How can living Bible principles as they are make a difference? Well, even as a minister, sometimes things in the Bible don’t always make me happy, some things kind of get under my skin and I have the same reaction as you do... I don’t like what it shows me about myself.
So just as the doctor who has the patient that has a major problem in their body, they have to speak up, they have to prescribe a solution to that problem. Some times that involves surgery or chemo that has some nasty side effects. It hurts and there can be scars, yet hopefully at the end of the day the patient gets well. But, what happens if the doctor says to the patient; “If you do what I tell you there is a 95% chance you will be fine but with no treatment you will die” and the patient refuses to take the treatment? Well the patient will die.
And so it is in our society with moral values. I read the papers most days and try to watch the news and too often it is pretty bad news, as I have mentioned, crime is up; theft, drugs, gun and knife crime, murder (even in our City which is by most standards safe), fighting in the streets, drunk and disorderly conduct... and the list goes on and on. Diseases of all types seem to be on the rise; STD’s, alcoholism and the effects of excess drinking, drug addiction, heart disease and things folk get living a lives of excess. How does greed affect the world we live in? We look at poverty and need. Pollution is another problem caused by careless living and greed.
All that bad news, what can we do? Well I happen to believe in God and the Bible as the word of God. I don’t always manage to live it perfectly, but I am growing in that direction and maybe by the time I am a hundred and five I might make it—almost. But the neat thing is the same Bible that shows where we are in error is the same Bible that teaches us love, forgiveness, grace and mercy. A cure for the things we run afoul of. It is the prescription for ‘sin’ (there is a word we don’t use much anymore), grace is effective 100% of the time when we apply it and it lets our society down when we ignore it.
Yet I know there are those of you that will say; “Well Jon, I don’t believe in your God or your Bible so what do you think of that?” My response is ‘that is your choice.’ I still submit that at the very least, if our society and culture would live by the principles one finds in the Bible we could still have a better society than we have now. We would do more good, less harm and have a better time getting through this life. While I don’t think we can really live life without God, I also still believe a biblical standard helps us all. We could get rid of a lot of guilt, illness and crime. We would show love and not prejudice, we would give to those in need, and we would use good stewardship to keep our planet clean and use the resources instead of abusing our world.
Jon
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