The Transitory World

If there is one characteristic that epitomizes the world, it would be "change." Every time we turn around, there is some new idea or gadget that has been created, and every one of them has the promise to change our lives as we know it.

The trendy clothes of today will be on the closet floor by next year. Your new computer is obsolete the moment you first turn it on. Current slang changes as soon as it is developed, and magazine after magazine attempts to let you in to the biggest craze before everyone else does.

The worldly life is thus always is in a state of change, of ebb and flow, following blindly whatever conventions are currently in style. A hundred years ago, modesty was required; twenty years later, there was no such thing. By the 1950s, however, modesty was back in fashion, only to be thrown out the window ever since. Activities and attitudes that would have never been contemplated a hundred years ago are now plastered in every grocery store and newspaper. All of this in the name of "development and innovation?"

The violent swings of morality and ethics in the world today are the greatest indicators of the wisdom of God. We read in 1 John 2:15-17:

Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

Worldly attitudes and lusts may have been covered up a hundred years ago, but they have escaped and enjoy great popularity in American culture in the twenty-first century. As such, we as Christians must keep ourselves pure through love of the Father.

Much has changed in 2,000 years: new empires, new technology, new philosophies of life. Unfortunately, however, one thing has failed to change in our world, that evil animal called "human nature." Man still falls for his lusts and desires, and commits sin willfully, thinking nothing of the Lord of Sabaoth watching his every move. Even in all of this change, man is still the same type of creature. He just has more convienient ways of reaching his goals. Let us give thanks to God, however,since we have His Son Jesus Christ, who has not changed, and will not change. He is our Rock, and let us cling to Him.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall," (Matthew 7:24-27).

Ethan R. Longhenry
evangelist@norwalkchurch.org

Something to Consider

Friends pass away; God is eternal.
Alcohol and tobacco and money and sex and every physical pleasure will pass away; God is eternal.
Jobs and fellow employees pass away; God is eternal.
Our flesh will pass away; God is eternal.
Everything we see and know on this earth will pass away; God is eternal.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! (2 Peter 3:11-12 ESV).

Ethan R. Longhenry
evangelist@norwalkchurch.org

The church of Christ in Norwalk, Ohio

Thank you for reading the electronic version of our bulletin, Good News for Norwalk. If you live in Norwalk or happen to be traveling in the Norwalk area, we would certainly love to have you visit one of our assemblies!

Our location:

386 North Edgewood Drive (just off US 250 just north of Norwalk's city limits)
Norwalk, Ohio 44857

Our assemblies:

Sunday morning assembly: 10:30am
Sunday evening assembly: 6:00pm

Our Bible studies:

Sunday morning Bible study: 9:30am
Wednesday evening Bible study: 7:00pm

For More Information

If you have any questions or comments about anything you have read here, or desire more information, please contact our evangelist, Ethan Longhenry, at evangelist@norwalkchurch.org.

Please click here to return to the 2006 archive of Good News for Norwalk, or click here to return to the main page of Good News for Norwalk. Thanks!