Saturday, July 23, 2005
# 29: Laziness--Worship--Goodness and Godliness
We all are guilty of being lazy, to one degree or another, although many of us may deny it. Could we classify laziness as sin? Yes and no. Laziness is a precursor to an attitude of: “If I really don’t have to do it, I won’t.” Strange to say, there is no room for lazy people in the realm of being disciples of Christ. We can tolerate being lazy, to a small degree, in worldly duties, but when it comes to spiritual matters, even the least bit of laziness will propagate mediocrity. And mediocrity is like having one foot in the Devil’s door. There is one way most Americans are not lazy; when it comes to eating, since we have an addictive infatuation with food.
Nowadays, there is very little in this world that is conducive to Godly morals. No matter where one turns, the masses in America condone, if not promotes, the overt corruption of moral values. There always was corruption in the world, but now it is accepted, by most, as an alternative lifestyle. I believe the biggest contributor is television. By in large, television networks, out of financial greed, give us the type of programming that receives the highest ratings. Therefore, television is a good barometer as to what Americans are made of.
Here is a sure-fire method of telling if one REALLY worships Christ. A person will always actively desire to become like the one she or he worships. How much do you and I desire to be like Christ? Do we really worship Him or are we only fooling ourselves? Life is too valuable to play the part of a fool. Fools-–hopefully not us--seldom know they are fooling themselves. This irony is a serious accusation that we must give careful consideration without self-imposed credulity. Do you remember all those people who worshiped Elvis and many still do. They wanted to look like him, sound like him, make body jesters like him; that is, they wanted to be another Elvis if they were male, and females were flipping their lid over this man (their god). That is real worship.
Many people mistake having good morals, kindness, generosity, love, gentleness, considerateness, and understanding as Christianity. This is just one of the evil-one’s great deceptions. Although Christianity is all the above, they are a result of our belief in Christ and not the essence of Christianity. The closer a religious group appears to be the “Real-Thing” without actually being genuine Christians, the more dangerous they are to the cause of Christ; because they can deceive many, more easily, into following them.
Although, at this time, we may not know who the real Christian is, we can know for certain those who are not by their self-centered lives; a person can be extremely generous, if one is wealthy, and still self-centered. To sum up, we must never equate goodness and generosity with Godliness.
In Mormonism, a popular qoute is "a man should be anxiously engaged in a good cause."
I think Roland and B. Hall are trying to tell you that Mormonism is the active and giving Church you've been looking for.
Al's articles on his religion page seem to emphasize four issues that I strongly endorse - avoid corrupt charities stealing donations, love your enemies, keeping the commandments, and the need for personal sacrifice to draw oneself closer to God.
1) Any charitable operation that uses in excess of 5% of total revenue to cover marketing and administrative costs is inefficient and is not a true charity. I focus my labor and financials donations to four organizations with less than 2% administrative and marketing costs. So many people are blind that some famous popular charities / churches divert well over 70% to their greedy wall street style administrators and marketers
2) Love Your enemies. My religion (Mormonism) has been (and to some extent still is) the subject of intense persecution. But we definitely do not condone planting in on the public subway. Our 11th Article of Faith does the opposite and stresses that everyone has the right to worship as they please.
3) Keep the commandments. While everyone has the free agency to choose which commandments they want to keep - each commandment is based upon a principle to bring us happiness and blessings - while sin brings guilt, misery and problems and drives away the Holy Spirit from being able to help you overcome the tribulations of this life.
When God blesses you with fruits of Happiness and prosperity are a sign that you are making good choices in life.
4) Personal Sacrifice. Again most commandments require us to sacrifice our own selfish desires and to act with the interests of others in mind. Al's comments on laziness drives in this direction. My pet peive is that laziness forces a higher tax burden on honest workers myself in that the government keeps raising my taxes to cover the laziness and selfishness of others that drives the Social Welfare burden being assumed by the government. Health care costs skyrocket because people continue to make unhealty lifestyle choices. Social Service costs are driven up by immorality and the destruction of the traditional family. I have already sacrificed 18 months of my life on a foriegn proslyting mission and now serve weekly in Boy Scouts. (Next week is our annual scout camp trip and you'll get to miss my biased posts here for a few days.)
The LDS/Mormon church and Boy Scouts of America are at least two organizations that are famously well know for its stand on these particular four issues.
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