Well I’m up to 42,315 words in NaNoWriMo, which is amazing to me. The goal they post is 50,000 words. With less than 8,000 to go, I don’t think that’s going to be quite enough to say all I want to say. My goal is to finish the writing before Thanksgiving and dig right into the edits and illustrations. My goal is to hit publish to Amazon by Midnight November 30, but more important I want to make sure it says all it’s supposed to say and it’s done right. Today’s passage is something I’ve been working through for a while. I hope it blesses you.
In this world we all face temptation and we all fall to that temptation and when we do, we fall into sin. I have long looked for a way to illustrate this and I think I have found it. I know you’ve seen those commercials. There’s a closeup of a person, you can usually see no more than his or her head and shoulders. All of the sudden there appears an angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other. The devil starts off trying to tempt the person to indulge in something, usually some decadent dessert, and the angel tries to talk them out of it. It usually seems like the angel loses out. Now these commercials are usually humorous, at least to some degree, but they are taking this way too lightly. Temptation is very real and it’s a huge battle, not between two little imps on your shoulders, but between the two most powerful forces in the universe. The battle is for your soul. Your life is a line.
When I demonstrate this I set two easels up on the far ends of a stage. On one end of that line is a portrait of Jesus, on the other a portrait of Satan, because ultimately that’s the battle. Jesus is on one end and Satan is on the other. On one side is love, on the other, hate. On one side is life, on the other, death. On one side is light, on the other, darkness. You get the idea, polar opposites battling over you. You are somewhere in the middle, somewhere on the line between the two and faced with a choice. Satan begins to do what he does best. I don’t ever like to give him any praise of any kind, but there is something I must concede. He is good at what he does and what he does is tries to lure us into temptation. He knows just where to hit us and what to dangle in front of us to get us to turn toward him. We see the temptation, and too often we are off to the races, running headlong toward our own destruction. Remember that’s his ultimate goal. His end is secure. He is headed to eternal destruction. The only thing he has left is to try to destroy what God loves most, and what God loves most is you. He tries to lure to your destruction. Now if you already belong to Jesus, your ultimate destruction is off the table, but He will still try to destroy your witness, so that others won’t see your life and leave the path to destruction. Before we go any further look at the picture below, look at the man and his position on the line. Look at the direction of his body. In order to turn toward temptation, in order to turn toward sin, so you see what he has to do. Yes, He has to turn his back on God and that is precisely what happens. When you turn toward sin, you are turning your back on God, and you are ultimately turning toward your ruin, every time, all the time no exceptions.
Now let’s suppose your on the dead sprint to death, heading to your own destruction, when you hear a little voice. The still small voice of God, of the Holy Spirit and He’s saying, “Please stop. You’re not going to like where this ends. It’s painful. It’s going to hurt a lot. I have something better for you. I love you.” You hear that voice, and you hit the brakes and in that moment you turn around. You turn your back on sin and you turn to Jesus. That act is what we call repentance. Jesus gave His life to buy us that privilege, the privilege to turn around and turn to Him and to be rescued.
AMOKArts 