Theme of the Year

Today I was sitting at the local coffee house going over some stuff for Sunday night. I'm doing a brief look at 1 Timothy before we start Mere Christianity. This week is chapter 5 and 6. As I began to look at the blog I wrote a few weeks ago a word hit me, relationships. As I thought about it, that word has been hitting me a lot recently. I wrote it at the top of the page next to 2011.

I began to think about last year, the word for 2010 was "Christlikeness". Everything I studied, preached, read, focused on that. This year I've realized that the word is "relationships". It's a fitting topic really seeing as how I just got married.

I'm seeing the importance of relationships more and more. I'm seeing how so much of the Bible's teachings are about relationships. I shared some of this in my 1 Timothy findings. Now as I begin my next study this word has come to the forefront again.

Right now I'm at the beginning of a study on the different "footholds" of the devil. If you've read Ephesians you're familiar with 4.26-27, "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." (NASB) The NIV has the word "foothold" in place of opportunity, but I'll get into that more in the near future. Anger that leads to sin or that is allowed to stew is not the only foothold of Satan, and again my current study is looking at several of them.

The thing that I've noticed this year is that relationships are what life is all about. God said in the beginning, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;" God exists in relationship, He always has. We are made in the image of a relational God. He created us to exist in relationship with Him, but also with each other. "Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.'" Genesis 2.18.

Satan hates God and everything He has done. His sole purpose is to attack God in a vain attempt to defeat Him. If everything is based on relationships, then that is the thing sin attacks the most. The first result of sin is death. Death is separation from God, it is a broken relationship with God. Secondly we see that sin attacks the relationships of humans, predominately the marriage relationship.

The foundation of society is the family, and the foundation of the family is the marriage. If a foundation is weak, then the entire structure is unstable. If the relationship between God and man is broken, then every human relationship is unstable because there is no foundation. If a marriage is weak, then the family is unstable, and if the family is unstable, society cannot function.

Look at America today and you'll see exactly what I'm saying. Our society is full of divorced parents, single mothers, pregnant teenagers, and broken families. Our society is full of corruption, filth, financial trouble and tolerance. We are waiting to fall apart because we have no foundation. Sin has done it's job, and it's been able to because we've given Satan an opportunity.

Jesus came to restore relationships. He came to die to pay the price for sin so that our relationship with God could be healed. He came to lay a new foundation for us to build on. He showed us that God is approachable and that He desires this relationship with us. He showed us how to live in relationship with others. Jesus came to model life to us in every way.

Life is about relationships. We weren't made to live in isolation, but in fellowship with our Creator and our fellow creatures. When we live in relationship with God and each other the foundation of our world is strengthened. A strong foundation will not give the devil a foothold.

Peace be with you

And we wonder why it is the way it is

This was not the original thought I had for today, it was going to be on the church, but that will be saved for later, maybe it'll fit in to this, we'll see. Every Monday morning I send a text message to 9 of the best friends I've ever had, 9 of my 10 Proverbs 18.24 brothers (the last one doesn't have texting). Each week begins with them getting a text message asking how I can pray for them this week. Today one of them sent me a request for Lebron James' elbow, and that started a discussion between us.

Look at Lebron, or any professional athlete, they have a skill for what they do, a God given ability, to play a sport. Irenaeus said, "The glory of God is man fully alive" and so when an athlete does what he does best that can be a way to glorify God. The issue I have is with what they receive as compensation for this skill.

Lebron makes millions because he can put an orange sphere through a circle consistently. I'm not bashing him, I know he gives millions away each year, as do many people with great wealth, and many without it. The issue is not on the athlete, but on the society that embraces him.

What does a professional athlete, a musician, or actor contribute to society, not based on what they do with their wealth, but with the skills they have? Honestly very little. But society embraces them as if they cured cancer, ended world hunger, or brought peace to the Middle East. But really they contribute nothing to the greater good of society. So why do we embrace them as we do?

I remember back shortly after the death of Michael Jackson, I read something wanting to make the day of his death a national holiday. Really? Is he the person we want to idolize? If so, we wonder why our society is the way it is. We wonder why it's so messed up and why we have so many problems, look at where our focus is. Again, none of this is directed at any of the individual people.

Where is our focus? Who or what do we live for? We wonder why our society is the way it is? Look at what we idolize, and by that what we worship, and that explains a lot.