What is enjoyable to a believer is very different from the pleasure of an unbeliever.
Those who are born again, love the little things and praise God for the smallest joys.
The unbelievers must have constant adulation and manufactured fun! I feel sorry for them, they waste lost of money on useless things and have to do it all over again to keep the excitement going and it is not worth much unless they can brag about their exploits.
Everyday joys of life, no manufactured but lived out normally are enough for those who love Christ. He is everything we need.
We cannot reason with twisted minds that are bent on making life easier for themselves. Pleasure dominates our culture like a plague, anyone suggesting that we should give up something for the greater good is unthinkable to the people living in a narcissistic age of enlightenment.
We must continue to warn, when they won't hear, then we are to move on to the next person, but most will not listen.
Proverbs 23:9 "Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words."
Jeremiah 7:27 ""You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you."
Matthew 13:13 ""Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."
Zechariah 7:13 ""And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen," says the LORD of hosts;"
To say that we should not judge is ludicrous at best. If we are not to judge then we must be consistent and say that there might be a good reason for murder, or rape or theft. If we are not to judge acts then everything must be ignored or accepted in case it might have been the right thing to do, pragmatism at its' worst. Then one might say that we can judge the acts but not the heart, however, God says our actions come out of the heart, we cannot do something that has not already been in the heart first.
Matthew 15:11 ""It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."
A person could not bring himself to take something that belongs to others unless he first massages theft in his own heart.
A person who loves and is caring and giving could never kill another innocent human being, such as babies in the womb.
A person who is kind and loving in their heart cannot bring themselves to steal from their neighbor.
A person who loves God cannot bring themselves to take another person's spouse.
In short a godly person whose mind is stayed upon the Lord does not have it in their heart to do evil. One who does evil without conscience has an evil heart.
It is not a popular notion, but many people don't realize their prayers are not being heard, no matter how long they are, how often they are said or the good intentions. May people are praying for revival in this country, but their prayers are hitting the ceiling and bouncing back on them.
As a country there has been no repentance for the 56 million babies that have been killed, the declaration to promote same sex marriage or the legalization of mind altering drugs. There are so many more sins that are being encouraged even to the point of teaching them to small school children in the public institutions, too many to list here.
God is not going to "bless America" anymore, there is blood on the land and countless violations of God's principles, aside from the most detestable of all sins, the mentality that rejects Christ at every turn, twisting His words, maligning His character through bad doctrine and even taking His name in vain by claiming to be a "Christian" without evidence in the lives of those who profess Christianity.
John 9:31 "Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth."
Notice too that God only hears the prayers of the believers who are obeying Him.
Psalm 66:18, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear."
Proverbs 1:28-29, “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me, 29 Because they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of the Lord."
Isaiah 59:2 " 2 But your ainiquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His 1face from you so that He does bnot hear."
James 4:3 " 3 You ask and ado not receive, because you ask 1 with wrong motives, so that you may spend it 2 on your pleasures."
Proverbs 1:28-29 "28 “Then they will acall on me, but I will not answer; They will bseek me diligently but they will not find me, 29 Because they ahated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord."
For all those who are still attempting to keep to the Jewish laws and rituals, it is important to remember that you are free to do what you want, but it would be sin to tell others what they can and cannot eat.
Romans 14:20 "Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense."
Acts 10:15 "Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy."
Mark 7:19 "because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.)"
If you call a food unclean when God calls it clean, then you call God a liar.
Mark 16:15 "And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."
The meaning here is "wherever you go in the world preach the gospel."
So often we think that only those who go to foreign countries are missionaries, but in fact we all are, and should be sharing in our own corner of the world.
