Saturday, July 23, 2005

# 29: Laziness, Worship, Goodness and Godliness

We all are guilty of being lazy, to one degree or another, although many of us may deny it. Could we classify laziness as sin? Yes and no. Laziness is a precursor to an attitude of: “If I really don’t have to do it, I won’t.” Strange to say, there is no room for lazy people in the realm of being disciples of Christ. We can tolerate being lazy, to a small degree, in worldly duties, but when it comes to spiritual matters, even the least bit of laziness will propagate mediocrity. And mediocrity is like having one foot in the Devil’s door. There is one way most Americans are not lazy, and that is in eating; many of us have an addictive infatuation with food.

Nowadays, there is very little in this world that is conducive to Godly morals. No matter where one turns, the masses in America condone, if not promote, the overt corruption of moral values. There always was corruption in the world, but now it is accepted by most as an alternative lifestyle. I believe the biggest contributor is television. By and large, television networks, out of financial greed, give us the type of programming that receives the highest ratings. Therefore, television is a good barometer of what Americans are made of.

Here is a sure-fire method of telling if one REALLY worships Christ. A person will always actively desire to become like the one she or he worships. How much do you and I desire to be like Christ? Do we really worship Him, or are we only fooling ourselves? Life is too valuable to play the part of a fool. Fools—hopefully not us—seldom know they are fooling themselves. This irony is a serious accusation that we must give careful consideration to without self-imposed credulity. Do you remember all those people who worshiped Elvis (and many still do)? They wanted to look like him, sound like him, and make body gestures like him; that is, they wanted to be another Elvis (if they were males). And females were flipping their lids over this man (their god). That is real worship.

Many people mistake having good morals, kindness, generosity, love, gentleness, consideration, and understanding as Christianity. This is just one of the evil one’s great deceptions. Although Christianity encompasses all of the above traits, they are a result of our belief in Christ and not the essence of Christianity. The closer a religious group appears to be the “Real Thing” without actually being genuine Christians, the more dangerous they are to the cause of Christ because they can more easily deceive many into following them.

At this time, although we may not know who the real Christians are, we can know for certain those who are not by looking at their self-centered lives; a person can be extremely generous, if one is wealthy, and still self-centered. To sum up, we must never equate goodness and generosity with Godliness.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two other big items contributing to laziness is videogames and surfing the internet.

In Mormonism, a popular qoute is "a man should be anxiously engaged in a good cause."

Anonymous said...

Al,

I think Roland and B. Hall are trying to tell you that Mormonism is the active and giving Church you've been looking for.

Anonymous said...

Roland and Bhall is the same person - please bear with me as I'm still learning how to login and read and post comments to these blogs.

Anonymous said...

Hi Scott -

Al's articles on his religion page seem to emphasize four issues that I strongly endorse - avoid corrupt charities stealing donations, love your enemies, keeping the commandments, and the need for personal sacrifice to draw oneself closer to God.

1) Any charitable operation that uses in excess of 5% of total revenue to cover marketing and administrative costs is inefficient and is not a true charity. I focus my labor and financials donations to four organizations with less than 2% administrative and marketing costs. So many people are blind that some famous popular charities / churches divert well over 70% to their greedy wall street style administrators and marketers

2) Love Your enemies. My religion (Mormonism) has been (and to some extent still is) the subject of intense persecution. But we definitely do not condone planting in on the public subway. Our 11th Article of Faith does the opposite and stresses that everyone has the right to worship as they please.

3) Keep the commandments. While everyone has the free agency to choose which commandments they want to keep - each commandment is based upon a principle to bring us happiness and blessings - while sin brings guilt, misery and problems and drives away the Holy Spirit from being able to help you overcome the tribulations of this life.
When God blesses you with fruits of Happiness and prosperity are a sign that you are making good choices in life.

4) Personal Sacrifice. Again most commandments require us to sacrifice our own selfish desires and to act with the interests of others in mind. Al's comments on laziness drives in this direction. My pet peive is that laziness forces a higher tax burden on honest workers myself in that the government keeps raising my taxes to cover the laziness and selfishness of others that drives the Social Welfare burden being assumed by the government. Health care costs skyrocket because people continue to make unhealty lifestyle choices. Social Service costs are driven up by immorality and the destruction of the traditional family. I have already sacrificed 18 months of my life on a foriegn proslyting mission and now serve weekly in Boy Scouts. (Next week is our annual scout camp trip and you'll get to miss my biased posts here for a few days.)

The LDS/Mormon church and Boy Scouts of America are at least two organizations that are famously well know for its stand on these particular four issues.

JC said...

Roland, Thanks for the information concerning the Mormons. Nevertheless, I must tell you how and what I believe and how I feel about your church. First of all, I have nothing personal against you or any other Mormons. Notwithstanding, what I am about to tell you will hurt you, but that is not my purpose. You are dedicated to a religion that you grew up with, and to you, it is the only true Church of Christ. I understand your position. You have been steeped in your belief for so long that nothing, come hell or highwater could dissuade you and on the same token, no one could rescue you. Now, let me state my case. First of all, I believe that of all the “Christian” churches I am familiar with, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints is based a foundation that has the most ridiculously, but ingeniously concocted fairytale of all religions. Joseph Smith (your cleaver founder from 1830 till 1844 when he was killed) knew that he needed strong and unique evidence in order to convince people to choose him as their spiritual leader. Therefore, he personally wrote the Book of Mormon in 1830 based mostly on what he was told by the angel Moroni--he was the angel of a 4th century prophet’s son named Mormon. Moroni told Smith where some gold plates were hidden, although no other authority has actually ever seen them but Smith. Smith dug them up and written therein was his main inspiration for the Book of Mormon. If that isn’t bad enough, he claimed the Book of Mormon to be equal in authority with the Christian Bible and is also the Word of God. WOW! That book contained the doctrine of plural marriages for men (polygamy) until in 1890 when it was outlawed by the Federal Government--some Mormons still secretly practice polygamy, as you very well know. Joe Smith must have been a horny guy to stick that into his “word of god”. The Apostle Paul, three times in the Epistles of 1st Timothy and Titus , ordered that church leaders must have but one wife: 1st Timothy 3:2 and 3:12 and Titus 1:6. That in its self, tell there is something dramatically wrong with the book that Smith wrote and called the “word of god.” Along with that there are so many MAN MADE rules, regulation, formalities, and rituals that resemble Jewish traditions before the time of Christ. That is exactly what Christ did away with. Another thing that his book sanctioned: church members were promised material prosperity if they gave a tenth of their income to the church. Prosperity is a clear violation of Jesus teaching. For those reasons and many more, it should be extremely clear to any thinking person that Smith’s book and church is a nasty joke. Roland, if I didn’t write the above words, I would have been lying with my silence. I would not join any church especially your’s, even is an angel of God told me to, unless it conforms with all the hard-edged verses the New Testament teaches. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 1:8: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.” I often elaborate on what the Bible says but–as I have previously said–never contradict it. Roland, if and when we communicate, keep this post in mind, that way you won’t be wasting your time and mine. Thanks, and God Bless.

Anonymous said...

When Mormons come to my front door, I give them this verse; Rev 22:18-19 (NLT)18And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. 19And if anyone removes any of the words of this prophetic book, God will remove that person's share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book. Joseph Smith did both.

JC said...

Scott, yes I agree with you and the Bible. Thanks for your input. Visit with you later