Fortunately.... neither my family nor my friends read my posts.... so they won't read this. I wouldn't even mention these thoughts to them.... because there is probably no one who would not be even a little bit offended. I've been a book lover most of my long life.... married a librarian.... and together we owned a Christian bookstore. In addition to that.... I have been a defender of the written word in an age of the image. Add to that.... I am in a Barnes & Noble almost every Tuesday of the year to look over the new releases.... and there is a women's book club that regularly meets in our home.
                     Let me start by saying this.... it's not every time.... it's not even most of the time.... but it is often that as I walk through B&N.... and see the people browsing.... knowing what people read all the time today.... that I just have to fight back a tear. Now these reading habits have been and will continue to be the habits of people who are not Christian.... and those who just think that their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.... but it is my brothers and sisters in Christ.... who really make me want to weep.
                     God's Word tells us in Hosea 4:6....." My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." That is the American church today. The old paths are gone.... long ago covered over by weeds from lack of use.... replaced by a pickle ball court.... or a Starbucks.... or even a Barnes & Noble. The pastors today do not even know where those old paths were.
                      So.... I see my loved ones.... and dear friends....day after day.... week after week.... year after year.... decade after decade.... reading the world's diary.... mysteries and love stories.... self-help books and history.... biographies of those who are not Christian.... and admiring the fame and the dedication it took to get that fame and/or accomplishment. I will hear them.... (and this is often).... tell each other about a great book they just read....although these books generally are pure poison to the believer.... when Pilgrim's Progress....that can direct them to the path where they will be safe in this tempestuous and tempting world.... and will glorify God.... will never be picked up..... for they claim to have read it once when they were young.... even though Charles Spurgeon.... the greatest preacher of the gospel.... possibly since the Apostle Paul.... wrote that he had read Bunyan's classic.... at least.... 100 times!
                       I am as I type this.... in the cool.... looking out through glass at swaying palm trees.... with a blue ocean in the background. It is not vacations.... or pickle ball.... or sitting down for an evening to read The Great Gatsby that destroys us or kills our discernment....but rather it is the lack of moderation....evidenced by where our true desires are. I have been here for close to a week....been out to dinner with my family....enjoying every minute of it....along with sitting under an umbrella on the hot beach....but there has been no moment when my mind strayed from a beautiful world....fallen into what we read in the news every day. There has been no waiter or person who I said hello to in passing....that I did not wonder....do they know Christ....or more succinctly....does Christ know them....and I pray....a short prayer though it may be....but a thought that keeps me on the old path....and praising God for His mercies on the absolute least deserving of any mercies at all! 
                        Maranatha......Lord Jesus Come!