Moral: “Truth can strike down the spectre of fear.”
“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15, NIV).
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18, NIV).
Moral: Fear is a great motivator.
We all are driven by fear–at least some of the time. And some of the time it’s good: fear keeps us out of danger. But fear can also make us do stupid things.
Fear can keep a church from reaching out to the people who need the church. Fear can keep a church all one skin-tone. Fear can keep a church from standing up for injustices.
Fear is a great motivator. But it shouldn’t be the greatest.
Love should be the greatest motivator.
Love changes the world. Love has brought the gospel to the unreached corners of the earth. Love has touched the untouchable. Love has brought about justice when there was none.
Love sent His Son to die on the cross so all might have salvation. Not fear.
Moral: Love comes in all shapes and sizes.
Jesus calls us to love everyone, to love our enemies even. We are to love regardless of color of skin, religion, political affiliation, gender, sexual preference, or even socio-economic status.
Most of our churches, however, are pretty homogeneous. They tend to have people of all the same race, economic status, and background.
The Heaven the Bible talks about is made of people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. That can happen when we love all. No matter what shape or size.
Moral: “A failure in planning is a plan for failure.”
We’ve probably heard the axiom above before in some form or another. It’s still amazing how often churches fail to plan. Often we may think that God will handle anything. And while God could (and sometimes would), He generally expects us to use the intellectual capacities He’s given us.
We should plan to prevent harm from coming to the children in our care in church. We should plan for what to do when the needy “sinner” arrives through our doors. We should plan for emergencies. We should plan for the unexpected. And while I generally believe we should let the Holy Spirit guide us, we should also plan for worship (and let the Spirit guide us in our planning).
Most of us don’t evangelize to our friends and neighbors because we don’t plan to do so. We don’t practice what to say. We don’t practice inviting them to church. We fail not because they don’t come or believe, but because we don’t plan to initiate it.
Moral: “The future has many paths–choose wisely.”
Every choice we make has consequences. Sometimes our choices are easy and obvious. Sometimes they are obvious, but difficult. Sometimes they are just difficult–whether they be choosing the lesser of two evils or choosing between two great options. Sometimes we choose well. Sometimes we don’t.
The good news is there is always grace. God is a God of second chances. He forgives and gives grace. There are still consequences for our choices, but He doesn’t give up on us.
Still we must strive to choose wisely.
Moral: “Those who enforce the law must obey the law.”
There is a lot of hypocrisy in this world. We’re aware of it. Doctors tell us to be healthy–but they go out and smoke during their break. Priests tell us to be celibate–but some have molested children. And the church tells us not to sin, but everyone in the church still sins.
This frustrates many people. But we shouldn’t expect it not to be so…church is for sinners. Even though we follow God, we will still mess up at times. But we don’t revel in our sin. We keep striving for godliness. And we acknowledge our sins, not sweeping them under a rug and ignoring them.
Moral: “The challenge of hope is to overcome corruption.”
It’s hard to stay sin-free. God gives us grace, but He also expects that we don’t devalue Christ’s sacrifice, but rather that we strive for perfection. To ward off the corruption of sin, we must stay rooted in Christ and a spiritual community. We need daily (minute-ly) time with God to remember who we are in Him and who He calls us to be. We need other followers of Christ around us (not just on Sundays) because we need others to walk alongside us.
Moral: “A child stolen is a lost hope.”
Too many children today are being kidnapped or sold into prostitution. Human Trafficking is a terrible savage act that should not be happening today. Yet it is. Many are standing up to fight against those who are violating our children in this way. Much has yet to be done. (Visit humantrafficking.org or trafficfree.org for more info.)
I wonder how often we think of the less obvious ways are children are stolen from us. Possibly from the “need” for both parents to be working, so children spend their days being raised by day care providers. Possibly through trying to give them everything they ask for instead of teaching them contentment. Possibly through too much television and video games. Possibly through too much “hands-off” parenting, letting children do as they desire rather than having a strong relationship with them. Perhaps it is through a lack of community and too many single parents trying to do it all on their own.
There are many ways in which our children are stolen from us, and all too often we have let it happen. But it’s never too late. We must not let our children be stolen from us. There is always hope, as long as there are people willing to care, love and fight for the sake of our children and their future.
Moral: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
We’ve heard this adage before most likely. And most likely we agree with it. If we have the will to get something done, we’ll find a way to get it done.
Often, it’s our will that’s the problem. If we claim to follow Christ, we have claimed His Lordship over our lives. But most of us seldom fully let our lives fall under His Lordship. We still exercise our own will far too often.
Part of the church’s problem lies in following His will. We’d rather make it our will that get’s done. We can find a way to make our will happen. But with God’s will, we often don’t feel there’s a way to make it happen. We forget He empowers us to do so.
Moral: “Fighting a war tests a soldier’s skills, defending his home tests a soldier’s heart.”
As we battle not against flesh and blood, but against the very things that fight for our souls, we are tested on a daily basis. Often we don’t realize it, but we are enticed to do that which we shouldn’t do, to not do the things we should do, to think that which is impure and even to be passive in living out our faith. When we take time to start each day with prayer and thoughtful intention about saying the course as well as taking time to reflect upon our day in the evening, we train ourselves to defend our heart against the forces that try to take it captive.
Moral: “Brothers in arms are brothers for life.”
I don’t want to get into the whole “Onward Christian Soldiers” analogy, looking at followers of Jesus as soldiers in a war against evil. In some ways it is apt, but it also gets blown way out of proportion and used in ways that it shouldn’t.
Maybe we just need to remember that as children of God, we are brothers (and sisters). And it is for life. So, it would be prudent for us to spend more time together, working with one another instead of against each other.
Moral: “Revenge is a confession of pain.”
I often feel sad for those people I hear say that they couldn’t forgive someone. I understand (or can at least imagine) the pain involved if someone murdered or raped a family member, or even if someone violated my home and property. I can understand wanting revenge in those painful situations. But revenge only harbors and builds the pain. God calls us to forgive others because He has forgiven us. In fact, He says He can’t forgive us if we don’t extend forgiveness to others.
Revenge hardly makes us feel better. Often it just builds upon our pain and adds to it. We don’t feel better.
Forgiveness is one of those things that doesn’t make sense to do. Yet it makes complete sense to do.We forgive not just for the other person, but for ourselves. Forgiving releases the bitterness of vengeance that continuously grows.
Sci-Fi God 