As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
You’ve heard the mantra a dozen times: “Christianity is not a religion; it’s a relationship.” This statement is quite wrong. Firstly, because it’s a false dichotomy (can’t it be both?), but secondly because if we have to choose, Christianity is more fundamentally a religion than it is a relationship.
“The American Bible Society released Chapter 3 of its State of the Bible 2023 report Thursday, titled ‘Flourishing and Hope.’” - CPost
“We may think we understand our culture, but much of it remains below the surface. We might not see it until someone crashes into our subconscious cultural beliefs.” - TGC
Read Part 1.
If fun is good, but not all fun is good, then we ought to choose our fun thoughtfully and wisely. Fun ought to be to our benefit, not a means of our destruction.
So how do we choose? Can we just choose what we like?
Likes are important. There’s no sense in seeking relaxation in things you don’t like; if this is about pleasure and rest, then that’s obvious.
I’d like to take a few posts to talk seriously about fun.
Seriously. About fun.
A few years back I did some thinking about the topic, thinking that eventuated in a chapel sermon at BJU on March 19, 2008. These days it seems helpful to run those ideas around the block again.
My first thought about fun is the title of this post.
Fun is good.
“Ignatius of Antioch…wrote a letter beginning with these words: ‘To the Church which is at Ephesus … deservedly most happy… . Abundant happiness through Jesus Christ, and His undefiled joy.’” - Randy Alcorn
“In a striking, but too often neglected, passage in Religious Affections, Edwards insists an essential trait of any true Christian is ‘the lamblike, dovelike spirit and temper of Jesus Christ.’ He presents this point as nothing less than a fundamental of the faith.” - TGC
“Here’s John 13:2: ‘During supper… the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him.’” - John Piper
8 Scriptural Personal Accountability Questions to Ask this Week - Chuck Lawless
“’Raise your hand if you’re going into full-time ministry…. You all should be raising your hands.’ He was charging the business majors, biology majors, communications, and education majors, among others, to view their future work—whatever it was to be—as ministry” - IFWE
Discussion