I enjoy doing brain teaser puzzles and games, Word Search, Hidden Objects, Picture Differences, What’s Wrong. I think they help keep my mind and observation skills sharper.
The “what’s missing”, Picture Differences, puzzles can be the most challenging to me.
The other afternoon I was watching a news program and I saw it as a real life what’s-wrong here challenge. People were rude, uncaring, selfish, threatening, angry, and mean spirited. The commentator was expressing their disbelief over the rampant decline in this particular geographic location.
Buildings were being vandalized, garbage filled the streets, and the crime rate was higher than it had ever been. What’s wrong here?
I couldn’t help but wonder…
- Thou shalt not kill
- Thou shalt not steal
- Thou shalt not bear false witness
- Thou shalt not covet
- Honor thy father and mother
For years some of the more liberal thinkers of our land have expressed the sentiment that the Bible and godly living is antiquated and too restrictive, so they fought to remove its influence and now, I believer, we are dealing with the consequences.
“People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. 6 If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.” Romans 8:5-6 CEV
A line from one of my favorite cowboy movies goes like this: “Huey, actions have con – see – quences”.
That is so true! If our actions are God-directed we will have life and peace.
“But the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person’s life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these kinds of things. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful self. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. 25 We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit.” Galatians 5:19-25 ERV
“There is no law against these kinds of things”. There are a lot of laws to control wrong behavior, but God makes changes in our hearts that don’t need to be legislated.
I have been challenged by God’s word, challenged to live more intentional. To allow my life to make good consequences. The world around us doesn’t need more laws; it needs lives that are intentionally focused on Christ and His love.
Lives like that bring life and peace!