Regrets, we all have them, and there are no exceptions. Bad decisions are made, such as running away instead of standing firm or standing proudly defiant when you know you were wrong. Yes, we’ve all been down that road, and we are still to this day. Of course, age is supposed to bring maturity and sound reasoning, but when I see road ragers of all ages, I wonder if such people have learned anything. Or political decisions that divide people into various fractions. Instead of critically analyzing what they’re being told, they react with emotional rhetoric and crude physical responses. It makes them much easier to herd by the crowd psychologists, also known as mass manipulators.
So, bad decisions are everywhere, and the lack of common sense is more than evident in societies worldwide. When politicians are reduced to brawling and throwing fists around during sessions, then what is to be expected when violent crowds do the same? When crimes are downplayed, the crime rates will go up. Banning guns for law-abiding citizens places them in the hands of violent criminals and an overloaded justice system. It goes without saying that when a nation loses its moral bearings, society breaks into chaos as foundations are destroyed and lawlessness takes over the streets. And we are witnessing that today in America. Dare to disagree? Could you prove me wrong? You can’t, and you know it. So, I’ll continue.
So, why do we act as though we are struggling to find our way in thick fog, clanging bells, roaring waves, and the cries of a thousand gulls deafening our ears with the winds tearing at our clothing in the dark of night? Because we are lost in our sins, fog-like tendrils have penetrated the very center of our minds, hearts, and bodies. And we are enslaved to sin, for we are all born with it. It’s in our very nature. You may disagree, and I would understand, but the fact remains that our lives are never really ours to dominate or control because none of us are like the Vulcans from the Star Trek franchise. None of us have mastery over sin; it rules over us, and we are slaves to it. And if you do not know what sin means, it is the breaking of the Law of God; it is practicing iniquity.
The works of sin are opposite the works of the Holy Spirit of God. Without the redeeming faith of Jesus Christ working in the heart, sin remains the dominant faction, and will, in due time, slay you without mercy. Some of you reading this will surely dismiss my words as those of a religious fanatic, but that is not the case for I know very well what sin does, and how the power of sin can be destroyed. It is a hard and narrow road, but not impossible with God. I cannot free myself from the power of sin without the faith in Christ that sanctifies and sustains me, and neither can you, no matter whatever you choose to believe in. Sin has full control of the life you believe is yours. And that being the case, please ponder the chaotic madness you face every day you wake up, and ask what is the driving force behind it all, and the answer is in your heart.
You may be doctor, a truck driver, an educator, a bricklayer, a pilot, a hitchhiker, an illegal migrant, a criminal, a prostitute, a sodomizer, a private, a general, an LGBT+P or whatever further concoctions the mind will bring up, or any other description you wish to apply to yourselves, but you all have one thing in common that defines the human race, sin.
It’s reflection is upon everything you do and say because it is an integral part of our nature and cannot be extracted by any medical professional anywhere in the entire universe. The only way to be free from its power is through death. But then the reality of the truth will be faced. What comes after death? The Bible calls it Judgment Day. And it will be the most terrifying event of your life because you will face the Creator of all things and be held accountable for the life you chose to live. The books will be opened and your life will literally be seen in its entirety, no one to hide behind, to blame, no excuses accepted, no compromises acknowleged, and not a single blade of grass to hide behind from the wrath of a Holy God. And why is He wrathful? Because you refused His offer of forgivness when it was offered to you during your life. What offer, you may ask in a voice choked with fear and trembling, and the answer will be, My Son.
So what does the Son of God have to do with sin? He came to destroy its power over you if you chose to believe in Him and on His works and became His disciple, His servant. If you did, and you were a faithful servant unto the end, you will not find yourself standing before the Father, being judged, for the Son has recieved you unto Himself, and there is no fear of the second death. Remember this, it is appointed unto all men to die once, thereafter the judgment. And that will be the second death for those who rejected the Son of God during the life they had. Forget all the reincarnation talk, purgatory nonsense, Valhalla, Nirvana or whatever else base minds have conjured for all religions have their versions of heaven and hell. But the Bible spells it out very clearly what is at stake when you either accept or reject God’s free offer to mankind. The choice is to be freely made and not by coercion.
You should understand that God created us with free choice, and we obviously are going to do what we think is the best for ourselves or at least try to. But, as we all know very well, our best is not the best way to go, and the results are, well, appalling. Wars, violence, murder, rape, genocide, robberies, and so on and so forth. But the ways of God are just the opposite when the Holy Spirit of God enters into the heart and thrusts sin out. When a person ends up in a hospital, everything is done to bring that person back to a healthy physical and mental state of being. But oftentimes, sadly, it is not possible despite all efforts, and a life slips away before their eyes. And in the same way, God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, does all possible to save a soul from the upcoming judgment, but, sadly enough, more times than not, they refuse His offer and slip away into the grave where they’ll remain until that terrible day when they shall be awoken to face the truth of their doings.
Jesus is known as the Great Physician, a nice comparison to a doctor devoted to saving lives and healing them. But Jesus is far greater than any doctor because He is the Son of the Living God who created all things. And that alone commands respect and fear, for which of us can lay claim to such things? I can’t, and neither can any man, past, present or future. We, in our boastful arrogance, believe in and on many things, both mechanical and spiritual, but we overlook rather willingly, the One who created all things just by His Word alone. And that willingness to look the other way in denial of obvious facts is in truth directed by sin, the act of breaking the law of God, and by denying Him. We are such pathetic fools to think on such a low level despite our paper titles of high IQ scores!
Our intellect is as a drop of water upon all the bodies of water on this planet! Consider this, if you did not have a sub-conscious running behind your consciouness, you would be dead within 1/10th of a second! And yet the millions of functions that run the human experience are done without your active participation! How wondrous are His ways, and He created you and me! His ways are not our ways, and that is an absolute fact that no one can intelligently deny. And that leads us back to those tendrils that have infected the mind, heart and body.
Sin can be likened to the tendrils as it writhes and snakes its way into every corner of your physiology, and causes you to live in open rebellion to the One who formed you in the womb of your mother. Sin is your master until it delivers you over to death and the grave where you will remain without any consciousness until that terrible day of judgment. And then the fearful awakening, and the knowledge that you rejected His offer of forgivness for your sins will bring your knees and hands to uncontrollable shaking, and dry cotton will fill your mouth as you find yourself standing before the very One who offered you life, and you refused. And now it is over, there will be no ever going back to do it “right” for you were given that chance many times. And you turned away scoffing, mocking, denying, and rejecting His Son, and now only a fearful judgment awaits you and an eternity in the lake of fire with the devil and his fallen angels. There will be no fun and games, no cold beers, but only the pain that was once reserved for the evil one and his workers, is now reserved for you. And you made that choice by rejecting His gracious offer of forgivness through Jesus Christ.
One final note. Your good works will condemn you because you tried to enter the sheepfold by another way instead of the way prescribed by God, and that is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Your best is as rotten garments buried along the muddy shore of a river, they won’t cover you. You need to do it the way God has said, through His only Son, Jesus, the Christ.
I remain a brother to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Edward L Ordway