A Little Flirting

My wife and I have been receiving the LOST DVD’s from Netflix the past few months. We never watched it when it was on TV, but we have been enjoying it through Netflix. Plus we don’t have to wait all summer for the season opener, or watch commercials.

We are now on Season 6, and we do know the end, but we still enjoy the character development. We both have our favorites, and one we kept wishing would have been killed off a few seasons ago, but unfortunately they are still around. Is it Christian to wish the characters dead? Hhhmmmmmm! If you know me I am guessing you could potentially guess my favorites and the one’s I wish were gone. Then again, maybe not.

I was watching an episode last night and my wife made a comment about Sayid, who it looked like had gone completely bad, but after a conversation with another character, he appeared now to change back from evil to good. Sayid was promised if he did some evil acts that he would be able to spend eternity with his wife that had been murdered earlier. And Sayid believed him and did these acts. As he was about to complete another act, Desmond, the person he was to kill asked him a question, “What are you going to tell your wife?” “What are you going to tell your wife about what you have done to be with her?” At this moment you see Sayid’s eyes change and you know he is back to the Sayid who was protecting everyone earlier.

If you watch the characters you see them flirt time and again with evil. You see the internal battle they have when presented with an option that seems to be an easier or better way. How many times do we flirt with evil on a regular basis for the same rationalized reasons? We are enticed by someone or something that causes us to think and at times act in ways that are not considered very Biblical or moral for that matter. We flirt with evil because it is enticing us with something that we feel we need, want, or desire.

Of course, it might not be as bad as killing someone, as in the case of Sayid’s character, but what about cheating on taxes a little, saying something to demean someone else so you look better, or maybe even stealing something because you think you deserve it. We flirt and get in bed with evil when we give into all these things, and we need to be careful that one day we don’t wake up and find our conscience has become hard because of it.

Because one day we will all have to give account to someone more important than our loved ones. We will have to give an account for our lives to God, and what will we tell Him our reasons were for some of the actions we do.

POLITICALLY CORRECT

Let me preface this blog by saying I do not think Jesus is Democrat, Republican, Independent or Tea Partier. I think if Jesus were here He would offend them all. For any group to claim that Jesus would join their party has not read the New Testament much. As you read take this preface for what it is worth.

I hear recently that people have left churches because the church was making political statements from the pulpit. I find this interesting because how can a church actually not make political statements. I think what those who leave for this excuse are saying is they don’t agree with the moral laws that a particular church stands for, and use it for a reason to leave. Maybe they are just using it as an excuse because they believe it sounds legitimate, but in reality it isn’t as a general statement.

Just about every sermon is political at some point, because the church deals with morality a lot of the time. Whether it be how we are to love, how we are to behave, or how we should live. We are taught weekly about ho

w Jesus lived and how He wants us to live out our lives as His children. These are moral imperatives as a Christian. Christians are to live their lives according to the truths of the Scripture, and in one respect many are moral. Love your neighbor, do not commit adultery, do not murder, and be generous. These are all moral based. I am not going to get into how everyone fails at these, just the fact the Bible is pretty clear on how it feels about certain issues.

Every law a politician makes can be traced to their moral beliefs. I don’t care what a politician says, there is no way you can completely separate your beliefs from how you vote and write laws. And quite frankly, you shouldn’t. It is hard to name a law that is not moral based, whether it is about stealing, murder, speeding, or health care. It is based on how one believes these are bad or good for society; morality. Laws at a deeper level are morally based, otherwise they would not use so many personal stories to help support their claims on why their law is so good.

In the end, I guarantee your church makes political statements, no matter what church you go to, because they teach in regards to morality. The question is not whether a church is political in the sense of morality, but what morality are they teaching. Does it line up with Scripture and is truth based or is it opinion and feeling based?

Don’t leave a church because it makes political statements; leave if they make the wrong ones!