February 1, 2020

Compromised Consciences

Imagine hell exists but has no fire or punishment. The torture then would be living with those who treat others most wickedly. By your own measure, it shall be measured to you also. If your strategies for living revolve around self-exaltation and punishing your enemies, the natural result is that you might wind up surrounded by those who would treat you the same way in a heartbeat.

A preacher once said sin is like a baby tiger. If you take that tiger home and keep on feeding it, that tiger keeps on growing, getting less small and less cute, until one day it suddenly eats you.

Condoning crime encourages criminals to keep breaking the law. Allowing abuse to continue unchecked is an invitation for evil ones to multiply their abuse. Abetting liars and cheaters invites more and more lying and more cheating. Darkness cannot cast out darkness. Only light can do that.

Do you think that it's okay for your team to break rules as long as you win? You will wind up with a team full of rule breakers. What happens the day they start breaking rules that you didn't want broken? If you cheered when they "took back" what belonged to your enemies, how will you protest on the day they decide to "take back" what you thought was your own? How can you protect yourself from a grown tiger when you're the one who took it in and taught it to eat?

Short-sighted ambition was the chief mistake of every fool who ever made deals with the devil. In literally all of those stories, the fruit spoils too quickly. The deal doesn't last long. The promised rewards wind up ruining the fool's expectation of happiness on earth, to say nothing of that disappointment being trumped by eternal damnation.

There was at least one person the devil could not tempt. After 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus was offered power over all the world's kingdoms. For that temptation to be viable, Satan must have thought Jesus would believe that such an offer was legitimate. Apparently, Jesus believed that his adversary was indeed able to offer him power over all the world's kingdoms. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against powers, against principalities, against the world rulers of this present darkness. 

Not only did Jesus not take that sweet offer... He changed the subject completely.

It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God. Serve Him only.

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God's people do not protect God's kingdom by submitting to earthly kingship.

God's people do not seek God's desires by condoning and participating in corruption.

Repent. The kingdom of heaven is always at hand...

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-- Isaac Newton