loopholes

a couple of nights ago i had the "sixth commandment talk" with our second year confirmation students... yeah, that's right...the one about adultery, SEX. They did a great job handling the awkwardness of the conversation and were quite mature but one thing really ocurred to me.

Most Christ-followers think that God is holding out on them.

I really think it's true. Most of the kids who will remain sexually pure until marriage will do so because they are afraid, of disappointing God or their parents. Or because they are afraid of getting pregnant or getting a disease. In otherwords they will do what God says out of fear or at best out of submissive obedience, which isn't a bad thing, but few will do it because they REALLY BELIEVE that God has in mind what is best for them. It doesn't really occur to most people (i admit often i'm in this boat too) that God's commands could actually be in our best interest... that life would be good if we heeded God's wise counsel.

Maybe the problem is that we don't trust that God has good in mind for us. We think that we (people from the ancestry of adam and eve who chose to eat from the only tree in the garden that would kill them) know what good is... and so sex, overeating, talking garbage about other people, cheating the system (i could go on) it all seems like the path to a great life. And all the while God's voice is calling us down another road. The road that is in fact good

unfortunately it is in our nature NOT to recognize God's way, his plan for us, as the GOOD way. Instead we see him as the "fun-take-away-er" standing in the way of earthly pleasures and bliss. And so we ultimately end up either resentfully following (sad that we're missing out) or looking for loopholes so that allow us to have (what we believe is) the best of both worlds.

It's such a great misunderstanding of who God is though. After all, he's the one who gave us his Son, freely he gave him, for OUR good. God never has and never will hold back his best from us. If we would believe that... man....