I was just looking over some things on my blog the other day and was shocked and horrified when I scrolled down my left sidebar. Right underneath my "Moms for Modesty" button was my "Bible Art of the Day" gadget. Normally, I would think good Biblical art from the masters of the Renaissance would be fine...what could be better? Well, needless to say, if you've looked at many works of art from this period, the masters were particularly fascinated with the human body...the NAKED human body. Under my sweet little girl in a modest ballet costume...was Adam & Eve naked as jaybirds about to bite into the forbidden fruit!! I saw it then immediately went into my template and deleted what I originally thought would be good uplifting artwork...forever. I only wish I had been checking on this daily. I have no idea how many times something inappropriate popped up and made me and my blog look hypocritical. If any of you have been on and saw that at any point in time, I want to apologize now for not more closely monitoring that...but it leads me to an analogy of the Christian life...
How many times do we think that something is a great idea because it's dressed in "biblical clothes"...just to find out later that we wished we hadn't participated in/were associated with it? If I had been thinking, I would have immediately realized that many of the "biblical paintings" from the Renaissance were not very modest...or worse. But sometimes it's not so obvious. Sometimes we try to put ourselves into places where we think we will grow spiritually just to realize that it is actually undermining the tasks God has given us to do. I think about this as I desperately would love to be involved in Bible studies, but they are at times of the day that conflict with either our school day or our family time in the evening. So I have given that up for this season realizing that God will grow me through this time of "isolation" as He also grew me through the times of "fellowship"...and one day I will be able to do that again...which I look forward to. But as good as it is, if it undermines the purpose in our lives God has given us, God will not bless it...no matter how "spiritual" it appears. One Bible study in particular was a great disappointment, and I continued about 8 weeks hoping God would use it to speak to me, just to realize that He really hadn't wanted me there to begin with...I didn't learn much, and it didn't grow me any closer to God...In actuality, I found that there were many passages ripped completely out of context to make a non-biblical point...AND the author quoted a few atheistic philosophers...as if what they said was so profound to the Christian walk...but hadn't mentioned that they were atheists. (Friedrich Nietzsche was one of them...the man who said "God is dead.") I learned my lesson the hard way..after wasting 8 weeks on this because I "thought" I needed the "fellowship" of Bible study. (...which is not a bad thing, as long as the CONTENT of the Bible study also honors God).
We do the same things with our kids. How many times have we made sure that they have as many opportunities as possible to learn and grow...just to find out that they are burned out along with ourselves. Afterward, we are just as frustrated as they are. I think of the musicals which we've done (many of which I directed). They had parts or solos, I've been swamped with costumes, sets & all the "coaching"...just to put on a play about the "love of Jesus"..which no one really pays attention to because they just want to see "how good their baby was in their part"...Don't deny it! You know it's true. They have a good message, but really the end result is our children had public speaking/drama & performance opportunity, and we were able to have a part in the production, but the real growth or "outreach" wasn't there. AND after it's all done, we are behind in school and frustrated trying to catch up when we should be having a break like the rest of the world.
Now, I'm not saying that drama and plays are useless. One of them, had a song that taught my kids the Ten Commandments. There are good things that we take away from them, but you have to ask yourself is it WORTH the time you'll spend on it. Are you going to be frustrated when it's over...will the frustration outweigh the time spent on it? Will the things we take away from it build us up or just distract us from God's plan for our life. Satan is the great "distractor" of the church. But he is so coniving that he uses the "spiritual" and "biblical" things to keep us from what God has asked us to focus on...making us think that they are also "good" and "godly."
With a discerning heart, we can make GOOD decisions not only for ourselves but also for our families and children. When we try to "cram it all" in so we can grow more "spiritual" (but not necassarily closer to God), we will most likely frustrate ourselves, and fall short of the goals that God has set before us...which in turn will cause us more frustration and guilt that we let God down..when He really never asked us to "do it all" in the first place.
All this from a lesson I learned from having "Biblical Art" on my blog. Keeping it "clean" & "simple"...
Excellent post. I have done the same things with a Bible study. I was deeply hurt by a friend and thought I HAD to have fellowship with other women immediately and jumped into a Bible study that only led to more hurt. I didn't stop to pray about it. I thought "How could a Bible study be wrong?"
I love this post. I am a Pastor's wife so this is a continual struggle, wondering maybe if we just added a program or another meeting then the church would grow. But really it's just busyness which justifies a churches existence and means little in light of heaven.
Many Blessings,
Tracy
http://manyhomeblessings.blogspot.com
I totally agree. If you look at what the Bible says the purpose of the early church was to be...fellowship, corporate worship, discipleship and evangelism....all rooted in the Word of God. Many church programs out there do not fall into these categories, no matter how much we try to justify them. Some are good...but they are really a worldly activity wrapped up in a "spiritual-looking" package. I'm not saying they aren't enjoyable, but we need to stop calling them something they aren't just so we can feel better about including them in our churches.
I could go on, but this is probably a topic for another post. :-) Thanks for stopping by.
Welcome to my blog...Why "gidget"? Well...my husband tried to teach me how to surf before we were married. I was lousy at it, but he called me his "gidget" and the name stuck.
Why "Treasure Trove"? I love sharing about my sweet little "treasures"...and God has blessed me beyond measure....and no, I didn't mean that to rhyme.
They have a good message, but really the end result is our children had public speaking/drama & performance opportunity, and we were able to have a part in the production, but the real growth or "outreach" wasn't there. AND after it's all done, we are behind in school and frustrated trying to catch up when we should be having a break like the rest of the world. 
Keeping it "clean" & "simple"...
Posted by 
Posted by Anonymous
Posted by 
Posted by 
