Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16
“The use of Fashions in thought is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them all running about with fire extinguishers whenever there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under. Thus we make it fashionable to expose the dangers of enthusiasm at the very moment when they are all really becoming worldly and lukewarm; a century later, when we are really making them all Byronic and drunk with emotion, the fashionable outcry is directed against the dangers of the mere “understanding”. Cruel ages are put on their guard against Sentimentality, feckless and idle ones against Respectability, lecherous ones against Puritanism; and whenever all men are really hastening to be slaves or tyrants we make Liberalism the prime bogey.”
C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (Samizdat University Press) 51.
Fashions are distractions. Social media is a great place to find them.
The evil one will do anything he can to lead us to the unwise use of our time, energy, and resources. When writing to the church in Ephesus, the financial capital of the ancient world, the Apostle Paul urged people to be very careful.
If you did not track with Lewis, read this post again.
And over the next week, I want you to do something for me. Every time you see what seems as craziness to you, pause and think of how the evil one might be trying to fool you into following the fashionable.
More than sentimentality, respectability, and Puritanism are at stake.
Those who get sucked into the fashionable become worldly and lukewarm. And our Lord Jesus Christ has already told us what He does with those who are worldly and lukewarm. He will spit you out.
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16
I have spent four amazing days with people from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Karakalpakstan, Tatarstan, North Caucasus, Bashkortostan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Abkhazia. Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Russia, and Azerbaijan.
Thanks for your prayers for safe travel home and for God’s help with the many opportunities in follow up.