Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Now the gap widens. At first we, as Christians, saw the things of the world as being different than the things of God. God's way was somewhat better than the world's ways. A lot of the world's ways weren't all that bad. We kind of liked some of them. Of course we didn't want to sin anymore. But, there were things in the world that the Bible didn't say were sins or wrong. The Bible doesn't say that it is a sin to watch TV all day. There is no Scripture that says: "Thou shalt not golf all day every day." Grieving, mourning, and wailing is a major change of attitude concerning the things of the world. The more time we spend with the things of God, we start to see a huge gap between God and the things of the world. The more time we spend with God, the greater eternal issues become. The more we see eternal issues, the more we see human spiritual needs. Whereas before we, as Christians, were laughing and having a great time enjoying the things of the world that weren't direct sins, now we are starting to feel a great compassion for those who don't know Christ. And, we feel a deep desire to only do those things that really make God happy.

A huge transition has taken place in our belief system. We are no longer seeing what we can get by with. We aren't seeing how close we can get to the world and not get burned. We don't find ourselves trying to justify certain activities. Instead, we are honestly opening up our heart to the big picture of eternity. It is as if we are standing before the judgment seat of God right now and finding out what really matters. If we were standing in eternity right now, what would we look back on and see it as wasted time and effort? With eternity in mind, we start to see people who don't know Christ as being a paramount issue. Will getting ahead in life matter? Will popularity or prestige in this world have any lasting effect our eternal life? Eternity becomes more real than the things of this world. When they do, we start to SUFFER for those who do not know Christ. We start to SACRIFICE so we can make it possible for the gospel to be proclaimed.

Step Four really changes our heart. Up until now, we were looking for what made us happy. But as we transition from Step Three to Step Four we really start to get serious about the things God is concerned with. As we look at how horrifying the cross was, it awakens some serious realizations inside of us. There are some very important issues at stake or God wouldn't have suffered Jesus on the cross. We are going to have to get more mature in our attitudes. It can't all be fun and games. People's eternities are at risk.

1 Cor 13:11 (NIV) When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

This is going to bring a mixture of emotions into our lives. Putting childish things aside doesn't mean that we will never have fun again. But, it does mean that we will be doing some suffering. This is a time for us to start looking at a darkness that is outside of us. It is a comparing of the greatness of that darkness with the light that is available to all who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. One minute we are experiencing intense mourning about the condition of mankind. The next we are experiencing the joy of the great potential that is available to them.