Leading up to the Olympic Games being held in China we heard a lot about human rights. Suddenly it has gone quite quiet and silent. I wonder why?
In many nations thousands are treated abysmally, but consider this from a different viewpoint.
We hear more about human rights today than human responsibilities. Jesus Christ appeared to concentrate more on the latter than the former.
The Bible does not have much to say about human rights. It was not an area Jesus concentrated on.
From a personal standpoint, you have the right to treat yourself any way you wish, but do remember this. “Everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.”
You have the right to eat chocolate cake and ice cream every night, but that will not be beneficial, especially if you want unblocked arteries, sugar-free blood, and a slim waistline.
You have the right to spend your time and money however you please, but then you do not have the right to complain about not being able to meet your financial commitments.
You have the right to fill your mind with any rubbish you choose, but constant exposure to wrong things tends to weaken character, rob a person of self-respect, and eventually master and enslave a man.
When it comes to replacing bad habits with good habits, only one person can make that happen. You!
A wise teacher taught, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. Another teacher was very careful about what he permitted to enter his mind, filtering out what was not beneficial.
God’s Word will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from God’s Word.
What we think, what we choose, what we do, and how we speak, is who we become.
Sandy Shaw
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children’s Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled “Word from Scotland” on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.