Ivory Soap has no added ingredients, but soaps like Irish Spring do. Now there's nothing really wrong with the added ingredients in Irish Spring. But if you're looking for pure soap, Irish Spring won't satisfy. The point is, some things that are not evil in themselves may have an evil influence if they crowd God out of our lives. Scuba diving is not evil. If it is, I'm in real trouble, because I love to dive. Playing basketball is not evil. Playing sports in general is not evil. Going to amusement parks is not necessarily evil. Having fun is not evil. But these things (and other normal activities in life) will crowd God out of our lives if we let them.

We must make time with the Lord a number one priority. There are lots of choices in life, and those choices will determine the priorities in our lives. So we must be careful or the "busyness" and simple pleasures of life may crowd out our time with the Lord. Here are two examples of this potential dilemma:

This is one of the first things I think of as a pastor. I get paid to be a full-time minister, to study, pray, teach, and "shepherd the flock." Ministry is very demanding.

People were always looking for Jesus. Many times He would take His disciples and try to get away to a lonely place, yet the people would find Him, and they would crowd Him. Why? Because He ministered to them. He met their needs. He helped them. And so everybody wanted His time. But in spite of the demands on His time, Jesus made it a priority to get away and spend time with the Father.

It is my conviction and my experience that the most important meeting of the church is not Sunday morning. The Sunday service is a vital meeting, but I don't believe it's the most important meeting we as Christians can have. The most important meeting we can have is our own personal time with the Lord.

In Luke 5 Jesus healed a man of leprosy and told him not to tell anyone. And of course, like so many others Jesus touched, he went out and started telling people. It says in verse 15, "Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses." (NIV) He had a harder time finding the lonely place, the solitary place. The very next verse says, "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:16 (NIV)

In his book, Victorious Christian Living, pastor/author Alan Redpath stresses the necessity of being alone with God:

The late Dr. Andrew A. Bonar, noted Scottish author, reiterates this same truth:

How true that is. We must make time for God. Ministry is a good thing. All of us ought to be involved in ministry. We're all called to be ministers. But sometimes even ministry can get in the way of the most important thing - God Himself!