Yes, we really do.
Admittedly, this is a term that some readers may not know. Or maybe most of them don’t. Either way, telefragging is a term that comes from the world of computer games. In many first person shooter games, players often have the ability to teleport themselves from one location to another. If a player does that, and another player happens to be standing in the same spot where the first player teleports to, that second player is instantly killed. This is known as being telefragged.
And it’s what we all deserve.
Yes, we really do.
The scripture tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3: 23). There is not even a single righteous person (Romans 3: 10); we have all sinned. We all suck. It’s just the simple truth of our human condition: a perfect God created us and gave us free will, and we took that free will and told God to shove it. We live our lives according to our own desires, ignoring the holy life that God wants for us. The commandments of God were not put in place to limit our enjoyment, but to enhance our enjoyment and protect our holiness. Also, living by God’s commandments leads to a much better, happier, more fulfilling life. He designed certain parts of life a certain way, because it was the best way, and his commandments reflect his desire for us to have that fulfilling life.
For instance, sex was designed for the sacred union on marriage. Taking it out of that context not only goes against God’s design, but is more likely to lead to problems in this life. We humans pervert God’s designs and reject him with our choices. We have become corrupt with sinfulness and worldliness, taking the cheap gains of our mortal lives and trading away the eternal things of our creator.
When this happens, the gap between us and God was not created by God himself. It was us. We pushed him away. We chose to follow our own paths instead of his. We chose sin instead of eternal love, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). These are not wages given to us unfairly; these are wages we earned due to our own choices.
Every day is a gift from God. It truly is, because we don’t deserve it. God doesn’t owe us anything. We are blessed just to be alive, and we should be thankful for it. We should live our lives as though every day could be our last, because it could be. There are those out there that don’t know it yet, but today will be their last day. It could be us. Death will come for us all eventually, and we will all deserve it when it comes. The real death, however, would come afterward, for those still separated from God.
Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is a bridge to reconnect us. There is a path to life, and it starts with a simple choice.
[to be continued...]
Monday, April 9, 2018
Monday, April 2, 2018
People Suck
Yes, we really do, and we’ve sucked for a really, really long time. I mean, just think about it. The second generation of humans recorded in the Bible included Cain, who got so bent out of shape because his brother Abel bested him at a game of Sacrificing Things to God, that he took Abel out into a pasture and beat him over the head with a club. I mean, really? Only a few years earlier, their parents, Adam and Eve, had been living happily in the Garden of Eden, a little piece of perfect paradise where nobody ever did anything wrong and everybody happily ran around naked. And then, after a little run-in with a snake (played in this scene by the prince of darkness), they’re kicked out and shamed, having brought sin into a sinless world. A few years later, one of their sons gets into the record book by being the first person to be guilty of murder. I’m sad to say that we really haven’t come very far since then.
We live in a messed up world. You probably already knew that, though. If you didn’t, just start watching the news. I started typing up this chapter eleven days after a sixty-four year man old used an arsenal of heavy weaponry to rain gunfire down on concert goers on the Las Vegas strip, killing nearly sixty people and wounding another five hundred. Meanwhile, all along that strip are advertisements for escorts and sex shows and pretty much anything somebody might want for a night of revelry. The ground is littered with cards showing pictures of naked women offering their services for the right price. The casinos are full of people gambling away their hard earned money for the hope of something more, many of them emptying their bank accounts and maxing out their credit cards for one more shot and hitting it rich.
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’ve been to Vegas. Twice.
The second time was for the wedding of a relative who just happened to live in Vegas. It was only for a couple days, so it barely counts. Right? I mainly remember that trip for two specific things: the beautiful Chevy Camaro we rented, which was exceptionally fun to drive around, and the buffet seafood I ate that made me sick. Anyway, that’s enough details about that unfortunate night in the bathroom.
The first trip to Vegas, however, was for a five day vacation with my wife, and it was quite a bit of fun. I quickly learned not to take anything that people on the street were trying to hand to me, as they were mostly the aforementioned naked cards. We mainly walked up and down the strip and walked in and out of casinos. We each took one dollar and quickly lost it on a slot machine, just to say we had “gambled in Vegas.” We didn’t have a drink of alcohol. We just walked around together and enjoyed the pretty buildings and stuffed our faces at buffets.
