Alcohol, Marijuana, and Naked Women Aren't Bad...I Am
Growing up in the Bible Belt, I was taught that drugs, alcohol and women were bad so I must stay away. I heard about how the evils were out there and we need to stay, in our bubble, away from the bad stuff. But what if all the "bad stuff" wasn't really so bad? What if there was a bad guy, but it was me!?...
As long as I can remember, I have heard about the perils of drugs, alcohol, women and secular music. I thought that if I could just avoid those things, life would be easy and I wouldn't struggle so much. I thought that bad people were made by being around bad things and if I was around good things I, too, would be good. This couldn't have been farther from the truth.
You know, I cannot remember one instance in my life where I saw alcohol pouring itself down the throat of an unwilling man.
I can't ever recall the internet using me,forcing my eyes to fix on nude photos of women; only me using the internet.
How many times in the Bible did gold pour itself into a mold of a calf for unsuspecting townspeople to worship? None times!
No, the truth is that evil is NOT OUT THERE...It's inside me!
I don't avoid alcohol because it is wicked. I avoid alcohol because I am.
I don't avoid marijuana because it is bad. God created it and called it "good."
As a married man, I can promise you that a naked woman is not sinful. But when I seek to lust for those who aren't set apart for me, it is me that is sinful. Yoga pants aren't bad, my desire to see women in them is.
Can we stop calling everything bad or good and realize that it is our heart that makes it so?
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick; who can understand it?
If we teach our children to, merely, avoid things in the world we have only cleaned the outside of the cup and taught them to look good to everyone else, while the inside is filthy still. Isn't that most peoples' problem with the church - the hypocrites? Instead, let's get to the heart and see that wickedness is in me, even from birth.
Which of you taught your children to lie when they were young? No one. It just came naturally.
You may be saying to yourself, I am not wicked inside, but let me ask: If I were able to show all of your thoughts from just the past month on a screen for the world to see, would you ever show your face in public again? No! Not everything you think comes out of your mouth, because you know it is not all appropriate or acceptable.
So you see, alcohol, marijuana, guns, knives, naked women/men, money, donuts, etc., are not bad in and of themselves. It is me that is the problem. When my heart is governed by lust, greed, selfishness or anger, I misuse these things and only then do they become sinful; when I get involved.
The heart must be changed. We must see the world through the lens of God's word and experience the power of His Holy Spirit to clean us and make us new.