Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Playing Both Sides - #8367

Friday, September 25, 2009

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My wife’s a Southern gal; I’m a Chicago-born Yankee. So when we visited the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, we bought a blue Union cap for me and a gray Confederate hat for her, which we hung on our respective motel bedposts. Is that what they call “consorting with the enemy?” I don’t know, but… I heard about this one guy in the Civil War who came up with a questionable plan for survival. He decided to wear a blue shirt and gray pants, so he managed to get shot at both ends!

I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and actually, most of us have probably tried the equivalent of the blue shirt/gray pants survival plan with similar results. It’s called playing both sides; especially when it comes to trying to live for Christ in a world where that’s often not really appreciated. So we tend to cave in and try to accommodate the crowd and the culture with compromise.

The Bible says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10 ). And Jesus blew our little schizo compromises with this blatant announcement: “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24 ). The fact is that when we try to please Jesus and please everybody else, we just tear ourselves in two, and we get shot at on both ends. Because our relationship with Jesus ruins our sinning, and our sinning ruins our relationship with Jesus. The ultimatum of God comes to us today as surely as it did to His ancient people, “Choose…this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15 ).

This radio program references: Galatians 1:10 ; Matthew 6:24 ; Joshua 24:15