Friends while making my daily trek to Wal-Mart the other day I noticed something very interesting, over by the clothing section there was a big display of Ac/Dc merchandise. As you all know Ac/Dc is a famous rock band that started out in the 70’s and sold millions of records through out the 80's and 90's but the thing that blew my mind was that Wal-Mart had a big promotional deal with them and even had some items only available at their store. Now I have to admit I had been a fan of Ac/Dc and have even been to some of their concerts back in the day but now that I am a lot older and walking with the Lord I have to wonder if Wal-Mart is the proper place to promote this band. I would expect this at a record store but Wal-Mart? Is this the kind of stuff we should be exposing our young children to? I know some people will say if you don’t want your kids to listen to a certain group or watch a movie or T.V show that we as parents should just turn it off. But the question now is do we keep our kids out of Wal-Mart? I don’t know. I just think it’s kind of tacky.
Anyway seeing the acronym ac/dc made me think of some other ways it has been used. Of course the real meaning of Ac/Dc is alternating current / direct current or in today’s (anything goes) culture, going both ways with your sexual orientation, but how about this one, Accepting Christ / Denying Christ. I think when we use it this way there can only be one path to travel on. You can’t have it both ways. Although many have tried (Peter even denied Christ three times and later became a Saint) you will always end up on one side or the other. I know in my own personal walk with the Lord I have tried to straddle the fence and serve two masters but it has never worked.
Mathew 6:24 tells us “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other”
I once saw a church sign that read “You can’t walk with the Lord while you are holding hands with the Devil”. How true that is. Seeing that sign made me question myself and wonder if I am really walking with the Lord or walking with the flesh and the world. I also realize that I like to try to get as close as I can to the edge of that line without crossing it so I will definitely have to work on that. Now friends I know we will all veer off the path at one time or another. But being a Child of God we can take comfort in knowing that he will put us back on track and get us going in the right direction. So the question for me is what do we do when we are getting ready to cross that line? I say in this case we jerk the steering wheel and get back on the road unlike when you’re driving and you make the gradual adjustment. What do you think? Take care my friends and keep both hands on the wheel!…Chris
Anyway seeing the acronym ac/dc made me think of some other ways it has been used. Of course the real meaning of Ac/Dc is alternating current / direct current or in today’s (anything goes) culture, going both ways with your sexual orientation, but how about this one, Accepting Christ / Denying Christ. I think when we use it this way there can only be one path to travel on. You can’t have it both ways. Although many have tried (Peter even denied Christ three times and later became a Saint) you will always end up on one side or the other. I know in my own personal walk with the Lord I have tried to straddle the fence and serve two masters but it has never worked.
Mathew 6:24 tells us “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other”
I once saw a church sign that read “You can’t walk with the Lord while you are holding hands with the Devil”. How true that is. Seeing that sign made me question myself and wonder if I am really walking with the Lord or walking with the flesh and the world. I also realize that I like to try to get as close as I can to the edge of that line without crossing it so I will definitely have to work on that. Now friends I know we will all veer off the path at one time or another. But being a Child of God we can take comfort in knowing that he will put us back on track and get us going in the right direction. So the question for me is what do we do when we are getting ready to cross that line? I say in this case we jerk the steering wheel and get back on the road unlike when you’re driving and you make the gradual adjustment. What do you think? Take care my friends and keep both hands on the wheel!…Chris
3 comments:
Chris,
Sounds like you've had an adjustment of what you think is alright, I mean you were probably a kid when you listened to AC/DC and you didn't think there was anything wrong with it. If you were like most kids you would have thrown a fit if you weren't allowed. Restrictions don’t really work anyway, not as long as the forbidden stuff is available somewhere, but education and example are the keys. For example, I have some cousins that had severe restrictions on what records they could have and as soon as they could they rebelled, went wild and got into a lot of trouble (they’ve finally settled down but took the hard road to get there). My parents didn’t overprotect me but did have rules I understood, even if I didn’t always follow the rules. More importantly, even though they weren’t Christians, they set a good example about how to treat people and act. I can remember arguments but not fights; my dad drank beer but never got drunk; we always had dinner as a family (with the TV turned off) and we all knew my dad had the final say but he rarely used it.
By the way, what’s a record store? I mean have you seen one recently?
What’s interesting is that I’m starting to reach a point in my walk where I can enjoy certain things without the bondage it would have on the unsaved. Using your example of music, I can now listen to AC/DC and enjoy the music without being drawn in by the words. I acknowledge the words to some of the songs are evil but I have the freedom to let them pass by. Of course, I don’t want to make this my normal diet as there is always a risk of seepage but it does allow me to go places that would have been dangerous when I was first saved. This allows me to be in contact with the unsaved and bring light into dark places.
Galatians 5:13 (ESV)
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Very interesting post.I thought of this when I realised that my stepkids have started listening to all the old heavy metal bands as it is a cool thing to do.
Both are saved but forget how Jesus figures in all this
If you're steering a well balanced car it's easy to make a gradual adjustment. But if it's out of alignment and pulls to the right, then you do indeed need to keep jerking the wheel to the left to stay out of the ditch.
It seems to me that our fleshly nature is like that. It tries to pull us toward sin through little compromises, and it takes a deliberate effort to get back on the road.
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