What's So Important?

 

One of the beliefs that has crept into our culture is one whereby we tend to deny responsibility for our own actions. While we understand clearly that if one sits behind the wheel of a car and drives it 60 miles per hour into a tree, we die; yet we deny the same law of cause and effect in the area of moral irresponsibility. So, we give credibility to the fiction that a serial killer is such because his father or mother did something to him that made him that way, or worse yet, he was born that way inheriting some genes.

A forty-year-old man suffering from the classic “mid-life crisis” syndrome, sat down with a preacher to discuss his marital problems. He explained how his marriage of twenty years was no longer sexually satisfying or fulfilling. Finally, he reached the “bottom line” – “I just don’t love her anymore,” he said. “What can I do?” After a brief moment of reflection, the preacher said decisively, “As I see it, you have only one option…” The man perked up with anticipation. Was the preacher going to suggest a divorce? Would he finally be free to pursue the thrilling lifestyle of the younger generation that he had come to admire? Would this be his chance to regain his fleeting youth? “…seems to me that the only thing for you to do is REPENT and start loving your wife again.” So often we hear of married couples who complain that they have “fallen out of love.” That’s sad; but it happens. The real issue is what you do about it.

In our own “pursuit of happiness” we have fallen out of love with the Constitution that governs these United States. By eliminating God from both education and social diction, Meism has thwarted the efforts of teaching successor generations lawful respect and responsibility toward one another. If it’s uncomfortable for one’s lifestyle then blame society for suppressing you. Failed actions on one’s behalf are always someone else’s fault. Patriotism and political involvement by the general public has waned so great that elected Representatives have become competitive idiotic propagandizing liars, vying for top positions in the dictatorship they’re building. Folks, we’ve got to repent and start loving our country again! There are tons of problems in this country, and the world, that would be solved if from the top down everyone would get back on their knees and beg God’s forgiveness! Forest fires; drought; hate and murder; greed and misappropriation; you name it – it would all go away with God’s involvement.

[Matthew 13:24-30] In Jesus’ parables, ‘The Hidden Treasure’ and ‘The Pearl of Great Price’ (Matthew 13:45-45) both men understood the value of their finds and what sacrifice was essential to obtain them. Both men considered their prize worthwhile. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like both valuable items. The truth that Jesus taught in these parables illustrates the need to evaluating the things we consider most important. What is worthwhile in your mind? What is the desire of your heart? What is so important that it becomes your life-long pursuit?  What is it that is worth all you have and all you are? That may very well say something about your character. Solomon said wisdom is so precious that it is worth the same effort one would put forth to find silver or hidden treasures (Proverbs 2:1-5). The apostle Paul thought that the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus was so great that he counted everything else as worthless that he might obtain that knowledge (Philippians 3:8-9). The salvation of your soul should be worth more than the whole world (Matthew 16:24-26). We live in uncertain times. The only things that will outlast this world and go on into eternity are spiritual in nature. You are made in the image of God (spirit in nature, Genesis 1:26-27) – heaven or hell?