Moral Deafness Leads To Disaster

So this is what the Lord says

"If you change your heart and return to me,

I will take you back. Then you may serve me.

And if you speak things that have worth, not useless words,

then you may speak for me. Let the people of Judah turn to you,

but you must not change and be like them."

Jeremiah 15:19

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MORAL DEAFNESS LEADS TO DISASTER

READ: Jeremiah 14:1--17:27

SITUATION: Jeremiah prophesied drought, famine, and days of disaster for God's people.

OBSERVATION: Sin requires judgment. Sin can distort our judgment of good and evil. God calls us to repent (change) and to have moral outrage for violations of his holiness.

INSPIRATION: Where is our sense of moral outrage? Perhaps our moral sensibilities have been dulled because of today's dazzling instant communications. We sit mesmerized in front of our TVs, unable to turn the sets off, so we turn our minds off instead.

Over time, so much trash is heaped upon us that we come to expect and accept it; the bizarre become commonplace. Morally exhausted, we lose our capacity to discern good from evil.

The brilliant essayist Charles Krauthammer, citing economist Thomas Sowell, sums up our predicament beautifully: "The inability to make moral distinctions is the AIDS of the intellectuals: an acquired immune deficiency syndrome...moral blindness of this caliber requires practice. It has to be learned."

In a culture with moral AIDS, words lose all meaning or they are manipulated to obscure meaning... But when words lose their meaning, it is nearly impossible for the Word of God to be received. If sin and repentance means nothing, then God's grace is irrelevant. Our preaching falls on deaf ears.

This moral deafness leads to disaster. The Scriptures tells us it was when people accepted King Ahab's gross evil as "trivial" that fearsome judgment befell ancient Israel.

Certainly evil is to be expected in a fallen world. What is not expected is for a holy people to accept it. If Christ is Lord of all, Christians must recapture their sense of moral outrage. (From Who Speaks for God by Charles Colson)

APPLICATION: What views about sin have softened so that they are even acceptable among Christians? What areas of life has this affected? Male-female relationships? Social settings? Family life? Don't be drawn in by the world's standards. Be morally pure in your dating or marriage relationship. Be bold in keeping a high standard. Don't let Satan wear down your defenses.

EXPLORATION: Endurance--Philippians 3:12-16; 4:11-13; Jude 17-25.

The Devotional Bible - Experiencing The Heart of Jesus - Max Lucado General Editor; New Century Version, Thomas Nelson Bibles