Jesus is the Reason

A discussion at the pillar household with our youngest daughter, the other night, was about a fellow classmate who asks to borrow pens and pencils and never returns them and our daughter getting more and more bitter as she continues to loan to this one student.  I say, then it's time to stop "loaning" to this particular student. She says she doesn't want to lie to her classmate and say she doesn't have one to loan.  My answer is to just say No, my knight says, "I always like to give a reason, just say since you never return my pens/pencils, I don't want to loan to you anymore."  I say, that's too confrontational, the simple answer is 'No.  That way you aren't lying, you are just standing your ground.

What's the right answer?  What is the right way to handle a small situation like this?  It is a hard call, since this student probably has no problem losing pens and pencils and asking for more.  The parents aren't aware that this student doesn't have enough pens and pencils to get through the school day, much less the week.  They are completely unaware that this is happening all the while, I am having to purchase more and more pens and pencils for my student on a weekly basis.  Should I call the parents and explain to them what is happening?  What would happen if I did call them?  Would they be ashamed or would they shame me for calling and disrupting their evening with a petty complaint about their daughter?  I remember a neighbor walking his dog and allowing this huge black dog to proceed to pee on my freshly planted mailbox garden.  I simply said, "Please don't!!, please don't...my son just planted there!"  It was MY yard, My mailbox, and MY garden, and his response was, "It's an animal, lady."  I said, "It's YOUR animal, keep him away from my flowers!  I have two dogs that never pee or poop on any one's yard but our own!  Do the same for me!"  He calmly said something like, "Get over it."

Silly me, I was right and in the right, and this neighbor was wrong and in the wrong, but I was made out to be the bad guy.

How far have we gone from the reality of right and wrong?  Definitively and concrete right and wrong, black and white, fair and unfair, true and false, real and pretend?

What has happened?  I'll tell you and it's a very simple answer that will cause you to react very critical at first, but maybe you'll see after you think about it for a time.

We have forgotten to give credit to the source of this teaching of right and wrong:   Jesus.   Jesus taught us to be kind, loving and forgiving to each other.  Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches,without me you can do nothing."  "Love one another, as I have loved you."  "Forgive, seven  times seventy times"

Our family watched a movie the other night called, "Time Changer" about a  Bible professor from 1890 going forward in time to the present via a time machine and the things that he sees!  He wrote a manuscript where he stated, "Science and scientific finding do not make the statements in the Bible true. Scripture is always true and never needs verification. Scientific support of the Scripture only means the science is true. Because we know the the Scripture already is."  But the argument from the other professor is:

"Without the authority of Christ, mankind is merely left to compare ideas. A morality becomes a matter of opinion. One person says it is wrong to steal, the next person says it is not. No standard is set."

 This scientist travels into the future 100 years to see the damage his manuscript does in the way people think, even in churches.  Without giving credit to Jesus, who taught the "golden rule" we have no real and concrete reason to believe and respect the truth.

When we do not think about Jesus as being real and His teachings real, we lose sight of what is truly right and wrong.  When we forget that sin is real and that evil is real, we forget and lose sight of what is true reality.  As the saying goes, "Jesus is the reason for the season" but He is also the reason to believe in the natural law of behavior, of right and wrong; the reality of sin and the damage sin causes mankind.  All through the New Testament, Jesus is forgiving, talking about, and saving us from our own sins.  Sin is bad, damaging, and real.

Today, with so much violence, immorality, divorce, sex, and redefining things of natural law, look around and see the damage that it does to so many and realize that sin was never discussed in this matter; the right and wrong of the situation never defined and Jesus never mentioned.