Our recent Sunday School classes have been enlightening and deeply thought provoking. We've been studying the pursuit of God and the ultimate pleasure found in this pursuit. A couple Sundays ago we discussed the general contemporary church's response to sin which seems to fall under three catagories:
1. Portray sin as so ugly and unappealing that we will choose not to pursue it
2. Come up with a lengthy list of dos and don'ts, taboos and such
3. Consider the yearning to sin as the problem
From personal experience and from reading of the lives of others, clearly none of these are fully effective against sin. The answer: to make the pursuit of God so pleasureable that earthly pleasures will pale in comparision.
Other thoughts:
1. Holiness ought to be pursued because it leads to joy.
2. Pursuit of God leads to superior pleasure.
3. Low-grade daily addictions rob us of true pleasure in God alone. (daily addictions include but not limited to...eating, t.v., computer use, exercise, shopping etc.)
(Many of these thoughts are the product of the speaker's reading Jonathan Edwards' works: Personal Narrative and Youth and the Pleasures of Piety.)
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