Life is all about getting the point. The point is that God made you to honor him and make his glory more known in your own life, in the life of your family, and in the lives of others around you. The Point is that God loves you so much that He sent His son Jesus to die on the Cross for your rebellion. The Point is that you can have a restored relationship with God through Jesus!
Sometimes I have thought that the point was getting harder to make because of our culture. People don't want to hear the truth of the gospel. I refocused on memorizing 2 Timothy today. It says that the time will come when people will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. I think that time has come and even gone perhaps. People don't even need the teachers anymore - they can go and find what their itching ears want to hear on the internet for themselves.
But today I guess I am rethinking all this. Maybe the problem now is not that the Point is getting harder to make, but that the Point is getting harder to get. Proverbs says "therefore get wisdom, and in all your getting, get understanding (KJV)." The problem is that people don't want to get the Point. They have believed the lies so much that they think that the Point is pointless, and therefore pointless to get.
Going through the Creation Museum was a great experience, and the point was made repeatedly there that unless people start at the point of accepting the truth of God's Word, they won't catch on to the rest of the important message that God has for them.
I certainly agree with that, but perhaps there is another question to ask: why? Why are kids growing up in Church but missing the Point? Why are Church attendance numbers growing but Christ follower numbers are declining? Why is the Media winning the culture war?
Maybe it's because the Point is getting harder to get. It's not because it's not available - it is certainly available. It's getting harder to get because we have not learned the ability to get it. Surely I am not the only one who has noticed the glazed look in people's eyes as we try to teach them basic truths of God's Word.
Let's face it. The Pants on the Ground video (American Idol thing) is more influential than God's truth in our culture! (I'm not saying anything negative about the video itself - I'm just asserting comparatively, that it is more influential!) Does that bother us? Are we so deep in the cultural sea that we don't even notice - Like asking a fish what water is like?
The point is getting harder to get because very few people are like Timothy, of whom Paul said, "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." - 2 Tim 3:14-15
How it grieves me that people who grow up in the church and in Christian families are not wise for Salvation through faith in Christ Jesus because they have not known the Scriptures from infancy.
I guess I am asking more questions here than giving answers. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3: 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Is it a stretch to say that this passage means that the Point is getting harder to get? I think we have more than arrived at this terrible prophetic picture.
Whatever you are doing, it is not more important than teaching your children to love God and to get His Wisdom. Talking to myself here.
Sometimes I have thought that the point was getting harder to make because of our culture. People don't want to hear the truth of the gospel. I refocused on memorizing 2 Timothy today. It says that the time will come when people will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. I think that time has come and even gone perhaps. People don't even need the teachers anymore - they can go and find what their itching ears want to hear on the internet for themselves.
But today I guess I am rethinking all this. Maybe the problem now is not that the Point is getting harder to make, but that the Point is getting harder to get. Proverbs says "therefore get wisdom, and in all your getting, get understanding (KJV)." The problem is that people don't want to get the Point. They have believed the lies so much that they think that the Point is pointless, and therefore pointless to get.
Going through the Creation Museum was a great experience, and the point was made repeatedly there that unless people start at the point of accepting the truth of God's Word, they won't catch on to the rest of the important message that God has for them.
I certainly agree with that, but perhaps there is another question to ask: why? Why are kids growing up in Church but missing the Point? Why are Church attendance numbers growing but Christ follower numbers are declining? Why is the Media winning the culture war?
Maybe it's because the Point is getting harder to get. It's not because it's not available - it is certainly available. It's getting harder to get because we have not learned the ability to get it. Surely I am not the only one who has noticed the glazed look in people's eyes as we try to teach them basic truths of God's Word.
Let's face it. The Pants on the Ground video (American Idol thing) is more influential than God's truth in our culture! (I'm not saying anything negative about the video itself - I'm just asserting comparatively, that it is more influential!) Does that bother us? Are we so deep in the cultural sea that we don't even notice - Like asking a fish what water is like?
The point is getting harder to get because very few people are like Timothy, of whom Paul said, "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." - 2 Tim 3:14-15
How it grieves me that people who grow up in the church and in Christian families are not wise for Salvation through faith in Christ Jesus because they have not known the Scriptures from infancy.
I guess I am asking more questions here than giving answers. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3: 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Is it a stretch to say that this passage means that the Point is getting harder to get? I think we have more than arrived at this terrible prophetic picture.
Whatever you are doing, it is not more important than teaching your children to love God and to get His Wisdom. Talking to myself here.
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