WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RISK?

It was a small and rather poor town with a small and rather poor church, so poor they could not afford their own meeting place. The only place they could find to meet was on the lower floor of a dilapidated old building with a dance hall on the second floor. It was a terrible situation, as the dance hall was almost always full of people with loud music accompanied by the stomping of many feet and boisterous shouts.

One Sunday the church was meeting and the usual melee was going on above them. Suddenly there was a loud crack and plaster falling from the ceiling as well as the lower portion of a woman hanging through a hole in the ceiling.

Immediately the preacher called out, "Any man that raises his eyes to the ceiling will be struck blind by the lord." Dead silence descended upon the congregation as everyone wondered what would happen next. Then in a shaky quivering voice an old man in the back of the hall was heard to say, "Well, I think I might risk one eye anyway."

I know it's a humorous story, but it speaks to a very serious problem in our world and sadly in our churches today. We are constantly bombarded by nudity and fowl language in the sanctity of our own homes now. The television programs seem to be trying to push a liberal view of what is acceptable and what isn't. Honestly, we have had to turn off and stop watching several programs in the past year, because of the sinful content of the programs. They know that sex and nudity grabs people and causes them to watch the programs. They know exactly what they are doing, but not living lives guided by God they really don't care.

One of the problems is that it is possible to become hardened to what is being shown and honestly we don't realize that we have been watching something wicked. God demands that we change the way we think, act, live and what we allow to influence us.

Paul writing in Romans 6:1 reminds us of the transformation we made when we decided to serve Christ. Notice his words, because his question is still valid for us today:  "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?"(NIV) The old King James Version says, "God Forbid" that we should do such a thing.

The problem with far too many of us is that we are "willing to risk one eye," to indulge in just a little sin. Yet, that's not the way it works with God. You must be either 100% for him or you are against him, you can't be lukewarm in your commitment or he will judge you as guilty, (Revelation 3:16). Your kids might scream and holler that they like that show and all of their friends watch it, but God expects us to live differently from the world. The Psalms perhaps say it best in Psalm 101:3 here the writer says simply, "I will set no wicked thing before my eyes."

As for me, I think I'll try my best to keep both eyes where they need to be