A materialistic, hedonistic world pursues pleasure as the main object of life

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Website owner:  James Miller

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A materialistic, hedonistic world pursues pleasure as the main object of life. It seeks pleasure in food, alcohol, drugs, sex, pornography, music, gambling, movies, television entertainment, festivity, parties, revelry, etc. In his great quest for pleasure, man is never satisfied. One pleasure becomes old and boring and he needs something new. He becomes dissatisfied with the amount of pleasure he is receiving from something and seeks out exotic ways to increase the amount of pleasure. The highs he is receiving from the drug he is using become insufficient and he looks for creative ways of increasing the highs by increasing the dosage or turning to different and more powerful drugs. He becomes bored with legitimate sex and turns to illicit sex and deviant sex. And what are the consequences of this great quest for pleasure?

1. Pleasure from eating. An epidemic of obesity with all the myriad of health problems that it brings with it and all the misery and unhappiness attendant to unending health problems (plus greatly shortened lives).

2. Pleasure from drinking alcohol. Messed up lives, sexual promiscuity, adultery, squandered money, broken marriages, moral depravity, guilt, unhappiness, etc.

3. Pleasure from using drugs. Messed up lives, moral depravity, sexual promiscuity, broken marriages, guilt, unhappiness, etc.

4. Pleasure from illicit sex. Messed up lives, various venereal diseases, ruined marriages, guilt, etc. Corrupted minds, hearts and souls. Moral depravity.

5. Pleasure from pornography. Corruption of the mind and spirit. Moral depravity. Excitement of the imagination and desire leads to action. Wrong thoughts and desires lead to wrong action.

When a man allows himself to be led by bodily desires and demands, when he follows his lowest desires and instincts, there is a consequence. He becomes a slave to his carnal nature. He becomes an animal. And there is a consequence to becoming an animal. What is that consequence? It has to do with self-esteem. He knows his own worth. He knows what he is. God made man in his own image. Man is a spiritual being with a knowledge of right and wrong. Man is capable of rising to the highest heights. He is also capable of sinking to the lowest depths. And if instead of rising, he sinks to the lowest depths, he knows what he has done. And he will die with that knowledge. And he will meet his God on judgement day with that knowledge.

Christianity, on the other hand, is about self-control, self-discipline, self-restraint. Instead of the gratification of bodily appetite, the catering to appetite, it teaches the curbing of bodily appetite, the suppression of appetite, an ascetic self-discipline. It teaches the finding of happiness and meaning in moral purity, chastity, righteousness, virtue and goodness. Christianity is about following a higher path, God’s path. It is about imitating God: thinking as God thinks, acting as God acts, having the same outlooks, attitudes and values as God (i.e. having God’s spirit within us). How do we do this? By following in the way that Jesus gave us, obeying his teachings, adopting his values, following his example (Jesus was God come down to earth to personally show us how to live life). If we study the Bible, take it seriously, turn to God and his way, follow in his way, we will become a good person, a superior person, and down in the depths of our being we will know it. If we are really on the right road, we intuitively know that. It all has to do with self-esteem. We intuitively know our own worth.

John 8:12 I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. words of Jesus

Prov 12:28 In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.

The godless man is like a leaf floating on the ocean. He bobs up and down and drifts wherever the currents take him. He has no anchor and no absolutes. His mind follows that of the crowd. It goes wherever the crowd goes. Since conduct follows mind, his conduct and behavior also goes wherever the crowd goes. Since the crowd always tends to follow the low way, the way of the flesh, the way of carnal pleasure, the way of Satan, that is the way he drifts. The Christian (true Christian), on the other hand, has an anchor. He doesn’t drift. He stays put. He knows where he is and where he is going. His anchor is God’s word. He knows God’s word, he loves God’s word, and God’s word regulates and controls his life.

May 2016