Gaming the System

(Proverbs 5:23 KJV)  He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

The pagan world we live in asks some of the same questions that Christians ask.  They want to know what is going wrong and how do you fix it.  One of their solutions deals with education.  The lower classes who have no hope just need to get job training and they will begin to do better.  Their problem is lack of opportunity because of lack of education.  Yet we continue to throw billions of dollars at schools and things only keep getting worse. 

The problem is not lack of education but lack of the character to make use of the opportunities offered.  I see it in the church and community in terms of spiritual maturity.  People are always claiming they didn’t know.  Some will still try that when they stand before the judgment seat.  I don’t know if He will bother, but I see Jesus with a big video screen where He plays back the many times that they were offered “instruction” (4148) and they were too busy flirting with the girl beside them to listen.  Do you remember the Bible reading contests that we used to have in Sunday School?  No?  We were to keep track of the number of verses we read during the week and the one who read the most verses got a prize.  The hope was that we would read the book of Romans or work through Isaiah.  The reality was that we turned to John 11:35 and read it a hundred times.

(John 11:35 KJV)  Jesus wept.

And He did weep because He was offering us an opportunity and we made it a game.

So?  God will not be mocked.  He is Holy.  He is just.  Part of that justice is that He will offer us the chance to listen and learn.  Then comes the judgement.