The Negative Implications of CONVENIENCE

Let all things be done decently and in order. -- I Corinthians 14: 40

Did you ever wonder what God means by this Scripture? He means that all things are to be done decently and in order. Understand that people hash the Word of God to pieces with their private interpretation and their religious ideologies. The Word of God means what it says and says what it means. It’s that simple. As an introduction to this teaching, I want to point out that many of our social activities today revolve around convenience. We are led to believe that convenience is always a good thing. I will show you some examples where the temptation to take advantage of convenience can steal, kill, and destroy your life.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I [Jesus Christ] am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. – John 10: 10

In some ways this is a teaching that belongs in the “Basics” category. But it can also be placed in the “Advanced” category. Some of you who have been following these teachings are going to be somewhat amazed at the spiritual importance and spiritual implications of this teaching. The adversary, better known as the devil, tricks people into having their lives stolen from them, destroyed, and even to the point where too much convenience will absolutely kill a person. Before I get into the actual teaching, I want you to know and understand that the devil is an expert in the field of deception. He will make some things look like they are godly, when they are really devilish.

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. -- II Corinthians 11: 14

I have propounded this point time and time again that you will never be able to recognize the genuine from the counterfeit unless you are studying and rightly dividing the Word of God. This is the only way that you will know if something is coming from hell or is coming from the true God of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you are not studying God’s Word, you will be tricked.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. – II Timothy 2: 15

Think back in your old man days before you were born again, how deceived you were in so many situations. I’ll give you an example of what happened to me. I was deceived into thinking that a girl I was dating was about to break off with me. I was deceived into not trusting her. All of this was nothing but deception from Satan himself. I panicked and I broke everything off with this girl and I lived to regret this for most of my life. She had proved to me that she was as faithful as she could possibly be and she had none of these thoughts in her mind. But it’s too late now and I turned to God to help me to deal with the situation and He helps me. Have you ever been deceived like this even in a different situation completely? It’s a terrible thing and it leads only to your destruction of something that may have been like heaven. If only you were not deceived by the master of deception. Every thought that I had about this person was conveniently placed in my mind. However, I want to get into more simple explanations of how convenience can destroy your life. I made the point about an old girlfriend just so you would never forget how deceptive your personal adversary can be.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle [this body] were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. -- II Corinthians 5: 1

I would like you to mentally focus on the word ‘tabernacle’. When we are born again of God spirit, our body contains God in Christ in us. So our earthly body is referred to as a tabernacle. That is not very complicated. Now let’s use some common sense. If we use this earthly body to work for the Lord Jesus Christ and to help God get His work done, then let us conclude that this earthly body is very, very important. Now, I am ready to get into some actual realistic examples that all of us can easily understand. This teaching may hit home for some of you, but you can always change what you’re doing in your life and I am hoping that this teaching will help you to do just that.

Convenience is deadly in many ways. The devil combines other means of deception to get people to do only what is convenient. What do I mean? Well, if you see your neighbor driving around on a riding lawnmower, many times you are tempted to also get yourself a riding lawnmower. This example is as simple as can be. You may have quite a spare tire around your abdomen, but the enemy tempts you with jealousy and you go out and you buy a riding lawnmower. Your grass may be easy to mow with a push lawn mower, but you are jealous of your neighbor and then Satan puts thoughts in your mind. Note that in certain cases there is nothing wrong with convenience, but not in this situation. Your tabernacle is not being kept decent and in order. Let me tell it like it is. You’re fat and are overweight and this is affecting your heart and many other parts of your body. You can wind up with diabetes and so many other afflictions from being overweight I can’t even mention them all. But when I go out to do my grass, I enjoy using a push mower and I can cut my grass sometimes faster than my neighbor who is using his riding lawnmower! He is getting no exercise whatsoever and I am getting a lot of exercise and I feel better when I’m done. I am sorry to say that I must mention this to many of my readers. Convenience can cause you to be a very lazy person. This results in all types of negative implications for your health. I see this happen in my own neighborhood every single week. People who do not know the Word of God convince themselves that they’re doing the right thing. Well who was behind the convincing?

