My Unusual Journal
My Unusual Journal 7 - Thursday, July 07, 2011, 8:58 PM
I am puzzled… Just when I think I have this younger generation all figured out – and I am feeling pretty good about them – they throw a curve ball at me. No sooner do I tell myself Hey, the upcoming ranks of leaders and teachers and just plain old “good” people have actually absorbed some of the training we tried to give them, they go off on some ridiculous tangent and burst my bubble.
Of course I am NOT talking about the breed of scofflaws and virtual atheists popping up like weeds without needing good soil in which to flourish. My reference is to the so-called Christian generation on whom so much depends. The Bible tells us to avoid the very appearance of evil, but it seems they could not care less about appearances. They are hair-splitters. They (the better ones at least) do pay homage to the “God of their fathers” in how they live and in being considerate of the aged and the infirm and the like. But where is the love that goes a step further? What about being careful not to give an occasion to the world to speak evil about you when you actually are not committing any sin?
You may be going into a strip club to witness to the sinners in there, but come on, who do you think you are fooling? And even I, your brother who should think no evil of you – I find it hard to swallow that flimsy reason for going into a “den of sin.” (That is a quote from the old line preachers many years back.)
And then there is this matter of drinking alcohol. To be honest about it, there is nothing in the Scripture that forbids drinking alcohol; it does forbid being drunken. So if I could drink a whole bathtub of gin or whatever and not get drunk, I have not broken any commandment that forbids drinking because there is none. But there is one little item we conveniently overlook: avoiding the APPEARANCE of evil… as in 1 Th. 5.22, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” Although there are different ways of interpreting this verse, there is a surer word on the matter in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. They thought their superior knowledge about idol worship gave them license to eat things that had been offered to an idol. Why not? After all, an idol is nothing to worry about; it’s only a dumb inanimate object that can do neither good nor evil. But Paul straightened them out:
1Co 8:11-13 “And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? (12) But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. (13) Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.
Those are strong words. We Pentecostals especially are held to a higher standard than our brethren in the denominations. Our fathers in the Gospel demanded strict abstinence from alcoholic beverages, and the notion that Pentecostals were teetotalers has been brought down to us their children. I am sure that if I should go to a restaurant and order a little wine with my meal, those who know my Pentecostal roots would stumble at it: “Well! There’s ol’ Bro. AJ – drinking wine… he’s no better than anyone else!” and they would b encouraged to satisfy their own appetite for the “sinful” beverage.
I haven’t finished this “short” (which I meant it to be) entry into my really unusual journal. It should have been in another post, not a journal – not even this “unusual” journal. But you get the gist. This matter of serving God and being witnesses for Him is a very serious thing, and if we love God and our brothers and sisters we need to tighten the reins on ourselves and walk carefully and in love.
Eph 5:15-16 “Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; (16) redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
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