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From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Dear Rev. Graham: I think people take things way too serious, and coming through two years of COVID-19 seems an appropriate time for people to lighten up. We only live once and I think God would want us to enjoy all the things the world offers; after all, He made them all. Wouldn’t it be a waste of life to have spent it denying ourselves of pleasures and ease? — P.E.

Dear P.E.: We can shrug off eternity, but everyone will come face to face with eternal life. Ignoring it is foolish.
A comedian once said, “Enjoy as much as you can. Even if you live to be 90, that’s not as long as you’re going to be dead!” We can laugh it off, but there’s a penalty to pay when God’s Word is disregarded. There is life after death!
Godless influences are everywhere, persuading us toward idolatry (worship of the values of this age, the false gods among us) and sexual immorality. Right moral living (righteousness) isn’t easy. It demands difficult choices. We have every pleasure mankind is capable of enjoying, and mankind has abused every gift God ever gave.
Sinfulness and sensuality are inevitably destructive, dehumanizing, and demeaning to God’s creation. At times, it may create tension between what God wants and what we crave for ourselves. In that awful struggle to overcome, we can turn to God for His help by first repenting of sin and receiving His forgiveness. He enables us to live victoriously over sin that dominates the human heart. To His followers He says, “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20).
What is that price? The shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. He paid the penalty for our sin so that we can live righteously and bring glory to Him.
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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)