Vol. 7, No. 28 – July 17, 2022
I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. –Ecclesiastes 3:10-11
We live in an odd world, do we not? Young people and adults fill their days with social media, and with cell phones. Technology has become a god in our world. The average teen spends daily, over 4.5 hours on social media. Teens and adults spend over 4 hours on their cell phones. Some of that time is spent on cell phones while driving–Unsafe. Against most state laws.
Then there are the movies. Most with questionable morals. There are large numbers that represent “friends” on Facebook or Tic-Tok. Not really friends; most are just contact data, not real friends. Starbucks, well, of course, one just has to have that! (When I was a teen, the number of hours I needed to work to buy one Starbucks at today’s price was 10. Ten hours of work!)
When you go to a church dinner, what is the conversation like? Braves. Hawks. Falcons. Politics. Weather. What is often not discussed around the table is the spiritual. People in the church, as easily as unchurched people, talk about nonspiritual subjects and others’ points of view. Crime scene tape is on sale at Walmart.
Strange, the world we live in.
J.B. Phillips, a number of years ago, wrote a book titled: Your God is Too Small. Reach back in the earlier verbiage of this blog. How does that title expose our thoughts? Too many Christians stretch crime scene tape around a place where they want to live with their “truth” and cordon God outside that perimeter. They think.
Some even take steps to “protect” their perimeter. Guard it. Defend it. Lie about its safety. Come to think about it, it is like the garden in Genesis. Remember Adam and Eve? Today’s “faith” is found in many gods.
Faith in yourself. Why do you need any other god? In art. Have you perused art lately? In your stuff. How did that work out for Wladziu Valentino (“Liberace”)? Christie’s Auction rented the Los Angeles Coliseum to display some 25-30,000 pieces of “stuff” prior to the auction following Liberace’s death. His god was “stuff.” Wonder how many yards of crime scene tape it took to cordon off the stuff.
So-called journalists pronounce one faith is as good as another; everyone, they report, possesses some faith/truth. Rarely will they connect faith/truth to Jesus. Not convenient. Does not meet their agenda. Their crime scene tape works for them. They think.
Movies? In Bladerunner, the lead actor is rescued from death by a “human replicant” (robot) portrayed as his archenemy. He, the lead actor, is mystified. Then the robot terminates (dies). Thus, the lead begins to think out loud, I will never know why he (the robot) saved my life. Perhaps in his last moments, he realized it was a life that he was after—my life, anybody’s life. Crime scene tape working? Yes, they think.
The one who continually substitutes stuff for faith/truth is stuck. Cannot answer where they came from. Where they might be going. Not even how much time they have left. Need to run out for more of that tape.
Life Application
Too many are using “Christian” as an adjective, misapplying the descriptive. it is cheaper than crime scene tape, they think.
It is like substituting the adjective Democratic for the Democrat Party. The words do not convey the truth as intended. Democrats are often not democratic (and Republicans are not always democratic either). Democratic crime scene tape is the protector de jour.
When believers are exposed to the Word of God in Bible Study and in the church message, they have the opportunity to be sent out into the world with a message that is full of faith, and true. You can save on crime scene tape. And, the conversation around the tables can be spiritual and uplifting.
The one who crosses their path can have the opportunity for relationship building, to be exposed to Christ.
Faith/truth responds to open hearts, open minds, and open eyes. Faith/truth is always “open for business.”
How is it going for you in this world full of other gods? Crime scene tape working?
