I have to admit that I don't quite get the dramatic ways in which people react to certain outcomes. Take the Super Bowl recently played for an example: It has become quite popular to show people's reactions to disappointment on social media, and this is especially true for big events like the Super Bowl. And oh, how the losers howled! Some reacted in disbelief, some with fits of anger, and many with tears - streams of tears, one might say.

All because their team lost. Poor babies!

Don't get me wrong, I have suffered great disappointment from things not going my way in sporting events, especially when my kids were playing on the teams that lost. I know what it is to root for a team all the way to the biggest game only to see their season end with sudden defeat. After all of the effort it took for them to get there it is only natural to experience a variety of unwanted emotions when your team loses. But in the end it is just a game, isn't it?

I wonder sometimes how different this world would be if we saved our tears for situations that were truly worthy of our grief. Take the writer of the 119th Psalm for instance - here was a man who knew what truly merited the shedding of tears:

Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.

Psalms 119:36, NIV 

While we are not told who wrote this particular Psalm, it was King David who wrote over half of the Psalms and this particular chapter does sound a lot like David. If it was it is notable that it was written by a man who was a war hero. A man whom countless thousands of warriors followed unquestioningly into battle, for he was a man of valor and honor. What could bring such a man to tears? Was it defeat in battle? No, it was the fact that God's laws were not obeyed.

I believe we should give more thought to this idea. God's laws are not given arbitrarily just so that we might have a set of rules to follow to see who will or will not obey them. The laws of God are there because there are certain principles that have heavy consequences when they are violated. We look at things such as the sexual immorality that our society is immersed in at the present time. It seems that no perversion is too extreme for our modern world. But these acts have ways of deteriorating the very souls of the people who engage in them, reducing their lives to shame and misery, but do we shed tears for these violations to God's laws?

We see things like drug and alcohol addiction that ruin entire families. We see wicked leaders with insatiable lusts for money and power who are lying and cheating and even destroying the lives of any who would stand in their way of achieving their quest for their desires. Do we shed tears for these types of things? Or how about our country's involvement in abortion? We see so many men and women involve themselves in the decision to take the lives of their unborn children - does this move us to tears? Recent statistics show that in America alone over 50 million babies have had their lives snuffed out since abortion was legalized, but it hardly gets a mention anymore. I guess we get so used to some sins that we don't even consider the outcome of a people so steeped in sin.

But we should! And it ought to cause a sorrow among the righteous that would produce a response that is at least as great as the tears that are shed when somebody's favorite team loses the big game. For sin has consequences. This is why sin is sin, it has consequences! Until we realize that, both as individuals and as a society, we will probably continue to shed tears for things that really don't matter, while at the same time failing to even feel a pang of remorse when the innocent suffer because God's laws are not being obeyed. It's something to consider, don't you think? 

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:46-47, NKJV

Perhaps of all the things that men have misunderstood about God in modern times, the church and its purpose is the greatest. So many modern day Christians sincerely believe that the church is something that can be customized to one's own individual preferences. I suppose that's why there are so many denominations - people like to shop around, see what "church" fits what they want best, and then they attach themselves to that group. But this is not how God deigned the church - that customized approach to the church is a design of man.

So how did God design the church? When we read the passage above we get a glimpse. We see that the early Christians were often together on days other than just the first day of the week. We see a simplicity of purpose and function. More important, we see that the church was not merely some religious organization that they shopped about for and then joined.

No! The church was that body that God added men and women to who were being saved! And how did they become saved? Just reading through this second chapter of Acts we see that they heard the message that was being preached by Peter and the other apostles, and that those who accepted that message (in other words, believed) repented of their sins, called upon the name of the Lord (confessed their belief - see Romans 10:8-13 for God's definition of what calling on the name of the Lord means) and were baptized.

And when they had done these things, God added them to the church! Now note what the church did: 

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Acts 2:41-42, NKJV

Do you see? Those whom God added to the church devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching (we have this teaching in the New Testament), to the fellowship (they liked each other and were often together, encouraging one another) the breaking of bread (the Lord's Supper we partake of on the first day of the week) and to prayer. The Lord's church that God had added them to did not split themselves up into factions of people seeking to fulfill their personal preferences. The Lord's church simply was the body of Christ that devoted itself to the Word, to being together, to worshipping together and to praying.

Something else should be mentioned: The Lord's church was not something people occasionally "did". It was their life. Mamas and daddies, are we teaching this type of devotion to the Lord's church to our children today, or are we teaching them that "church" is something we "do" when we have time? It may be a difficult question for us to answer, but one that we must come to grips with all the same. We also need to seriously consider what have we done to the Lord's church. Are we attempting to keep it as God intended, or are we making it to our own specifications?

