Intentions

Goudy Old Style – (The puppies are doing much better, but one of them is in much trouble at the moment. We just hope it’ll make it through the night.

Here they are – well some of them anyway. We opted for the partial boxer look, so they’re going to keep the floppy ears but not their tails. Molly is so attentive, but she’s starting to chill out a little now that she sees they are doing so well.)

Among the many Christian movies we have on our bookshelves is the pseudo-sci-fi movie, ‘Decieved’. During the introduction of the various characters, a preacer walks up to the man character (who is smoking a cigarette) and tells him, “You know, If God had intended you to smoke, he wouldn’t have invented lung cancer.” To which the man repplies, “If God hadn’t intended me to smoke, he wouldn’t have created tobacco.”

It’s a common argument. Unfortunately it’s not valid, but that never stops people from using it. First of all, our ways are not God’s ways. What makes sense to us is nothing compared to what God understands. Secondly, God tells us exactly what he intends in the Bible. There’s no guessing and no ifs about it. For the record, God intends that we believe in the one He has sent – Christ Jesus.

As for our bad habits, we just like to take the good things that God has made and use them for destructive ends. God made justice, we sued everybody’s socks off. God made plants, we smoked them. God made atoms, we splitted them. God made rules, we broke them. It’s not in us to be good of ourselves, nobody on earth today could be sufficiently good to get into heaven. You don’t lie? Good! You haven’t stolen anything? Even better! You even don’t lust? How commendable! But it all doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in Jesus as your savior.