I cheated by using one of this month’s topics for its own post last time. We once had a discussion with one of our children that games operating by a set of rules and that changing the rules was cheating. Since I am not playing a game and I made up the rules, it probably is not really cheating, but it seemed appropriate for the times in which I blog.

The highlight of one Sunday was the idea that we are not to pick between good and bad, but we are to pick simply between better or best. I have often heard of thoughts that people simply did not have the ability to pick between good or bad. Having grown up in a God focused environment, I never have really understood the inability to know the difference outside of the Adam and Eve bit about an apple. (pun anyone?) Their original sin was to attempt to be God like in knowing good and evil. We all live under the penalty of that original sin and therefore have the ability to know good, and the difference between it and evil. As is obvious by politics today (and forever) people do not always live as if they know enough to chose good over bad. However, as we have the ability, we also have a need to develop the ability to use it correctly.

The learning gap is that to act right, we have to know what is right. We have to learn what is right to follow it. If we are to do right according to God, we must learn from Him and His word what right living is.

There are a few phrases in my notes that carry weighty concepts, but I’ll skip to the end and say that we are to consider what brings joy to Christ as the right thing, and to base our choices on learning what pleases Him.

At another point, a living example was interviewed on his perception of these ideals and he replied with a three step action plan. The first was his mission to reconcile others to God. The second was to preserve the nation in which he lives. The third was to use the Word of God to be alight to those he comes into contact with. We all have our roles to play and they are all different. It is our duty to find that role that God has made for us and to conform ourselves to it.

The most recent lesson was over the great commission that God has called us to follow. We are to follow Christ; no one else. We are to be changed by following Christ. We are to mimic Christ and His actions that created more fishers of men. We are to use our time, to sacrifice what we want, and to be intentional in this arena.

Our lives are to reflect the belief that Christ was the best that there is and that we are to strive to be like Him and strive to make others like Him. God chose to love us. We respond by loving Him and loving others so much that we all look like Christ.