Christian Living

---

Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday July 3, 2008

The Bible asserts that we humans are sinners by our very nature; so why are most social programs and solutions predicated on the principle that man is pretty good, but in most cases did not have enough support from the government to make it. The snide implication is that if you are poor you are evil. The truth is that poor or rich you are a sinner, meaning you miss the high mark God set for you.

Euripedes taught:

"Moral evil is not caused externally by the gods, (demons) but is an aspect of our human nature."

Nouthetic counseling is a relatively new phrase loosely meaning counseling that is directed at the inner person in accordance with a biblically exposed spirit. That the man is sinful by nature is so well attested by the preponderance of history, to say nothing of the word of God makes you wonder at the futile efforts to help people by any other concept. When people cop out by using Flip Wilson's old line, "The devil made me do it" you immediately know the person is not going to be helped as long as he is placing blame.

One study states that: "37 percent of juveniles when first arrested for serious crime, report a parent or sibling in jail or prison." On yesterday I quoted James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein as saying: "Crime is caused by a lack of moral teaching during the morally formative years." Moral teaching and example is a valuable tool in equipping the race to learn to make proper choices even though at the time the choice may be painful.

A major problem in teaching about choice is the one most of us make. We attempt to teach people about right and wrong, leaving out Jesus and the Bible, and substituting societies concept of things. While this is being done, a very important and powerful truth is overlooked. People in any society are divided into groups, based on the experience and other factors of the particular group. The majority of people act on the mores of their group. I observed this as a child, young man and now adult. In the neighborhood where I started out it was NOT considered the end of the world for girls, often little more than children to be "with child" sans marriage. So the rate of such incidents was very high. Also, being sent to jail or prison was in many cases a badge of courage, as long as the crime was not committed against another member of the immediate group. Bootleggers were highly respected within the confines of the group. Many younger children lived for the day when they could be like their big brother and prove their mettle by at least being arrested for a drunken brawl. Being a hero to the group is far more intoxicating than having someone from the outside say you are nice. Acceptance by the group you think is right is all that matters. If the persons of influence in your group do not grasp the bigger picture, actions considered evil in the larger group have no bearing on the smaller group.

Some years while I was preaching a series of meetings, I stayed in the home a black family. I watched the mother teaching a graphic lesson to one of the boys by demonstrating with a bowl of cereal and a bowl of ice cream. Setting each bowl on the table, she told the children for this lesson ice cream looks good, but it is evil for breakfast. The cereal is you. She then let the younger boy take a spoonful of ice cream from the bowl after which she told him to take two spoonfuls from the cereal bowl and place the cereal in a container saying, "Henry, whenever you take evil, you take a couple of spoonfuls of you to pay for it. You will run out of you and evil will still be there, and you will have nothing left of you."

The preaching version of this is simple, "Anything evil thing taken or good thing gained by evil diminishes you until there is nothing of value left in you."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE