Having been brought up in a Christian atmosphere that - however well-intentioned - was based to a large degree on the 'you can'ts' of life: Christians can't do this, can't do that, can't go here, can't go there, can't be this, can't be that, etc. - it has been extremely liberating in the last 25 years or so of my life to realize that I can involve myself in and enjoy anything in life that is a God-created activity as long as my participation is based on, first, my desire to glorify God while enjoying what He has given to me - for example, a good meal and, secondly, my desire to glorify God in enjoying what He has given me in a measured, self-controlled manner - say, one piece of cake and not ten. Sin, indeed, is the high-jacking of the good things of God and totally spoiling them through selfish misuse - pornography, for example. Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks effectively to this point:

"I believe that we ought so to love and trust God in our lives, and in all the good things that God sends us, that when the time comes (but not before!) we may go to God with love, trust, and joy. But, to put it plainly, for a man in his wife's arms to be hankering after the other world is, in mild terms, a piece of bad taste, and not God's will. We ought to find and love God in what we are actually given; if it pleases God to allow us to enjoy some over-whelming earthly happiness, we must not try to be more pious than God and allow our happiness to be corrupted by presumption and arrogance, and by unbridled religious fantasy which is never satisfied with what God gives. God will see to it that those who find the Divine in earthly happiness and thank God for it do not (forget) that earthly things are transient, that it is good for them to attune their hearts to what is eternal and that sooner or later there will be times when they can say in all sincerity, 'I wish I were home.' But everything has its time, and the main thing is that we keep step with God, and do not keep pressing on a few steps ahead - nor keep dawdling a step behind.

To be trully Christian is to be practically Christian. Jesus said, 'I am come that you may have life and and have it to the full. John 10:10 NIV

Posted by Steve Mounts at 5:54 AM

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