Paying The Bills

They’re bold in divorce. Bold in watching whatever they want to watch. Bold in reading whatever they want to read. Bold in listening to whatever they want to listen to. Bold in eating whatever they want to eat. Bold in wearing whatever they want to wear. Bold in gambling. Bold in shacking up. Bold in smoking whatever they want to smoke, and drinking whatever they want to drink. Bold in their sins!

I’m a member of a number of Christian dating sites, and one site that is not exclusively Christian called veggiedate.com, which is an internet dating service set up for people who are vegetarians or would like to be. It lists all of the different world religions as a religious preference, but out of all the Christian religions, Seventh-day Adventist is the only one mentioned specifically. You can choose New Age, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic, Pagan, Jewish, Christian, or Seventh-day Adventist. (I’m going to assume that they aren’t excluding us from Christianity, but including us specifically due to the high number of vegetarians in our church.)

I mentioned all of that to say that because this site is not operated by Seventh-day Adventists, they ask all sorts of personal questions that a real SDA dating service would probably feel it unnecessary to ask. They ask if you’re gay or straight. They ask if you smoke or drink. And you would be shocked at how many people are on this site, claiming to be Seventh-day Adventists, who admit publicly to their sins. Last night I checked the site, and 74 people claiming to be Seventh-day Adventists admit to drinking alcohol, 6 admit to being smokers, and 1 admits to being bisexual.

Now I understand that we’re all sinners, and that none of us here are any better than those people I saw online. I fully realize that we all have our struggles, and that many of these people are in bondage and are desperate for freedom in Jesus. I also must take into account that some of these are people who were just raised in the SDA church and have little or nothing to do with the church now. But sadly, some of those people are claiming to be committed Seventh-day Adventist Christians, and yet they are being open and bold in their sinfulness. By the way, one of those who admits to drinking alcohol says on the website that she is a cradle roll Sabbath school teacher.

The world has a philosophy: If it feels good, do it. That philosophy was born in hell, yet it is creeping into many of our lives, and even into the church. We, myself included, often do things because they are fun and entertaining, forgetting about what impact they may or may not have on our relationship with Jesus. If we want to watch something, we watch it. If we want to eat something, we eat it. If we want to wear something immodest, we wear it, and we’ll call anybody who disapproves a legalist. After all, as they say, it’s easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission.

I want to read something from a book I have in my library. It’s a little red book called Christ’s Object Lessons. If you don’t have the book, I highly recommend it. I’m reading from pages 54 and 55. “The more the desire for pleasure is indulged, the stronger it becomes…They form habits of idleness and self-indulgence that make it almost impossible for them ever to become steadfast Christians…Those who learn to love amusement for its own sake open the door to a flood of temptations. They give themselves up to social gaiety and thoughtless mirth, and their intercourse with pleasure lovers has an intoxicating effect upon the mind. They are led on from one form of dissipation to another, until they lose both the desire and the capacity for a life of usefulness. Their religious aspirations are chilled; their spiritual life is darkened. All the nobler faculties of the soul, all that link man with the spiritual world, are debased.”