Wherever you lead I will follow

Road trip (see yesterday's post)?

Check out the verse I just ran into. I didn't mean to find it. I guess it was looking for me? Perhaps to emphasize the point of my yesterday's reasonings?

It's from James 1:15. It says, "These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death."

Keyword?

"Lead".... "Lead"....

What leads?

Evil desires.

What leads?

Evil actions.

Where does it lead?

To death.

What kind of death?

How about a few examples? 

Death of a hope, death of God's plan, death of a joy, death of a relationship, death of a marriage, death of freedom, etc......

There are things that want to lead you. That will try to lead you. Things that are hoping to tempt you to follow! But you don't have to follow it. It alone is your choice.

Interestingly, the Chinese characters for the word "sin" is constructed by putting the words "four" and "wrong" together. In other words: 4 wrongs!

The word "four" is derived from the four errors which led to the birth of sin. They are as follows:

1. Listening to evil.
2. Looking at the forbidden fruit.
3. Desiring in thought.
4. Eating the fruit that's been offered.

Remember my vague mention in my yesterday's thoughts of all of these Pointers you'll meet on your path, all encouraging you, prompting you, pointing you, enticing you, luring you to go somewhere, to the place that they want you to go? Often from the right path you've been shown. From the one road purposed for you. From the one Sovereignly planned.

Here is King James' rendition  of the verse above (Jms 1:14-15), "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

"But EVERY man" (emphasis mine)! EVERY man! EVERY man! EVERY MAN! Every single one!

"But every man is tempted"....

Every man is tempted, tried, tested.

Tempted means ~ tried whether a thing can be done, to try, to make trial of, to test: for the purpose of ascertaining his quantity or what he thinks or how he will behave himself... to try or test one's faith, his virtue, his character, by enticement to sin... to prove one's character and the steadfastness of his faith.

We'll all (EVERY man) be tried, tempted, tested, to see how we'll behave ourselves, to reveal what our character is, to prove our steadfastness (or lack thereof) of our faith.

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away..."

DRAWN AWAY?

DRAWN AWAY!

'Drawn away' here is the Greek word exelko. Woe, it sounds like our English word EXIT!

It is defined as: to draw out, to draw away; to lure forth: in hunting and fishing as game is lured from its hiding place, so man by lure is allured from the safety of self-restraint to sin.

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lusts...." His own desires. His own cravings. His own longings. His own desire for what is forbidden. His own lusts. His own wants.

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lusts, and enticed."  We're drawn away, drawn out, lured from our safety of self-restrait to sin  by what we desire, by what we want, by what we lust after, by what we long for... and we're "enticed".... we're caught by the bait!... we're decieved and we're caught by our deception!

"Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

Then when lust hath conceived, when our desire has seized us, when our lust has taken us prisoner, when our longings finally now hold us hostage..... it bringeth forth sin, it bringeth us to miss our mark, to err in our path, to wander from the road of righteousness, to lead us off our walk of honor, to do wrong, to wander from the law of God, to violate His laws, to do what is wrong, to commit an offence, to sin....... and sin, our offense, our violation, our err from our path..... when it is finished (woe!), when it is finished with us, when it has had its way with us, when it has completed its purpose in us........ it bringeth forth death!

If that isn't enough to scare a soul into waking us up, I don't know what is!

Sin is crouching at our door, tempting us, tantalizing us, luring us to follow it, enticing us to take its bait.... its desire is to have us! Its hope is to kill! To steal! To destroy! To ruin! To devastate! To rob us and leave us beaten and left for dead! Its whole hope is destruction for us and all those around us!

And we fall for that? We think that's fun? We think it's harmless?

What are we allowing to "lead" us? What are we "following"? And where will it take us in the end when it's done?

What was yesterday's verse again? ".. She did not consider her destiny; therefore her collapse was awesome..." Woe! That's a scary reality! We need to take our destinations seriously! And consider the path that we're walking, every step that we take very carefully, because, dear reader, we'll end up in the place where we're headed!