Many nominal Christians and those who don’t believe in Christ, will use the Bible as a way to prove their distorted points. They will say things like, ‘Look at the evil that God’s people did in the Old Testament.” or they will say to justify their own thinking that, “the Bible is filled with evil things.” While that may be true, what are the evil things that are done, that is recorded in Scripture for. Maybe this will help: ‘Now I want you to know brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things became examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did. Don’t be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play. Let us not commit sexual immorality some of them did, and in a single day 23,000 people fell dead. Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes. Nor should we complain as some of them did and were killed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.” 1 Corinthians 10: 1-11 We have been given in Scripture, examples of what kind of behavior the Lord expects out of us, and what kind of behavior He detests. All given to us as a warning to take-a-look at our own behavior. Every time we read scripture, we ought to be thinking two things. How am I to live then; and how might I be living that is wrong. We all want to be examples for others and for our children. I remember a long time ago there was this smoking ad that had a small boy following his dad around and trying to copy him in everything the dad did. Then they sat down by a tree and the father lit up a cigarette. The picture zoomed in on the boy then looking at the cigarette package, and the words came across the screen, “Like father, like son.” I never forgot that, for that short commercial made me realize how my actions would very much be an example for my children to follow. I know that I wasn’t perfect, but I made a conscious decision long ago that my family was my first church, and If I ministered incorrectly to them, what would I be ministering to those outside of the family. You and I who have kids have been given much and instructed much in scripture about things we should do and things we should not do, and we have been given real examples of this, so think about what kind of example you are, then check that with what example the scriptures tell you to be and see how you measure up. We all still might need to change a little. Pastor Andy
Barnabas Man 