Gray Areas
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Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that we feel are tricky. Usually the problem requires us to make a choice. But the choices are the problem plus we would rather select something that benefits us as well. so we compromise in order to please all that are involved. And actually they may come away happy but not with what they really wanted. So they just learn to deal with it. Or we are faced with a situations were one option is clearly wrong but going with the right will leave you out in away.
So we compromise again to satisfy our needs. What I”m talking about is the infamous gray areas in our lives. Our laws though the foundation is black & white and yes & no; the law‘s substance is filled with gray area; bills, by-laws,amendments, and court rulings. People have made a living out of this and they are called lawyers.
So what does this have to do with God you may ask? Well, have you every read the ten commandments? If not I will list them:
Exodus 20
The Ten Commandments
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before [a] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”
20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
21 The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
This is nothing that is as black and white as to what God wants us to do. Yet statues and ordinance were added and even some were later changed; not the ten commandments but the statues added by Moses.
example:
Mark 10
Divorce
1Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3″What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5″It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6″But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.'[a] 7’For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8and the two will become one flesh.'[c] So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
Jesus Christ even made the issue more black and white:
Mark 12
The Greatest Commandment
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29″The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f] 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g]There is no commandment greater than these.”
So why is it hard to deal with black and white; good and bad; left or right? The gray areas show up because we wish not to do what is right or we have placed our own comfort above all. Sometimes compromise is not a good thing, sometimes trying to please everyone is not good as well. When we start to do things like this almost 100% of the time, we are about to sin against God. Some people are partially forced into the gray area because we as Christians have not obeyed God commandments. You don’t think so? If you “Love your neighbor as yourself” just think of all the people who wouldn’t have drug addictions or other deadly addictions because they can’t handle life’s stress cause they have no one to turn to. Think of all the people who feel that they have no choice but to rob. If we ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ we would not have homeless people or jobless people. But since we put ourselves above all we create gray areas were people feel helpless. Then they sin trying to make it because a Christian cut jobs so his company makes more money so this “Christian” can buy a bigger house. Or a Christian, cheats his company by stealing or you try to get even with someone. Our actions as Christians have a ripple affect on the world. If we followed the simple command of ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’, just think of how things would be…. The Law and the Prophets and the Apostles are our foundations.
Matthew 7
Ask, Seek, Knock
7″Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9″Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Read the commandments above and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. See God in His law. See that the will of God is plain and don’t pollute it with your loop holes. Don’t add to God’s Law in order for you to sin freely. If you obeyed God in the first place then you wouldn’t be praying now to get you out of the mess you created. Yes, we are all guilty of doing it; even me. But at some point we should start to do better, at some point our regenerated nature should say; enough is enough. We should say to ourselves, obeying God is more important than fitting in with the world and keeping our friends that live contrary to God. We will risk our salvation for the company of friends? Are we that welling to give up our Savior for the world and temporary satisfaction? When we come into God’s glory it will be like all this trouble on earth never happened.
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