One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies [fat persons]. -- Titus 1: 12

Staying on the same type of subject, I just want to briefly talk about something that’s one of the worst conveniences there are on the earth today. Let’s face it, your health is the most important thing you have. Without your health, you have nothing. Due to convenience and convenience alone, where do many of us eat our meals? Well many people have become so lazy that they will not cook anymore. This is a major part of the adversary’s plan to destroy your life and steal from you your good health and very possibly kill you. I am talking about fast food restaurants and other restaurants. I know how good the food tastes, but believe me overall, it is extremely dangerous to your health and sometimes very expensive. It’s also very high in calories and calories are what put weight on you. Don’t be fooled by all these gimmicks. If you take in more calories than you burn off, you’re going to put on weight. There is no way around it. Overeating or gluttony is a form of idolatry. You are putting food before God !!

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive [seduce] the hearts of the simple. – Romans 16: 18

Again I will say, out of convenience and again only convenience which is due to the fact that we are just a bunch of lazy people who won’t even cook our own meals, when you order that Big Mac, that’s about 1000 calories. Much of fast food is fried. That’s another detriment you are putting in your own body. Do you know why you can do this for a long time? Because God made your body extremely strong and resistant to harm. I never eat at fast food restaurants. I’m going to tell you like it is and you’re not going to like it. The food is garbage. It’s prepared with ingredients that only tastes good. That’s why people go to fast food restaurants and they can become extremely overweight as a result. This fact has been medically proven, so if you want to argue with someone, argue with the medical society. Part of this teaching is reproof and correction. You do not have to listen so I’m only going to point out the fact that Satan has great acceptance in this area of convenience. When I see people in line with their cars at these fast food places, I only think to myself “What a bunch of fools.” I am not going to hit on the subject any longer because every man is right in his own eyes. I’m going to throw this in even though it seems not to blend with the topic of this teaching. When John Dillinger walked into a public place, he announced himself to everyone and he said “Hey, I am John Dillinger” believing that he is a public icon and worshiped by almost everybody. He believed this only in his own mind. He was a murderer.

Let’s take it a step further in a much more positive manner. My wife is a marathon runner. She has about 300 trophies and medals. I can still see her blowing by so many of those other people and coming in first and second in almost every race that she ran. I was proud of her and she is in fantastic physical condition and even did a half triathlon. Well, I will tell you that I thank God that I married such a great athlete. It was embarrassing for me to be out of shape when I lived with such a person. I took up racquetball and won a tournament. I swam a mile a day every day and lost 33 pounds of pure unadulterated fat. My greatest realization was how good I felt after I worked out so hard. I honestly feel bad for many of my neighbors who do nothing physically. They do not know how much better they can feel and Satan just keeps ripping them off every single day. My wife once came to me and said: ”Do you realize that there is not one single person in this development that does any type of exercise”? One husband and wife constantly calls contractors even to rake their leaves. The woman makes a lot of money and this opens up the door for Satan. There’s a Proverb that says ‘Too much money and you forget God. Too little money and you curse God.’

Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. – Proverbs 30: 9

A lot of money seems to bring power and power brings corruption.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. – I Timothy 6: 10

Picture this: You’re driving your car home and you want to listen to some music. Are some of you from the old school? Remember when there was one knob on a car radio that turned the radio on and off and also worked the volume at the same time? You may have had a button that allowed you to switch to FM. I do own a beautiful sports car and I’m going tell you something - when I work my radio, I really should have a degree in computer science. There are so many controls on this radio that it only leads to aggravation. Why did this happen? Because car manufacturers wanted to put as much convenient devices into a car radio as possible. Instead, they destroyed a pleasant experience. That may not sound like much to you, but think about it for a while. This example is not over.

