I spent part of my morning downloading pictures. A year ago, I was looking for graphics to use with a sermon series, and ran across great deal. A web site catering to churches was running a $29.95 special that gave you 5000 download credits for pictures, PowerPoint backgrounds, and video clips. I thought that was a great deal. There were 5000 download credits, not 5000 downloads. An average graphic takes 500 points and video about 2000. In other words, I bought some pretty expensive pictures. They just sent me an email informing me that my membership is about to expire and that I can purchase additional “points” at www.fool-u-twice.com. I don’t believe I will do that, but I am downloading the few pictures for which I still have “points” before my membership (thankfully) expires.
I thought the whole setup was misleading, perhaps intentionally so. I wrote them an email and told them that, though I didn’t mention the “intentionally” part. They answered that there was a “details” section below the button where I clicked “Sign-Up Today” that explained the whole racket— uhhh, deal. They said that it was my responsibility to read all the details before I signed up, even if there were three screens worth of it... in 6 point Arial Italics. The “form letter” response meant that they had gotten other letters like mine and had a canned “It’s tough to be you” response ready!
The infuriating part is that they are right. It was my responsibility to understand what I was signing up for before I clicked "OK." The fact that their advertising was misleading does not absolve my responsibility of being mislead. Which is a good object lesson. Jesus said,“Watch out that no one deceives you” (Mark 13:5). Paul warned the Corinthians not to be “led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Cor 11:3). It is too easy to believe what we want to believe. That may be, “Oh look, a great deal on graphics.” Or maybe, “Here's here’s a gospel that guarantees that I’ll be healthy and wealthy.” Or perhaps, “Here’s a way to be a Christian where onedience and discipleship are optional.” Or possibly, "Here's a system where all I do is keep a few rules and I'm in-like-Flynn." People will deceive us with things like that... perhaps intentionally decieve us. But it is up to us to read the fine print.
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One more thought. The phenomenon is sometimes so subtle. An example would be that we go out on Black Friday to get all of our Christmas Gifts on discount, because we are “not rich” or “too poor to pay full price.” Maybe our many blessings have made us complacent to the point that our conception of rich may be distorted. “Too poor to pay anything” is an accurate statement. “To poor to pay full price” is an oxymoron, isn’t it? That said, it demonstrates that we are finding it very difficult to be truly thankful for all God gives us. I can see how this thought process could lead us (me) to blur the line between what is “permissible” and what is “beneficial”. And then from what is “beneficial” to “what God wants to bless me with. A subtle way of equating God’s Will to my will (desire). And now that I have the rational for my “right” to have these things, who is the servant and who is the master? Am I not enslaved to my own desire to freely indulge in this permissible thing. Maybe, maybe not. But it won’t hurt to examine our motives at this point. 1 Cor 10:23 states that everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive. As we discussed last night in Wednesday evening Bible class, things of God are often clearer in times of calamity or crisis. And on the contrary, times of comfort can lead to confusion as we lose our focus on the unseen real world and focus on those temporary (but seen) unreal things of this world. We are all responsible for discerning God’s will for us “reading the fine print”. There are many people and things that can deceive us, including our own rationalization. If we are not careful we gradually begin to acquire and walk the treadmill of material gain. We have an uncanny ability to make decisions based on our own needs and wants. However, God desires that we seek Him to know His plans for us. God has entrusted many of us with greater resources. The test is to examine whether we are operating in vanity or Christ-like servanthood, looking out for the interests of others.
As a teenager I didn't always appreciate his wisdom, but my dad often spoke a similar message of reading the fine print (in this context the Bible). Ignorance breeds further ignorance...that is, if I don't know 1) what I believe and 2) why I believe it, how would I tell others about Christ? Or how could I challenge/gently correct a perhaps well-meaning, but misguided message discussed among fellow Christians?
The example that stands out in my mind is of a guy who briefly visited Denbigh maybe a year or two ago. It didn't take long before it was quite evident his mission was to convince all of us that the church was all wrong on the topic of forgiveness and that HE was right (apparently the Bible says it's ok for us to pick and choose who we forgive). His message was a pretty blatant example of a thought that needed correction, but it does illustrate the point that none of us would have been bothered by his message if we didn't know what the "fine print" actually says about forgiveness!
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