Are We Guilty of ‘Loose Living’?

November 29, 2024November 29, 2024 By nancy.new1234 Be the Hands & Feet of JESUS / Faith in JESUS / Rendering Thanks to God

“And He said,
“A man had two sons.
The younger of them said to his father,
‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’
So he divided his wealth between them.
And not many days later,
the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country,
and there he squandered his estate with loose living.”
(The Gospel According to Luke 15: 11-13 NASB)

Dissipation would be a word that most people struggle to define today, but the Bible speaks against it; therefore, dissipation must be a word God’s children should readily define and recognize within their own lives.

To Dissipate (the verb) means to scatter, as in a farmer dissipates his seed onto his field.

Dissipation (the noun) means to selfishly waste your life on foolish and evil pleasures, as the Word of God describes the prodigal son, the one who “squandered [a portion of] his estate with loose living.” Since these words are red in color, then we know these are the words spoken by the Savior, the Son of God—JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF!

We live within a world where indulgences seem almost to be ‘rites of passage,’ as if the thinking: I worked hard; thus I earned it. However, have we earned anything? Does anything we purchase, own, or claim really belong to us? Can we actually claim any of the blessings that come from Father God?

No, I do not think we can.
No, I do not believe so.
No, even if I do not think it or believe it so, the Bible speaks it so, and that should be enough to deter us from thinking otherwise.

Welcome to the ‘day after’ Thanksgiving—Black Friday. Thursday was a day set aside for giving thanks, about gratitude, about appreciating all that you have been given. The day after Thanksgiving has become the day we culturally and officially set aside time to begin our Christmas shopping. Truthfully, there is nothing wrong with shopping for gifts, but is that the REAL & TRUE purpose why we celebrate Christmas?

Naturally, I have been quite guilty of this indulgence (of Black Friday shipping), of pursuing the bargains to be had on a day such as this. Unfortunately, in our culture, Black Friday was soon superseded by Brown Thursday (shopping the evening of Thanksgiving). Not to be outdone, Small Business Shopping Saturday began to have its day, and finally all of these days became overshadowed by Cyber Monday when we could sit in our pajamas and shop from the comfort of our homes with only our electronic devices.

Each of these days contain one single premise: You and I have earned the right to purchase the ultimate Christmas gift known to man but have we OR should we—really? !

Now, let us pause to explain how there is nothing wrong with shopping for Christmas gifts or in attempting to save hard-earned money through Black Friday sales. The intent is not found in the sales but in the ‘selling out our souls’ through dissipation:

to become Guilty of ‘Loose Living,’ &
to become a person who (as Jesus said) “squandered his estate with loose living.”

Our estate is not here, on earth, but there—in heaven.

Instead, we are called to live with one eye upon our neighbor, living as the Holy Spirit leads & one eye upon the sky, watching for the return of our Savior Jesus Christ.

In the Bible, Jesus spoke many parables to teach His disciples, and another parable concerns the fig tree and how its change ushers in the coming of the summer season. Within this parable, the disciples of Christ and those listening inside the temple where Jesus was teaching also understood the undertone of Jesus’ lesson through the story—the Return of Christ.

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
Be on guard,
so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life,

and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap;
for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth.
[This means EVERY SINGLE PERSON]
But
keep on the alert at all times,
praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place,
and to stand before the Son of Man.”
(The Gospel According to Luke 21: 33-36 NASB)

We must know what we BELIEVE—

The Bible is the word of God.
The Word of God is the cure for dissipation.
Faith is that which works through God’s love.
Pursue one solitary person—GOD—and Love and Serve HIM.

We must recognize and squash whatever uncenters our minds from God because to be uncentered from God is to allow the soul to be squandered. We are not to squander our money, our energy, or our resources, and we are not to spend too must time enjoying the physical pleasures of life.