Heartily enjoy all things as gifts from God’s hand – but don’t allow them to become deadly substitutes for God. Keep the gifts that God gives you in perspective. May they never have a deadening effect on your love for Christ.
SHAUNA: Hi, this is Shauna, on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Well, Joni I know that today you want to help us focus our attention on Luke 14.
JONI: That’s right. Because the Gospel invitation goes out to everyone, right?
SHAUNA: That’s right Joni.
JONI: And the servants of the master tell everybody in Luke 14 that people need to hear the good news. It’s an invitation to come and enjoy the master’s banquet. “But they all alike began to make excuses,” it says in Luke 14. “The first person said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “And then another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ “And still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’”
Okay friend, here’s what we learn from this. Anything, even the most common, everyday things can stand in the way of knowing God. Things like fields and five yoke of oxen. Sometimes even someone you marry. The point of Luke 14 is that the most ordinary things can and often do – keep us from the Lord. I have got a Christian friend who is crazy about playing a certain videogame with his buddies. They’re scattered around the country. Now, I’m not going to doubt this young man’s faith. He’s also involved in a guys Bible study, and at church. He’s a good fellow and speaks easily about his relationship with Jesus. However, he often has less to say about God and much more to say about the progress of his game. So, is the videogame his five yoke of oxen?
Well, listen to Dr. John Piper’s take on this. When it comes to followers of Jesus, he says, “It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but the endless nibbling at the table of the world. It’s not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality that we drink in every night. The greatest adversary of love for God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.” Piper is so right there. The insidious thing about idolatry is that it convinces you that you’re still really okay with God. That it’s not really harming you or hurting your spiritual walk with the Lord. Idolatry will tell you that everybody’s doing it, and so it’s acceptable. But I agree with Piper. The most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of this world.
Jesus has a lot to say about that very thing. He said that a desire is awakened in some people’s hearts, but then they “…go on their way, but are choked by worries, riches, and the pleasures of this life.” And in another place Jesus said, “The desire for other things enter and choke the word.” Well, the desires for other things may not be evil in themselves. It’s only when those things dull our appetite for God. Could be gardening, could be reading, decorating or shopping, cooking, vacationing, investing in TV watching, and internet surfing, or even exercising and Saturday afternoon at the ball game. Heartily enjoy all these things as gifts from God’s hand – but don’t allow them to become deadly substitutes for God himself. So, join me as together we keep the gifts that God gives us in perspective. And may they never have a deadening effect on our love for Jesus.
© Joni and Friends