Who Is In Control?:
Who Is Master? – Part 1

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:23-33

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 6:12

“Everything is permissible for me”–but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”–but I will not be mastered by anything.

Soft addiction is a fairly new label created for our society.  Usually when the word addiction is used we think of someone who is hooked on alcohol or drugs.  Soft addiction is a lesser intensity with potential for a full addiction as it progresses.  A soft addiction is a bad habit, but goes a step further in that we start arranging our lives around them.

            Our technological age has brought lots of opportunities for soft addictions.  Facebook, email, blackberries, and twittering are front-runners in soft addictions.  They are helpful, up to a point, in our lives, but they will start to intrude into our lives in ways that begin to destroy some good areas that we need.  Facebook is a great way to connect with friends, but it tends to pull us to the dark side of life if we let it.  It can become a substitute for face to face communication.  This leads teens, especially, down a path of lacking social skills in the “real world.”  Emails can be very helpful in translating facts to people, but email doesn’t allow any sharing of feelings or emotion.  This can bring coldness to our communication.  Email tends to embolden us to say things that we later will regret.

            I carry a phone that receives emails, as well as calls.  This is wonderful for efficiency, but can become an interruption in my thoughts when I need to focus on other things.  The Bible is very relevant to these areas.  Tomorrow we will look at its answers.

Father, I thank you for the comforts and advantages of my life.  I want you to be Lord over it all.  I surrender my life and all that it includes to your control.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.