But…

But what? You know something’s coming. You prepare yourself for bad news. The importance of the message is dependent on what comes after the but. For example, but you, but God, but the wicked. It indicates a change of direction or outcome.

Compare and contrast is a technique used by writers, speakers, advertising reps, and the Holy Spirit to give weight to their preference of your choice between two things. Those things could be material (which car to buy), philosophical (which political party to support), or they could be eternal, as in life and death. As a rule, sellers using this style are trying to pitch a product, the sale of which benefits them.

There is one exception

and we really ought to pay attention because it’s absolutely free. Scripture is filled with examples of compare and contrast and they usually start with a “but.” Here are a couple examples to flesh out my thinking.

• John writing Jesus’ message to a dead church in Sardis. Rev. 3:1 “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” (Self-deceived)
• “The rich man is wise in his own eyes,” (Prov. 28:11); “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (1 Cor. 1:27).

Why is this important?

Why do I give examples? Because the God who is in control of life and death is a God of love (see  last post: Empowered By Love) and the Bible is full of His warnings and a statement of finality for those who don’t heed them: “…so that they [men who suppress the truth] are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). The warnings come from a heart of love for a lost world.

Our country is expressing hate and anger, bordering on anarchy, like hasn’t been present since and maybe not even during Vietnam. I’ve lived through both and this definitely feels worse. Citizens are rioting, destroying property, challenging law enforcement, and disregarding socially acceptable behavior of years past. Is there an answer? Is there a solution? Can law and order and peaceful coexistence be restored? Maybe.

But we have to look beyond

the symptoms we see to the root cause, which is not hatred of Donald Trump. That is only the superficial justification for bad behavior. No, it’s a spiritual problem that most will not identify, understand, admit, and take seriously. This is a wake-up call.

What do you call someone who continues speeding down the road after seeing a “bridge out ahead” sign? I believe most would call him fool. The warnings in the Bible are much more critical than a bridge out sign. Why? Because they introduce us to the bridge to eternal life, Jesus Christ, and what our future will be without Him.

Don’t keep your pedal to the metal

now that you know change is ahead. The Bible warns us, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these.” (2 Tim. 3:1-5). Are these the days we’re living in? Only God knows.

Click here to visit Steps To Salvation for a map to heaven. There is only one road that leads there, Jesus Christ. Thanks for reading.