File: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db940203.txt
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OUR DAILY BREAD                    Thursday,  February 3, 1994 
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READ: Mark 15:1-15

		           MAJORITY PRESSURE

	      Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, 
  	       released  Barabbas  to them;  and  
            he  delivered  Jesus ... to be crucified.  
	                  - Mark 15:15

Politicians sometimes decide issues on the basis of majority
pressure  rather  than  on the principle of right and wrong.
Some time ago a state governor declared that  he  personally
believes  abortion  is  wrong.  But he said that as a public
official he would support the will of the majority.

Pilate acted in much the same way regarding Jesus.  Although
he  knew  there  was no truth to the charges leveled against
Christ,  he  caved  in  to  the  pressure  of   the   crowd.
Consequently his name is recorded in infamy.

Few of us are in  the  position  of  appointed  and  elected
officials  who  must please the majority to keep their jobs.
Yet we  are  subject  to  the  same  kind  of  pressure.   A
Christian  college  student  told  me  that  one  day he was
driving three companions home after a football  game.   They
wanted  to  stop at a bar known for indecent activities, but
he didn't want to.  The three students came from good  homes
and  were popular at college.  He wanted to please them, and
he felt tremendous pressure to go  against  his  conscience.
For  a  moment  he  hesitated,  but  with the Lord's help he
resisted the  temptation  and  drove  instead  to  a  family
restaurant.

Lord, help us to resist majority pressure when it would lead
us down the path of sin.

Author:  Herbert Vander Lugt

	If we do what's good and right, 
	We must be true  within;  
	If we  give in to what is wrong 
	We dull our sense of sin.   
		          - Dennis J. De Haan

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 
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Unless we rely on God's power within us,          
   we will yield to the pressures around us.

The Bible in One Year:  Exodus 21-24

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