Don’t worry, this book hasn’t somehow slipped into travel planning advice. While we were walking around having a good and innocent time, Sin City was alive all around us. We live in a world of lust and immediate satisfaction, where anything and everything is permissible in the name of entertainment and the almighty dollar, even at the expense of our souls and the wellbeing of others. This is actually not meant as a targeted slight against Vegas, as it is far from the only example of such areas in the world. It just happens to be one of the brighter, more neon examples. All around us, within our own cities, there are establishments that degrade women and exploit anybody who looks like they might have money to burn or something else to offer, such as the children and adults being trafficked as sex slaves. Most of us don’t even realize the evil that is all around us, which is one of the reasons it has been allowed to survive and grow. Whether or not we know these things exist, each of us who stand by and do nothing while there is such evil in the world are enablers for that evil, choosing our own personal comfort and schedules over the wellbeing of those less fortunate. The Bible calls those who do nothing goats (Matthew 25: 31 - 46), rebuking them for never lending a helping hand to those in need, before sending them off to eternal punishment.
We all suck. It’s true. But it gets worse. For, you see, simply being sucky is not the end of it, but since we all suck, then…
[to be continued...]
We live in a messed up world. You probably already knew that, though. If you didn’t, just start watching the news. I started typing up this chapter eleven days after a sixty-four year man old used an arsenal of heavy weaponry to rain gunfire down on concert goers on the Las Vegas strip, killing nearly sixty people and wounding another five hundred. Meanwhile, all along that strip are advertisements for escorts and sex shows and pretty much anything somebody might want for a night of revelry. The ground is littered with cards showing pictures of naked women offering their services for the right price. The casinos are full of people gambling away their hard earned money for the hope of something more, many of them emptying their bank accounts and maxing out their credit cards for one more shot and hitting it rich.
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’ve been to Vegas. Twice.
The second time was for the wedding of a relative who just happened to live in Vegas. It was only for a couple days, so it barely counts. Right? I mainly remember that trip for two specific things: the beautiful Chevy Camaro we rented, which was exceptionally fun to drive around, and the buffet seafood I ate that made me sick. Anyway, that’s enough details about that unfortunate night in the bathroom.
The first trip to Vegas, however, was for a five day vacation with my wife, and it was quite a bit of fun. I quickly learned not to take anything that people on the street were trying to hand to me, as they were mostly the aforementioned naked cards. We mainly walked up and down the strip and walked in and out of casinos. We each took one dollar and quickly lost it on a slot machine, just to say we had “gambled in Vegas.” We didn’t have a drink of alcohol. We just walked around together and enjoyed the pretty buildings and stuffed our faces at buffets.
Don’t worry, this book hasn’t somehow slipped into travel planning advice. While we were walking around having a good and innocent time, Sin City was alive all around us. We live in a world of lust and immediate satisfaction, where anything and everything is permissible in the name of entertainment and the almighty dollar, even at the expense of our souls and the wellbeing of others. This is actually not meant as a targeted slight against Vegas, as it is far from the only example of such areas in the world. It just happens to be one of the brighter, more neon examples. All around us, within our own cities, there are establishments that degrade women and exploit anybody who looks like they might have money to burn or something else to offer, such as the children and adults being trafficked as sex slaves. Most of us don’t even realize the evil that is all around us, which is one of the reasons it has been allowed to survive and grow. Whether or not we know these things exist, each of us who stand by and do nothing while there is such evil in the world are enablers for that evil, choosing our own personal comfort and schedules over the wellbeing of those less fortunate. The Bible calls those who do nothing goats (Matthew 25: 31 - 46), rebuking them for never lending a helping hand to those in need, before sending them off to eternal punishment.
We all suck. It’s true. But it gets worse. For, you see, simply being sucky is not the end of it, but since we all suck, then…
[to be continued...]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
