Laughter

I have told both the teenagers in class and the prisoners in jail many things, many times, and in many ways, but few times have I been met with such perplexed looks as when I make the statement that laughter is one of Satan's most powerful tools in the fight for souls today.

I say this for two very simple reasons,

1st. Because Christians misuse laughter in the view of their worldly peers.

Teenagers are not the only ones guilty of this at all, most Christians this week will laugh along with the world at things that God finds evil, blasphemous, and reproachful, more times than they will even admit to going to church. Yet we sit back and wonder why the world calls us hypocrites and wants nothing to do with our "religion". The Bible says in:

Philippians 1:27   "Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;"

ONLY let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, a very hard verse to live by I know but when your conversation and the things you show the world around you that you enjoy through your laughter have nothing to do with and are contrary to Christ you are serving Satan.

2. Also laughter is a great weapon against the Christian, especially those who are new believers, shy, or insecure. It is hard enough to witness to someone who politely refuses the gospel especially a classmate or coworker that you see all the time, but when they laugh in your face and mock your standards, beliefs, and faith most Christians never witness again especially to that individual. Sadly just the fear of being mocked is enough to send most AMERICAN Christians running for cover, we know what the Bible says about this, we know what we ought to do but it is so hard for so many who profess Christ to endure even the most minuscule of sufferings in our modern American "Christianity"

When is the only time in Gods word that we are commanded to "leap for joy"?

Luke 6:22    "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you,and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake."

Luke 6:23    "Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets."

Final Thought:

Mark 10:34    "And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again."