You’re Killing Me Smalls!

My biggest pet peeve is willful ignorance. Willful ignorance is the conscience decision to not take the time to learn or gain knowledge about something that you should know. Every person has areas of ignorance. No matter how smart you may be, there are always holes in our knowledge, things we don’t know and have yet to learn.

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”

Benjamin Franklin

Willful ignorance however is different. It is the unwillingness to learn because we find comfort in our lack of knowledge. Gaining knowledge might require us to act (If I learn how to cook, I will be expected to make dinner from time to time and I would rather someone else do it for me). Learning may make us have to change our thinking (Don't confuse my well held strong opinions with the facts). Being informed might require some effort and we are just too lazy for that. Willful ignorance puts our burdens on others, and allows us to enjoy our enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

“The only reason people do not know much is because they do not care to know. They are incurious. Incuriosity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is”

Stephen Fry

When it comes using our computer, doing the laundry, or holding on to that old wives tales, our choosing willful ignorance may not make that big of a deal, but when it comes to the word of God it does. Refusal to see the truth in the Bible and understand its meaning can affect us greatly! Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15 that the scriptures “are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”. Choosing to ignore the word of God won’t just make us foolish; it will leave us lost in sin. Nothing is more difficult than to try to reason from scripture with someone that is purposefully ignorant of what God says. Rather than read and obey, they chose to ignore and remain lost.

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

Abraham Lincoln

Don’t fall into this trap. I tremble to think of the people that will find themselves lost in eternity because they refuse to learn the basic things God spelled out for them in his book. As the Prophet said in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Never be the person that chooses not to know about God. God has things he wants you to know. He put them in his sacred writings. Don’t reject God by rejecting his knowledge!

Comments

Until Midnight

In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Gift You Give Yourself

I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me. There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15). I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven. So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives. When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

The Name Written On It

There was a rancher in Oregon named Bill Brown. He was known for often writing checks on any paper available. This included things like envelopes, soup can labels, and newspaper margins. Now, most banks wouldn’t accept his kind of check, but Bill Brown was a very rich, therefore very important customer, so the banks in his area would cash the checks without question. It wasn’t the surface the name was written on that mattered, but the name written on the surface. In 2 nd Corinthians 4, Paul speaks about the privilege we have because of our involvement in the ministry of Christ. Yet he warns us that we, “ do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake . In fact, he tells us “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves ” It is not about the person the message is written on but the person that has written the message....

Ecclesiastes 12:10

Search This Blog