Skip to main content

Don't Turn Around....


 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:19-23)
          Yer either fer us or agin us. North or South. East or West. Up or Down. In or Out. Yin or Yang. Our guest today is the Law of Noncontradiction. One cannot be A and A- in relation to the same thing at the same time. If you are a slave of sin, you are not a slave of righteousness. If you are a slave of righteousness, you are not a slave of sin. If you’re on Interstate 90 heading east out of Erie and I tell you you’re headed to Buffalo, insisting that you’re on your way to Los Angeles won’t get you to the West Coast. Sorry.
          The problem is, we’re like Lot’s wife. We have this desperate need to turn around, to look back, to want to hold on to what we had instead of facing what we’re sure will be hardships by moving on. It’s said that you won’t move on until the pain of staying where you are is greater than the pain of moving. You will also probably return to where you were as soon as changing hurts, because you’re sure where you were has to have hurt less than you recall, and less than what you believe you’ll face.  Except, the where you were leads to death. You’re in a horror movie. Don’t go upstairs. / downstairs. Don’t stay where you are.  Don’t turn around. Don’t look back. Run. Watch where you’re going and run until you don’t even remember how to go back where you were. Don’t sit down to take a rest, thinking you’ve gone far enough and are safe. You’ve read the books. You’ve seen the movies. When you let down your guard is when you die.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more