I woke up looking forward to Men's Bible Study tonight. I pray that all the guys can make it tonight as we cap off the semester. So as I pray I can hear the Door County Bourbon Pecan Pie Coffee brewing downstairs in the kitchen.
I have watched busyness creep into the Men's study and when it comes to making choices of whether or not to attend other things or keeping your commitment to diving deeper into God's Word , other things take precedence over God. When God becomes a choice, He is no choice at all.
Now for the meat of this study. This has been bothering me for a few days now. Not long ago Rene and I stopped for a bite to eat after church on a Saturday night. We decided to eat at a family style restaurant. We unfortunately were seated near a group of young men who were in their early twenties. They were quite loud and boisterous. As the meal time wore on their voices grew louder and more vulgar. One fellow relieved his stomach gas very loudly and the rest of his group laughed. The odor alone was enough to make you vomit. They ate, spilling things on to the floor still speaking gutter mouth with children within ear shot. I noticed the manager of the food emporium speaking with the waitstaff urging them to hurry the group of Out House Rats out of the restaurant. This invoked a few rude insults to the waiter and waitress. I began to pray for my wish to come true. I was hoping one of them would bump into our table and then get a lesson on manners. But God had a better plan. They paid, left the parking lot and then were pulled over by the local police and as we left we witnessed them all in handcuffs. I think two of the drivers may have been legally drunk. All three cars were pulled over and all six guys were detained.
Rene asked for us to pray for those guys. She prayed and I listened. My thoughts turned to their parents. Now I wanted to believe that these six guys crawled out from the depths of an out house and were not conceived by two real people. But we all know that it is impossible. Some poor women gave birth to these guys. Later it hit home that these guys are just young men in bad shape. Maybe they were never taught how to behave. Maybe they were products of their environment. But is that an excuse?
The answer is no. I believe that all people know right from wrong. It is a choice to do wrong.
Christian Apologetics (1): Knowing Right from Wrong
"They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them" (Rom 2.15).1
All creatures are subject to physical laws, like gravity, which cannot be broken. Human beings are also subject to moral laws, like charity, which can be broken. No sane person denies the reality of physical laws, since attempting to break them yields such obvious results. However, it is fashionable for people to deny the reality of moral laws, partly because the consequences of breaking them — although severe and eternal — are neither sudden nor apparent. People have learned not to challenge physical laws, because nature never forgives. God, however, tempers the demands of His moral laws with mercy. Taking advantage, people contest God’s ethical standards because they find them too uncomfortable, inconvenient, and unworkable.
Unlike animals, we humans live in two worlds at the same time — a physical domain and a moral domain. More than rationality, more than language, it is our moral nature that distinguishes us from even the highest animal. God has put an innate sense of right and wrong in our consciences, factory-installed. Every day, we shoulder the human duty to make ethical decisions. Animals do not make free choices — their genes and environment dictate what they will do. Nothing made purely of matter can be free. But we humans, spirits made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1.27), have the capacity and responsibility to choose between good and evil. We reveal our moral nature every time we use words like should, should not, ought, owe, right, and wrong. Whenever we praise or blame, applaud or scorn, approve or disapprove, we are appealing to a shared ethical standard external to ourselves. We all know by moral intuition, for instance, that it is wrong to deceive our friends or to starve our children."
All creatures are subject to physical laws, like gravity, which cannot be broken. Human beings are also subject to moral laws, like charity, which can be broken. No sane person denies the reality of physical laws, since attempting to break them yields such obvious results. However, it is fashionable for people to deny the reality of moral laws, partly because the consequences of breaking them — although severe and eternal — are neither sudden nor apparent. People have learned not to challenge physical laws, because nature never forgives. God, however, tempers the demands of His moral laws with mercy. Taking advantage, people contest God’s ethical standards because they find them too uncomfortable, inconvenient, and unworkable.
Unlike animals, we humans live in two worlds at the same time — a physical domain and a moral domain. More than rationality, more than language, it is our moral nature that distinguishes us from even the highest animal. God has put an innate sense of right and wrong in our consciences, factory-installed. Every day, we shoulder the human duty to make ethical decisions. Animals do not make free choices — their genes and environment dictate what they will do. Nothing made purely of matter can be free. But we humans, spirits made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1.27), have the capacity and responsibility to choose between good and evil. We reveal our moral nature every time we use words like should, should not, ought, owe, right, and wrong. Whenever we praise or blame, applaud or scorn, approve or disapprove, we are appealing to a shared ethical standard external to ourselves. We all know by moral intuition, for instance, that it is wrong to deceive our friends or to starve our children."
But, it is our duty to pray for these guys and attempt to lead them to Jesus. He is the only Way for lives to change.
Next time you encounter the Out House Gang. Start with prayer and end with an invitation to church. Better yet right down a Bible verse and hand it to them.
Food for thought.
Marty