One final thought: The decision that we make, the one that will either cause us to become devoted to the Lord's church or to "dabble in religion" will be the difference between the church being the presence in our communities that changes peoples life in the way that God designed them to, or being a mere social club of like-minded men and women. And, it will very likely be the difference between salvation and eternal separation from God, for the truth is that the church has always been the body of Christ that God adds the saved to upon their obedience to His commands.

It's something to think about, isn't it? 

And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

Acts 22:16, NIV

He had been wrong. Saul of Tarsus, the man we now know as the Apostle Paul, had been wrong for nearly all of his adult life. Convinced that Jesus was a fraud, he had devoted his life to wiping out His followers. In fact, he was on his way to Damascus for that very purpose. Armed with letters from the proper authorities of his time, Saul was going to arrest and imprison anyone who followed Jesus, this man whom he was convinced had fooled people into believing that He was the Son of God.

Make no mistake, Saul was absolutely convinced that Jesus was not the Son of God. Saul was as devoted to God as a man could get, and he was simply trying to live out that devotion in the only way he knew how: by wiping out anyone who stood opposed to the one and only, holy God. And Saul was convinced that Jesus and all of His followers were blasphemers and had to be stopped. Jesus was long dead, but Saul could do something about those who followed.

So Saul went to Damascus, but on his way something happened that would change his life forever: He found the truth! Later in his life, when appearing before the court of a king, he described his conversion in the following way:

"Thus I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.' And I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles--to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' "Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

Acts 26:14-19, RSV

The thing I absolutely love about this account is that when Saul was presented with irrefutable evidence that he had been wrong, he did not waver or give up or in any way wait to take care of his error. Not the man who would soon become an Apostle and a devoted follower of Christ! No,the moment that he saw the light, he changed! Have we?

The fact is that just about everyone of us already believes in God. Further, just about everyone who is reading this is firmly convinced that Jesus is His Son. So what do we need to change? Certainly not our faith that has been properly placed in both the Father and the Son. But isn't it possible that, just like the devoted Saul of Tarsus, we may not have all of the information that we need?

The great blessing that we have now that Saul did not is the complete, written Word of God. While the truth was certainly available during Saul's time, the New Testament was not yet completed. But it is now and all we have to do is read it, find out what it says, and then do it! Far too many people never go much beyond their initial faith and they therefore live a subpar life for God.

God has insured that we have the entire truth available to us.We already believe in God and in His Son. Why not go the rest of the way and do everything we can to find the truth from His Word, and then do it? For you see, it was never enough for Paul to just see the light... he had to then make the necessary changes and walk in that light! For as convinced as Saul of Tarsus was that he had been wrong, he maintained his sin until he had done what Jesus had commanded. We, too, will retain our sin unless we fully see the light by reading all of His commands, and then begin to live by them. So, what are we waiting for?

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

I John 1:7, ESV

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7, ESV

The Panhandle of Texas has been incredibly dry during the past 6 months or so. As a result, many people have been praying for the moisture that we so desperately need. Overnight our prayers were answered as we received a couple inches of snow. The problem was that it came with sub-zero wind chills, and with drifts that were up to a foot deep in places. I just got finished shoveling part of the driveway where the snow had drifted, just so I could get back into the garage. It was cold and miserable, and the misery was compounded by painful fingers, toes and ears that had received frostbite a number of years ago.

When I got back into the house, it dawned on me that my prayers for moisture had been answered, but not exactly in the way that I had hoped. I'm afraid that as a result I was not as thankful for the requested moisture as I should have been. I have since repented and have tried to be a lot more grateful for this blessing, but it got me to thinking...

It seems like our prayers are often answered in ways that we weren't anticipating and, as a result, we are often not as thankful as we should be. In fact, sometimes we are flat out ungrateful. What a shameful state that is, when you think about it. It is effectively sitting in judgment of the quality of the way that God has answered our prayers and, I'm sure you will agree, there are few situations more fraught with peril as being so bold as to deem God's answers to prayer insufficient.

So, what is the solution to this state of mind that we occasionally find ourselves in when our prayers were answered, but not in the exact way that we were hoping? The inspired words of the apostle Paul help with the solution to that very problem:

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:12-13, NIV

There it is! By combining the fact that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength, with his previous admonition to offer our prayers with thanksgiving, we will find ourselves less anxious and content. I don't know about you, but this helps me regain the perspective that is sometimes lost whenever prayers are not answered in the way I thought they should have been.

This is made much easier when you consider this undeniable fact: God has never let us down, not once, in prayer (or in anything else, for that matter). He is perfect in His insight and knowledge into everything we need, and though we may not always comprehend what He has done, we can rest assured that He will always answer prayer exactly in the right way.

And this should make us all the more thankful indeed!