By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
The Book of Psalms begins with these words (Ps1:1) “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,”.
My Pastor, Matt Weaver, from Lockport Mennonite began his sermon with these words recently and they got me thinking about what he described.
Look at how they progress: walk, then stand, then sit. Isn’t that the way evil crepes into our lives? First, we casually walk beside evil, “I mean, it really isn’t so bad, is it?”.
Then we get more comfortable and begin to stand beside it without realizing that we have accepted it into our lives, and finally, we get so comfortable with it, we forget it’s evil and it becomes part of us.
We become immersed in it and it becomes our new normal. That’s how our culture destroys our testimony. Instead of us making our society more Christ-like, our society draws us in and makes us more like it than like Christ.
We are told to draw near to God and resist evil. James 4:7-8 reads “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you…” Resist the Devil or evil if you will.
Fleeing isn’t the same as walking alongside. And coming near to God isn’t the same as sitting down with evil. As a matter of fact, the nearer we are to God, the further evil is from us as it has no place in God.
And, finally, sitting down with evil is the exact opposite of where God wants us to plant our hearts and minds. Ps 1:2 “but (blessed is the one) whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.”
God wants us to draw close to him by reading his word. And the more we read it, the more it becomes the Living Word to us. The Word of God both written and Living transform us over time.
How? The same way living in society transforms us…over time we take on the characteristics of those we spend time with. We need to choose our companions wisely. We’ve all seen it in children.
A good kid gets too close to the disrupters in class and soon, that is his peer group, and then he acts to impress them. He takes on their attitudes and mannerisms.
For Christians, that’s one of the great blessings and benefits of youth and children Sunday School and Wednesday night church programs and programs like LifeWise Academy.
They help give our children a better peer group to walk, stand and sit beside. The same applies to adults. Does your peer group nourish your relationship with God or pervert it?
Do they challenge you to spend more time in the Word and worship? Or are sports and Tik-Tok the main topics of conversation? Let’s be honest. It is very difficult to walk in the opposite direction of those around us.
So, ask yourself, are your friends and family walking on the road less traveled or the broad road of destruction? Why? Because it’s quite likely that you are walking on that same road.
V6 sums it up “For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” What are the road signs on your journey telling you?
“Prayer is nice…but not essential.” “Time in the Word is OK…but Tik-Tok is more exciting.” “Sunday Church is good…but Sunday School and midweek classes are not really important to your growth.” “It’s OK to have religion…but don’t get carried away trying to live it.”
It behooves us both for today and for eternity to know the road we are on and the companions we travel with. If truly, “birds of a feather, flock together”, what does your flock really look like…doves or buzzards?
Children of God or disciples of the Evil One? Walk…Stand…Sit….God’s way: Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Jeremiah 6:8 “This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Ps23:6. “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell (or sit) in the house of the Lord forever.
———————–
Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.