channel announced future broadcasts will include homosexual relationships. For all the Hallmark watchers, this is a huge disappointment.  One of the main reasons for watching Hallmark for me has been, although the plots were “shallow,” the content of the shows were “G-rated.”  Now, Hallmark is selling out and jumping on the bandwagon with the rest.  This is just another example of the shift in society.  Little by little the broad way to hell widens, as the gate to heaven seemingly narrows.
 
That brings me to what began this discussion; the impact of the world pressing into the church- or so it seems.  As we discussed it Wednesday, Paul (doing an excellent job teaching) brought up that perhaps we are not looking at the picture correctly.  After he explained his thought, it was easy to see why the church looks at this issue the way we do.  If we accept the root cause for what is happening in the church is the degradation of society, we get to place the blame on someone else.  Paul (Bush not the apostle) was quick to point out the fallacy of that thinking and challenged the class to take another approach to the problem.  Paul called out the church, or more succinctly the lifestyle of those professing to be Christians and pointed the finger at US.  That’s right.  It is not the world pressing in on us, but our reluctance to rid our lives of the immorality, and evil of the world.  In our own quiet way, we are attempting to have one foot in Christ, and the other in the world.  This especially comes to light when the secret door is opened, lives are exposed and truth falls out.  Paul (the apostle not Bush) admonished the church over and over again against these things, saying ”these things should not be.”  We will never please God with the type of attitude that produces this life choice.  Constantly, we seek to fool man, but in the end, we end up only fooling and embarrassing ourselves, because regardless how hard we try we cannot fool God.  It’s time we all took a hard look at who we are in Christ, and FULLY surrender our lives to the one who died to save us.
 
Blessings.
Lamar