WHICH SIDE WILL YOU BE ON?

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin. The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good. Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong.

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, Your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.

How priceless is Your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They feast on the abundance of Your house; You give them drink from Your river of delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

Continue Your love to those who know You, Your righteousness to the upright in heart. May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. See how the evildoers lie fallen — thrown down, not able to rise!

Psalm 36

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we look at our world, we often see things divided into two’s as we journey and try and find our way.

From our very beginnings, we are taught the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Our parents invest an incredible amount of time ensuring we have the moral compass we need to become good citizens and productively contribute to our society.

As we grow older from childhood to adulthood, we find that there are competing opinions in our world between what is right and wrong. Some people have strict conservative views while others have more open, liberal viewpoints. What one side sees as bad, the other sees as okay. This leads to a lot of friction and conflict on many contemporary issues as opposing viewpoints clash.

And how about good and evil? We find both operating in the world we live in as well as differing viewpoints on what is good and what is evil, often hinging on one’s definition of evil.

For a non-believer, they would not view themselves as innately evil but rather good, a status they would maintain as long as they didn’t create some major crime identified by the world as evil (i.e. murder, rape, child abuse, etc). They would feel they are good people with nothing wrong with them, doing right based on their own assessment scale or the assessment of people who share their views.

But for the God and Jesus believer, things are much different. We see ourselves as inherently evil at the core, born into a sin affliction we have no cure for. We are immediately enemies of God and worthy of His condemnation and wrath at His appointed judgment time. No one is good for Jesus told us so (Luke 18:19). Only God is good and any good we do is His goodness working in and through us. Our only hope at goodness is through Him – and our only hope for salvation is through the One God sent out of love to save the hopeless and evil men and women of the world, our Savior Jesus Christ.

In other words, as we look at the end of our lives, we even find there are only two clear choices: death or life. We can choose to live without Jesus, choosing sin over righteousness or we can choose to confess we are doomed without a Savior, a Divine Intercessor who paid the penalty for our sins, and find our way to eternal life, a life that goes on long after this worldly existence ends.

In the end translation, we have a choice to make as to which side we’ll be on: with God through Jesus Christ or against Him by rejection of Him and His offer of salvation.

As we look at the words of the 36th Psalm, we find David drawing a distinct line between the two choices in front of mankind. Look at the scriptures:

I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin. The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good. Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong.

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, Your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.

How priceless is Your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They feast on the abundance of Your house; You give them drink from Your river of delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

Continue Your love to those who know You, Your righteousness to the upright in heart. May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. See how the evildoers lie fallen — thrown down, not able to rise!

First of all, note one important thing.

David was not making all this up. Rather, he was sharing a message that God Himself had placed in his heart. A message concerning the wicked or those who chose to reject Him. In sum, here is what God thinks about those who choose sinfulness over righteousness, malice over goodness:

1. They have no fear or respect for God.

2. They are so self-centered and conceited that they are blinded from seeing their own sin.

3. They see themselves as wise, fine and good just the way they are, even though their actions point to the contrary.

4. They speak words of deceit and wickedness.

5. They plot evil and commit to a path of transgression and indiscretion.

If this sounds like you, I urge you to step back and examine your life for you are walking down the wrong pathway, a pathway that leads to destruction. Here are the words of Jesus to validate my words:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

What road are you on? It bears careful reflection.

For I’m convinced that there are many people in the world who are being deceived into thinking they are on the narrow road when in reality they are on the broad road to destruction. And don’t just make your own assessment. Read God’s Word every day and allow the Holy Spirit to convict the parts of your life that need changing. Know and trust you will be shown where you are, whether on the wide or narrow road.

So we know the characteristics of someone who sides with sin in life. But what about those who choose righteousness and walking in the way of the Lord each day. What do you find in people who choose this way? Go back to the scriptures and you will find the following gains for the obedient God-believer, those who choose to pursue righteousness and uprightness in heart:

1. They receive God’s unfailing love.

2. They find refuge in Him as He preserves them and keeps them safe.

3. They find their thirst quenched and hunger removed as they seek and find righteousness in Him (refer to Matthew 5:6).

4. They walk in His Light and bathe in the fountain of life and eternal hope only found in the Lord.

Friends, there are a lot of matters of life divided into two choices set before us but there is really only one set of choices that matter.

Either death through sin or salvation offered by God through Jesus.

You will have to pick one or the other.

Which side will you be on?

My prayer is that you will accept God’s offer and receive salvation through Jesus who is THE Way, and THE Truth and THE Life (John 14:6). He is ready to save you and guide you in His ways of righteousness all the days of your life. With Him, death is never the end but only the amazing beginning of a life free from pain and suffering, from sadness and hardship, and from the sin that afflicts us all.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com