By: D.A. Slinkard
The King James Bible tells us in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” We also see in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” We have in Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” I start with these scriptures because I believe we need to be reminded of what God’s Word tells us in His Book. Yet I believe we, as a society, have watered down the preaching in which we have compromised on God’s Word.
Just recently I read an article about how people should dress in church, and the comment was made about who really cares? For starters, God cares. With our finite minds, we try to put God’s level of thinking down to our small way of thinking. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
The article went on to have a bunch of “What if’s…” and even an example of a parent getting advice from the 8-year-old daughter on the topic. I get the thought process behind what the parent was doing, but this is what is wrong with the world in which we seek the opinions of a child to dictate our way of thinking. There will come a day in which we will stand before God Almighty and give an account for the life we lived. Romans 14:12 says, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”
The Great Commission tells us in Mark 16:15, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Matthew 28:19-20 states, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…”
Here we have God commanding the church to go and seek the lost; God does not command the lost to go and seek the church. Yet we live in a day in which we have people say, “Just come as you are…” which tickles the ear, but keep in mind 2 Corinthians 5:17 which states, “…if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” There is to be an obvious difference from the lost soul compared to the saved soul; but sadly we live in a time you cannot tell the difference between the two. God expects Christians to be separate from the world. From 1 John 2:15, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Now you may be saying to yourself that only man looks on the outside and God can see on the inside. And I would say that you are right; but as a Christian, our outward appearance should be a direct reflection of who we are in Christ. We expect the very best from God but only want to give Him the least amount of effort from us.
If you look at our U.S. currency, you will see the words, “In God We Trust” but really this is becoming a lie. We do not live in a country that believes this motto anymore. People question what is happening to our society; the wickedness that prevails is because we have moved away from THE God of the Bible. We have moved away from keeping God’s Word close to our heart. Instead, we have everyone doing what they deem to be right in their own heart, and in Jeremiah 17:9 we see, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…”
We need to focus on restoring our relationship with God and truly raise up our standards. Until then, we are going to continue down the slippery slope we are on. If we raise our level of expectations, then we will see a change in the world around us. We have low expectations, and we get low results because of it.
By: D.A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard is the manager of the Athens Staples store
