Into the Fire

Deterioration: a lowering in quality, character, or value; degeneration

It can always be argued that this great nation of the United States of America has suffered from the indulgences of excess. Robust vehicles of all kinds, huge theater screens for televisions, cell phones which can practically manufacture books and can contact the world, estates for homes, surgeries which give women breasts a man daydreams about, machines and formulas which make teeth whiter than sheet lightning, injections and creams to plump lips like Thanksgiving turkeys, corporate packages of multi-millions of dollars for exiting executives who ruined their companies. Yeah, we’ve gone over the top in different areas. Some of us.

But the real deterioration comes from within a soul. It produces an insatiable appetite for the addition of “things” which do not contribute to the betterment of an individual. Before you start shaking your head in agreement with all of the things I listed above, I want to state flat out that I think it’s positively wonderful for a person to be able to buy the vehicle, cell phone, home, or TV of his/her choice—providing he/she can pay for it. I do not have a problem with people enjoying their lives.

Do you know that missionaries to the Philippines have stated that it doesn’t matter how “poor” a family is, they have a television hooked up in their tiny tin roof dwellings? People like to have “things”. Tell me you don’t.

So what makes a soul “deteriorate”? The three letter word which few acknowledge as being at the root of pure “excess”. The “S” word. The thing that not one of us can escape because it’s virtually running through the bloodstream of our human nature. You know the word, the condition, the irreversible taunt which keeps us from seeking true relief from deterioration. Sin.

What quickens deterioration is the failure to admit our innate slavery to this condition. By dressing it up to look pretty, by calling it by new names to disguise its pull and degradation, by lying about its source, its demands, its critical importance, and its ultimate cure, sin is rationalized and justified.

One of the gravest concerns for the people of this nation right now is that some of them can no longer look straight into the eyes of sin and recognize it. Instead they point to those who have more than they do and rail against “excess” when in fact they are being covetous. Jealous because they do not have. They look straight at an administration and ignore the barbaric extermination of little babies in the womb, and instead of calling it infanticide which is its truthful name, they label it with “rights” for women to choose to murder their own children. When a nation calls murder “a woman’s right to choose”, there is advanced deterioration.

To avoid or refuse to look at sin and to mislabel it with policies and programs and bail-outs and packages to reward the fallen state of mankind for his misguided, degenerate, irresponsible, harmful, and sinful ways is to set mankind above the God of the universe. To declare our ways higher than His ways instead of vice versa. To state that regardless of what is inherently and eternally wrong, we do not acknowledge the ways of our Creator because we have a better plan—well . . . the only possibility is further deterioration and degeneration.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
and champions at mixing drinks,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent.

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty
and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against His own people;
His hand is raised and He strikes them down.
The mountains shake,
And the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.

Isaiah 5:20-25 (NIV)

One day it will come. The quicker we turn away from Truth, the quicker we will suffer the consequences of eternal punishment. It won’t be from “excess”. It will be for ignoring Sin and the One who came to save us from its deathlike grip.

Jesus, keep me safe in your nail-scarred hands where my name is engraved on your palms along with those who have turned to you and acknowledged and surrendered to your excruciating sacrifice on our behalves. Thank you, Jesus, for rescuing me from the hold of sin which had me bound. Thank you, Jesus, for your divine and perfect love for me in spite of me. I love you, Lord.