January 18, 2011

Sweating: A Trail Of Flames


Sometimes in our search for some deeper meaning or deeper truth in the Bible we overlook the obvious smacking us square in the face. Often their are deeper meanings and multi-layered precepts in the Bible and we should be astute and vigilant to note and learn them. Sometimes we need only look at the actions or verbs in plainly stated passages to have the passages speak to us as readers. Please note the actions and verbs in these passages and then contemplate the title of this post. Simple, direct, easy to understand. People that cannot read this and comprehend are either illiterate, willfully ignorant or they are so far gone in their sin only God will be able to pull them out of their pit of disarray.

"Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning."
Jeremiah 9:5

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:24-32

Look at these two previous passages. How much of them are highlighted blue to identify sinful or disobedient actions perpetrated by a sinning person? Half? Two-thirds?

Many say that God is cruel to condemn and damn people by sending them to Hell and eternal separation from His presence. To say this is to wrongly accuse God of malicious motives. God only fulfills the desires of sinful unrepentant man as an end result. God only allows continuance of a state that unrepentant sinners have pursued their entire lives. God doesn't send sinners to Hell, sinners send sinners to Hell through their own actions. It is only by God intervening and pulling depraved people out of their downward spiral of increasing sin that any have a chance at glory. Instead of hammering and badmouthing a Holy God we should be praising Him for His amazing forgiveness, amazing mercy and...amazing grace.

People that go to Hell don't sweat necessarily because of the heat that is there per se, they sweat from the efforts that got them there. Its as if they leave a trail of flames in their zeal to reach their destination.

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