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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will
not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the
child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the
wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.”
Ezekiel 18:19-20
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
We only have two choices to make when it comes to how we
decide to live this thing called life.
We can choose to live in sin or we can choose to live in
righteousness. There is no middle option.
Now, this could be expressed in any number of other ways.
One could say we either live the right way or the wrong way.
Another might say we can live a good life or a bad one. Others might say they
got off the right track and found themselves on the wrong track or vice versa.
Regardless of how we state it, the Bible is clear that there
are no other options except for two and it has its own ways of saying it. We
have already touched on sin versus righteousness but as we look deeper into the
scriptures, we will find distinctions about heaven versus hell, salvation
versus damnation, and walking a narrow path vice a wide one.
Yes, we have two ways we can live and they are polar
opposites of one another, especially when it comes to the way God will respond
to our actions. We’ll see this as we look at today’s passage from Ezekiel,
Chapter 18:
“The one who sins is
the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor
will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the
righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be
charged against them.” Ezekiel 18:19-20
Did I mention that there is no middle option?
There isn’t when it comes to the life we choose to live and
there isn’t when it comes to the way the Lord reacts to how we choose to live.
Opt to live in sin and you are opting for punishment by death.
Your wickedness will be charged against you and death will follow. It’s
spiritual suicide in a lot of ways.
But on the other hand, if you choose righteousness then it
will be credited to you and the rewards of God’s blessings and favor will
follow. A perfect example of this was Abraham. You may remember these words
from the Book of Genesis which captured an important discussion between the man
who became the father of many nations and the God who made him so:
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid,
Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
But Abram said,
“Sovereign Lord, what can You give me since I remain childless and the one who
will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given
me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
Then the word of the Lord
came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh
and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky
and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So
shall your offspring be.”
Abram believed the Lord,
and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:1-6
Note here that Abram (later to have his name changed to
Abraham) placed his faith and trust in God. God assured him that he would not
only have an heir to carry on his lineage but would have numbers of offspring
which would rival the number of stars in the sky.
Now Abram didn’t even have a single child who was from his
own flesh and blood yet but that didn’t stop him from believing God fully.
Abram didn’t question God or even rebut what He said as being impossible.
No, he simply placed his belief in his Lord and did so with full
confidence. And in turn, God credited Abram’s actions as righteous (or the
right way to live) and as we know, made good on all His promises.
Abraham became blessed because he chose righteousness.
Now, fast forward a little bit in Abraham’s life and you’ll
recall the fate of two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. The people residing in these
two cities decided that they would reject God and opt to live in sinfulness,
rejecting all warnings that had been sent their way. They deliberately chose to
live in opposition to God and so God sent His punishment upon them, a punishment
that resulted in their annihilation. Here’s the account of that from the
scriptures:
Then the Lord rained
down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus
He overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in
the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. Genesis 19:24-25
The people of Sodom and Gomorrah opted to live in sin and
they died for it in spectacular fashion. If they could speak from their charred
graves, they would probably tell you it wasn’t worth it.
So this leads us to today, to me and you.
What path have we chosen to walk in life?
Are we on the path of righteousness, a course which is
pleasing in the Lord’s sight and ushers in His blessed rewards?
or
Are we walking in unrepentant sinfulness, content with living
in evil and wickedness while turning a blind eye to the possibility of severe fatal
consequences?
They are questions we had better ponder without delay and
make the necessary changes in order to turn from sin to righteousness if we are
modeling the latter category in the way we are living.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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