The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
July 5, 2009
In
This Issue:
Death
of the Righteous
by
Morris D. Norman
Death of the Righteous
Balak came to Balaam to get him to curse Israel. He offered Balaam great reward, if he could stop Israel's advance. Balaam well understood that he could not go against God's will, so he sought ways to get the reward and not cross God. He kept returning to God, hoping that a way would be open for him to become rich. He had a desire to "die the death of the righteous" (Numbers 23:10), but Peter tells us that he "loved the wages of unrighteousness" (2 Peter 2:15). He wanted what unrighteousness would give him, but he wanted the outcome to be that which came only to the righteous.
Man has not changed. He does not want the criminal on the street to rob, rape, and kill, but he wants the laws to be liberalized so that the criminal does not have his "civil rights" violated. He doesn't want the crime but he defends the criminal.
Modern man doesn't see fornication, adultery and homosexuality as sin, but simply as an alternate life style. But, he doesn't know how to cope with the consequences of these life styles that are quite apparent: broken homes out of which come deeply emotionally dis-turbed children, venereal diseases, suicide and a host of other unwanted side effects.
Our communities do not like the animalistic behavior manifested most everywhere we look, but they want our schools to be free to teach that man has evolved from lower animal life and was not created in the image of a righteous God. Man has determined to establish the fact that there is no God, and that man is therefore not subject to a higher power, but he does not like the consequence of man being left to himself to decide his own standards of ethics and morals.
Parents want to have happy, healthy, obedient, well behaved, mannerly children. But they do not want to do what it takes to produce such. For us to have children that we can be proud of, that will rise up and call us blessed, we must have the proper standards of child rearing; God's wisdom, not the modern, humanistic, Dr. Spock type. There needs to be a lot of righteous examples set before them. There needs to be a great deal of communication that is undergirded with the kind of love that only God can teach. It cannot be if we are so interested in success, self fulfillment and recreational pursuits that we rarely see, much less speak, to our children.
Husbands and wives want a story book marriage; they want to "live happily ever after." But, in too many cases, they are not willing to do what it takes to produce that ideal union. It takes more selflessness than most are willing to give. Too many are so interested in self-fulfillment that they rarely see the needs of their mates. Being self-centered, they are unable to love and give themselves for the well being of the other.
We do not like the consequences of sin, but we are all more involved in it than we care to admit. If we do the devil's will, we are his children and must share his fate. We want the consequence of righteousness, but love the wages of unrighteousness.
-- Morris D. Norman
Via The Main & Thirteenth Visitor; Blytheville, Ark