Pastor John,
The “pearl” from preacher Clark that was posted a few days ago was sobering, regarding being balanced enough in the Lord so that there’s no difference between your needs and your wants.
Here in this bizarre city of Las Vegas, I’m fascinated (and vexed) by the attraction that people have for embracing extravagance, excess, and sin on so many levels. Everything here is designed to provoke the “wow” factor. Technology has made it so that everywhere your eyes glance, there’s media and advertisements and videos, most of them displaying ostentatious indulgence. And everyone takes it in stride, as if it’s normal and harmless. The city is a vast and bustling playground for those who are seeking to have “fun”. Not everything here is sinful, in and of itself, but I’d presume that most who indulge have sinful intentions and habits.
The seduction of gambling isn’t the only enticement (the enormous rooms with game tables and slot machines are overwhelming). Everything else is intentionally designed to lure all of the five senses as well. Absurdly fancy food, expensive dining and drinking, high fashion attire, diverse and perverse entertainments, and palatial architecture and decor to tantalize the eyes and amaze our spirits. What is it that drives human beings to “desire” these things without considering whether they actually “need” them?
It’s all about the deceptive “wow” factor.
In the midst of observing all of this, standing in the lobby of the hotel, I’m smitten by the “wow factor” of God. Grateful for and humbled by the gift of knowing God—and loving God— so thoroughly that all of these distractions are “of none effect”, as it is written. My spirit is not phased nor attracted to any of these indulgences. It almost makes me want to cry out loud and shout to all the passersby, “There is something REAL and TRUE that can bring you joy, peace and contentment!”… It’s something they’re all looking for, but their carnal minds are grasping for it in all the wrong venues. Nothing in this world can satisfy us, because it’s all temporal… temporary…ultimately unsatisfying.
I am blessed, blessed, blessed to be satisfied by the living holy spirit of God, and content in that. None of these temptations have any pull on my heart, and there’s such a relaxed satisfaction in that. That, too, is fascinating to me…to realize how much I’ve been changed from my former self.
All it took was a touch from Jesus! Nearly 30 years ago, he put in my heart and my mind a desire to put aside sin and step away from the clandestine behavior that had become so familiar to me. He convicted me, and drew me with an intense curiosity to be born anew, and relinquish the attractions that had held me in bondage for most of my life.
To be clear, I never cared for the things Las Vegas had to offer even when I was a sinner, with the exception of an occasional theatrical entertainment. It’s a godless, artificial place, and I always felt that, in my spirit. God protected me from its deceptive allure. Now, it’s safe to visit, as an observer, unmoved by anything it presents; clean and holy in my spirit…and genuinely happy.
I’m asking God for more balance in my life so that my wants and my needs are the same, with nothing excessive or impure competing for my attention. Gary’s advice to the young people yesterday in the meeting can be effectively applied to us all: devote more time to knowing our wonderful God, while we are able!
We owe Him everything for what He’s given to us.
Brad
