Daily Lesson for September 26, 2014

Today's daily lesson is from Acts chapter 19:

24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. 25 These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 26 And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. 27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing."

Stop and think for just a moment how many commercials you saw during last night's game. Do you remember any of them, or did they slip in the back way through your subconscious?  

Or think about this, how many commercials did your kid see last night? I've seen reports that say a child sees on average 20,000 commercials a year. And we wonder why they keep asking us for more stuff.

There is a multi-billion dollar ad campaign aimed at keeping us all in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction. Powerful interests are at work trying to figure out how to get us to buy their stuff, use their products, purchase their experience, and find our identity in their brand name.

Now, think for a minute how counter-cultural contentment really is. Think how radical it really is to worship and find happiness in a God not made with human hands. In other words, think how good it is to be free.

And think how hard it is to stay that way.