Scripture
Every one deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.
~Jeremiah 9:5, NRSV
Quote
“Of all acts of man, repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscience of none.”
~Thomas Carlyle
Sin by its very nature is deceitful. Satan told Eve, “Surely, you will not die {if you disobey God}.” Satan lied, there are always consequences for sin and there is no exception to the rule. You can follow your heart; you can follow the seductive voice of sin; you can refuse to live wisely and choose to serve yourself rather than Christ but you can’t follow this path without suffering the dreadful consequences. Life is a series of choices and God fearing people labor to make the right choices. None of us are perfect and so no one makes all the right choices but we dare not embrace evil and reject good, to do so is suicide. You may as well embrace a deadly rattlesnake as to cuddle up with evil.
Don’t deceive yourself into thinking, “This can’t happen to me.” It can happen to anyone. I knew a young man who was raised in a Christian home. He attended church from birth. He grew up and graduated high school. He got a job and got married. Things seemed to be going well for him until he experienced a failed marriage. When his wife left him, he was devastated. He turned to drugs and alcohol. He became a pot smoker. He began running with the wrong crowd and hooking up with women he met at strip joints and night clubs. He even married one of these women. He made one bad choice after the other and eventually it all caught up with him. His smoking caused lung cancer and he lived on a short time after being diagnosed. But unfortunately, the story does not end with his passing: his affairs were so out-of-order that sorrow upon sorrow have followed his departure. It is a sad, sad story of a young man who made a series of bad choices. He was not a bad kid but he made a lot of bad choices. I still grieve when I think about his unwise decisions.
Evidently, there are idiots and some were raised in church, who think smoking pot is harmless, just a form of entertainment or recreation. They begin their journey into drugs by smoking a little weed thinking no harm will come to them but pot lead to other things. One bad decision followed another until the drugs became their master. Yes, you can get away with doing drugs for a time but sooner or later the consequences catch up with you. Drugs can cost you your job, health, marriage, sanity and yes, even your life. Even if they don’t kill you or burn up your brain, they will leave you hopelessly in debt.
The same is true with irresponsible borrowing and spending. Your borrow money that you cannot pay back because you are living above your means. You rob Peter to pay Paul trying as you try to borrow your way out of debt but sooner are later it all comes crashing down like a house of cards. Your are hopelessly in debt and there seems to be no way out. You pretend in public like you are a millionaire as you try to convince the world that you have it all together: you think to yourself, “No one will ever know.” You are digging your own grave. Every step you take in sins direction deepens the hole until you are so deep in debt [sin], you see no way out and it all goes back to bad decisions. O what a tangled web we weave, when once we practice to deceive. {Billy Shakespeare, I think}
Just think how much misery and suffering could be avoided if people were willing to repent. Why is it so difficult for us to admit we are wrong and asks God for forgiveness and help?
- Rickey Fields is in Decatur General and will be having surgery today to remove a kidney stone.
- Keith Jenkins came home yesterday evening.
- Jeremy’s sister, Amanda Barnett is in HH, kidney failure.
- GOLDEN GIRLS Saturday morning at 9:00.
- Aunt T is 43 and headed to the sea–sink me, it rhymes in three places. I am a poet and you did not know it!
- Eddie T flew in from China last night at 11:30.
- Keith McKay will be in India for two more weeks.
- I will be at Mt. Zion this Sunday preaching both services. Bro. Wayne and sister Gloria are on the beach. Half of our family will be with them.
- Seth leaves for the Ukraine on July 5th. He will be there for three weeks as our Marines train the Ukrainian military.
- TRUMP called out CNN yesterday for producing fake news–the libs are furious. Let’m whine. They lashed out at TRUMP, they said his rhetoric was going to get a journalist shot and then it would be his fault. What a bunch of hypocrites. For real news, tune in to FOX.