Death = Sin
Life = Jesus
If you only take from me this one small thing. Take this: take that sin is nothing to reckon with. It will steal every ounce of beauty, joy, peace, patience...and it will never leave you. It sits at your door like my roommates cat who is just waiting to dart into your room if you open the door just even a crack. When we are told to flee sin it was never just a suggestion or a mild command. When we were told to flee it was Jesus screaming to run from death. And yet, we...I...fail to see it as it truly is. It is a gunman, knifeman, arsonist, rapist, molester, etc standing right behind you...to murder you...to destroy the very ounce of life abundantly that God has promised us. It is there to kill you. If there was someone with a gun standing behind you and someone told you to flee from them you would never even for a second consider sticking around. I/We though, we turn and embrace sin...we love it as a friend, lover, protector, encourager...I have never until now understood the full magnitude of what sin is...in all its darkness and twisted systems...it is the most selfish and destructive thing. It is like taking acid and throwing it on your body. It is taking a knife and ripping to shreds the painting you just completed that was the most beautiful picture that was worth thousands of dollars that will bring income in to feed your family. It is death...it kills. I just want to get that into my head and to get that into the people around me. I have been so blind to the truth of God's word. I have been so ignorant. I have been deceived. And the worst part is that I let myself be deceived. I feel in love with the one thing that could rip my life apart and destroy. I not only welcomed that into my home...but the most twisted part of it all is that I got my home ready for it. Death it always steal your life if you let it...it knows no bounds, it knows no love, it knows no mercy. Death will always rob you of everything and anything no matter what. No matter how much you desire to be good, no matter how hard you want to change, no matter what the costs...death knows no consideration. It does not allow you to step forward without encroaching on your space. It only finds pleasure in aiding you in destroying everything that is good and wonderful and that is the true desire of God's heart to give you...and then it does not stay with you...it immediately leaves you. It does not care if you are hurting and naked and starving...it does not care if you have nothing anymore...it will not replace the good with bad...it just steals the good and leaves.
I realize the heaviness and somewhat morbidness of this post: but that's the point I want to understand. I do not know what it will take to get this fact into my head that it will stay and change my life...I want others to understand this. This is reality. This is truth. That sin is death that will destroy all things living and wonderful in your life if you allow it. And the only thing that can stop it is Jesus. It is the only thing. All the world of hoping in yourself, in others, in finding something better to cling to...and no matter how much you desire to be good and to leave death behind...it is only Jesus who can protect you...and you can not stray from Him at all. When you are with Jesus you are safe...you are protected...but if you leave the grasp of God...if you stray but a little...you are given a choice...given a command...but a choice to decide to follow or not.
I've never known the true depravity of sin...that instead of the roots of Jesus bringing life...and the most wonderful life ever...the weeds of death come and choke and destroy.
This is not a game...this is a war...where people get killed and maimed and there are traitors...this is war. This is life or death. There is no right or wrong...there is only life or death.
Bless the Lord for The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis...God will not give up and He can and will bring back to life the dead. This is a war that will end. I will be on the winning side. But I do not want to be the lucky one brought back to life but refuse to breath again. I want to breath. I want to have God...I am scared cause I do not always choose life. I do not always choose God...but I have never been more confident in that He alone can save me...and if I gain nothing but God and lose all else either because of my own actions or the cost of discipleship...then I will have gained everything.
You see sin has one weakness. It can kill and destroy and ruin and take away...it can take all life from you...but what it cannot do is take Jesus away from you...and if my sin causes all else to be destroyed I still yet have hope...because God cannot be destroyed. Relationships can be destroyed, lives can be destroyed, families, finances, etc...but God...He cannot. So no matter what sin/death cannot take God. And that is what I must rest in...please remain...please.
This is the most poignant, painful, and real picture of sin I have read in a while. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Love you.