Today I read Acts 18 which continues the mission of Paul. This chapter made me chuckle and then upset me at the same time. Paul was in the city of Corinth and was there a year and six months. Paul at this point has stopped trying to preach to the Jews at all having been rejected by them in all places he has been so far. So he has decided to only preach to the Gentiles at this point. What made me laugh was the Jews tried the exact same thing with Paul that they did to Jesus and it didn't work at all. They took him before the deputy whose name was Gallio complaining that Paul was preaching they had to worship God in a certain way. Paul was opening his mouth to defend himself when Gallio flat out told them he didn't care. He stated that if Paul was accused of leud behavior or breaking the law then he would do something about it, but if all he was doing was using a different name and suggesting people worship God in another way, he could care less. He tells them to handle it amongst themselves.
Now the part that upset me, the Jews take Paul and beat him and Gallio does nothing. Luke makes it very clear Gallio was aware of it happening but did not nothing about it or to stop it. Why do people in positions of authority seem to only want to do something about the things they feel like helping with? It never ceases to amaze me when I read the scriptures and hear the news stories or the stories of my friends in other countries of officials with positions of authority and how they blatantly abuse that authority. Now of course not everyone handles their authority that way but some flaunt it all over the place. For example, a judge is the only profession I can think of where if you insult them, you could wind up in jail, just for insulting them. And yet I work in the customer service industry and get insulted by my customers on an almost daily basis.
It amazes me how as a society, at least here in America, we have degenerated so far. Our spirit of "tolerance" and "acceptance" has spiraled so out of control that we now feel we can get away with anything and that the world had better not call us out on it or else they must be bigots. Consumerism is by far the worst of it. Just yesterday I was insulted, mocked and threatened all by the same customer who when I politely asked him to refrain and that such words were not helping informed me that he was my customer and I had to do whatever he wanted me to do. What a ridiculous notion! That's like getting pulled over by a police officer and telling him you were speeding because your taxes built the roadway and therefore you can do what you like on it. Such behaviors would never have been acceptable in our parents or grandparents time. And yet you see it all over the place now.
I was thinking the other day on what the great challenge of our time, scripturally speaking, was. What is the biggest stumbling block. I'm honestly torn between 3 things, Chastity, the Word of Wisdom - which I including eating to excess in the Word of Wisdom, and Tempers. I really can't decide if the world has a larger problem with promiscuous behavior, not controlling their physical appetites, or just not controlling their emotions. I think they are definitely the top three problems in at least America if not the world over. Just this morning I had the radio going while I was cleaning up the kitchen and my daughter was playing on the floor and 3 times I had to change the radio station because an inappropriate song came on the radio, generally having to do with sex. When did it become alright to sing about sex on the radio? Do we really think that Heavenly Father would listen to that type of music?
Now we are not wholly gone and thankfully there are some really, really good people out there, not just LDS people either. I've met truly humble Christians, Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, LDS and just about every other religion you can think of. I've also met really prideful people in all those same religions too. It has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with distancing yourself from the world. Those people in all those religions I just named that I met were really humble, were not of the world. Even the self proclaimed Atheist who didn't believe in God, still believed in being a good person and in not following 80% of what the world teaches. It's about being good for goodness sake, not just because you are scared of being caught by the police. We each of us have a choice to make, what type of men/women will we be? And I promise you the more different you are from the world in every respect, the more you will stand out, which is a good thing. It gives you the opportunity to speak out on why you are different. Take advantage of those situations and people will respond in amazing ways. Don't conform no matter what the world says. Right is right and no amount of laws passed or talking will change that. Until tomorrow.
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