by Nigel Pink | Sep 17, 2020 | Articles, Mentors Corner
One of the great spiritual deceptions is that there is a neutral position or state in which the disciple of Christ can idle. When back-sliding Israel became idolatrous, they swung from worshiping God to bowing to idols. Many in the Church today, think this example no longer applies; apostates do not erect a statue to Baal or Molech, yet think that ‘time away from the Lord’ is not an evil; however, Jesus’ teaching is crystal and warns that a person cannot serve two masters: ‘Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money…’ (Matthew 6:24) The word translated ‘money’ is a Greek transliteration from the Aramaic, μαμωνᾶς mamonas, and it means any ‘treasure’ in which we place trust; therefore, the nature of the idol is not the issue; idolatry is turning away from God. We either serve God or we oppose Him; rebellion knows no middle way – as described in another of Jesus’ teaching: ‘Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.’ (ibid 7:13-14) Again, this is starkly binary. Thus, the disciple is either ignorant of Scripture or self-deluded if he believes that he may please himself with impunity. There is no activity or lack thereof, that is spiritually neutral. We cannot think that there is ‘down-time’ in God’s economy. We either...
by Ron Hocutt | Sep 3, 2020 | Articles, Mentors Corner
Psalms 77:19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. One of the first questions a young child learns to ask is “Why?” They ask it repeatedly and relentlessly, eager to learn about the world around them. Even as adults, it is the question we all want to know. About everything. Always. Why did this happen? Why did you say that? Why am I being taxed like this? And on and on and on until we die. But even then, we ask it – why am I dying now? And we reserve special questions for when we’re actually dead. “When I get to see God, I’m going to ask him why….” While meditating on the nature of curiosity the other day I was struck with how dangerous a question it is. As a young child, we ask it primarily to explore and learn about the world around us. As we grow older however, the motivation for the question changes. We begin to ask it to understand and manipulate the motivations of others “…but mom, why can’t I have a cookie?”. Eventually we no longer ask it seeking understanding of God’s universe at all, but rather control. Understanding something is the first step to controlling it, and the question “why? is the key to understanding. How is this dangerous? Chiefly for two reasons: it assumes we are equal with God in understanding His infinite ways and demonstrates a subtle attempt to control His providence. Job spends chapter after chapter establishing his innocence but also seeking to understand why tribulation...
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