I finally get home and what’s the first thing that I do? At least most of us do this. You get this little clicker in your hand and you push a button and your garage door goes up. How convenient!!!!! Or is it? Your neighbor is standing in his driveway not very far from your driveway and you roll into your driveway and you click your garage door opener and you pull your car inside and then you click your clicker again and shut the garage door. You do not have the time or the desire to get out of your car like we used to a long time ago and open up your own garage door and even get some exercise. Then you had time to say hello to your neighbor and your neighbor said hello to you. Isn’t this a better way than what we do today? Here is a Scripture that I want to work into your heart. Here is a Scripture that you’re going to like.

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; -- Romans 12: 11

God is saying that we should have an earnest care for others such as our neighbors. He wants us to be alive in spirit and to have some energy which helps our physical bodies to a great extent. I cannot stop exercising because I begin to feel sick. And what does God say to us when we are not lazy in our business. He says we are then serving the Lord. Isn’t that what we want to do? Don’t look around for teachings that are similar to this one. You just won’t find them. I am practically the only one that touches on subjects like this. Why? Because the subject itself is very touchy. If you are one of these people who are slothful, you can change your actions because you have free will. Many people have asked me how I walked 42 miles a week with my dog at one point and time in my life. I told them just to start off with 1 mile per day and then work your way up more and more each day. But you see, if a person is not sincere, it’s like talking to drywall. I hate to put it this way but I’ve been taught this many times. If a person wants to go to hell, that’s his or her prerogative. Romans 12: 11 speaks so clearly about how we are to take care of our tabernacle. We also went over a Scripture that told us the ministry of the devil. And that is to steal, kill, and to destroy. Make up your mind – which God are you going to listen to?

This may sound a little bit far-fetched but I need to add this. I am basically an Italian in origin and every once in a while I make an Italian sauce. If you ever tasted it, you may not want to go to a restaurant again. I don’t even own a food processor! Oh, my God. But why does it taste so good? I don’t have all these modern kitchen conveniences. I cut all the ingredients by hand. It takes me eight hours to make this special recipe and I’ll put it up against anyone who has every modern convenience in the world in their kitchen. The recipe was given to me by my sister so it is not my own recipe. This is convenient in a way, but not in a bad way. I became much closer to my sister and definitely more thankful to her. You see, it had a positive impact so I wanted to touch on that just for at least one example. All situations that can be referred to as convenient are not necessarily bad.

But the ones I have previously mentioned are as bad as they get. We see, at this point in time, the whole world is experiencing a serious problem. Part of this problem has come about because people are idolaters. They do not keep God first. But the people that do are protected from any type of illness as long as they use common sense. The only part of this virus that that is bothering me is the fact that they closed down all the gyms. Two or three times a week, I swim 60 laps nonstop. 70 is a mile. Why do I miss such an extensive workout? Because doing what God urges us to do in His Word is always beneficial. When I first started to go swimming, it was as hard as heck. So just remember that when you begin to change your daily activities to line up with God’s Word. At first it may appear to be very difficult. [Read the teaching “The Crooked Handlebars”] But you will see in time that it turns around in the opposite direction and you feel great and look forward to those times when you can get out there and cut your grass, believe it or not. You look forward to hard workouts. And one of my garage door openers went on the blink, and I don’t miss it at all. In fact, I like getting out of my car and opening up the door. It reminds me of old times. A famous Hollywood star wrote a book that I’ve found most interesting. This person is almost 93 years old. The book is called “Keep Moving”. You should get it.

So be careful of conveniences. They can turn you into a very lazy person and they can steal great things from your life by having you depend on machines or anything else that seems to be convenient. There are no tools in this world that are greater than the human hands. God is the creator of life. I’m sure He knows how to live it.

I can do all things through Christ which [who] strengtheneth me. -- Philippians 4: 13

The literal translation of Philippians 4: 13 is as follows:

“I am ready for everything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me.”

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