Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. Jesus 

I was reading first Thessalonians as part of our Bible reading plan. In chapter 4: 3-8, Paul gives a series of warnings on immorality. The focus is on not harming each other, and that ultimately whoever disregards these warnings disregards not man but God, who gives us the Holy Spirit for guidance.  

Everything we do is about a choice. And in that choice, we are going to lose out on something. We must set aside one of our options. We can follow our own sinful desire or the Holy Spirit. We cannot have both. In the decision process, there will be a disconnect. The great disconnect between God and us, of course, is sin.  

Sin seems to have a very aggressive way of selling itself to us, or put another way, sin does a very good job in manipulating us into thinking that we are losing out on the best choice. It lobbies the hardest, but it delivers the least. And in saying that it delivers the least, we are using a very mild euphemism for what sin ultimately delivers which is the devastation of wrecked lives existing far away from living a quiet life with peace beyond understanding. 

The question is why does the Holy Spirit not lobby, or sell itself to us, as effectively. Why is following God often appear the harder choice? Why the narrow way? We know that having three helpings of chocolate pie will not make our lives better. But where is the Holy Spirit when we are eating the third piece? The Holy Spirit seems pretty quiet. Perhaps it is because we aren’t prepared to listen, and God is not a dictator.  

What is the answer in how to make better choices? It is all about intentionality. Very few of us are thrown into the lion’s den for our faithfulness to God, most of us jump into it, and we aren’t Daniel. We decide not to be prepared for the battle. We go to the dessert buffet having not eaten all day armed with only our own willpower. This is taking on life without prayer, without reading the Word, armed with a bitter heart, hoping to get the approval of the world and what will we get? We will get one of sins many factions digging a wedge between us and God, and we will be very ripe for its sales pitch filled with half-truths at first and then followed up with lie after lie after lie.  

The solution is what it has always been. That is to go back to the basics. We are to live peaceful simple lives. We are to be praying, following the word, and trusting that in choosing the quiet truthful voice of the Holy Spirit we will only be missing out on the painful dead-end experiences of sin. We will still get painful and disappointing experiences, but they will be ones that God will see us through and grow our love for him and others. And we may find ourselves in amazing moments and places connecting to the creator of our vast universe, giver of eternal life, and finding moments of love and peace beyond our understanding despite circumstances.  

Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and separate our sin from us as far as east is from the west. He was fully human and knows sin’s selling points and aggressive marketing intimately, after all, he was offered all the kingdoms of the world in a moment to surrender his mission and take an easier way, but he didn’t blink and loved us instead. He took on our sin and the punishment for that sin with his own deep suffering on the cross. Here is our permanent connection to focus intentionally on. This is where we want our choices to lead. The great love of Jesus Christ.  

Doug

The words of British poet Robert Abrahams say it well, “For some men die by shrapnel, And some go down in flames, But most men perish inch by inch, In play at little games.”  Our goal is to identify the little games and put a stop to them and put the right weight on the right things.