(Mark 9:42-50)
42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him if a heavy millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot is causing you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life without a foot, than, having your two feet, to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye is causing you to sin, throw it away; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not extinguished. 49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”TODAY'S TAKEAWAY:
We will all go through fire, which equates to God's judgment! Anyone who has not received the Lord's forgiveness, will remain "in fire" for all eternity. Anyone who has received the Lord's forgiveness will be "fireproof", because we are covered by His righteousness and we have His indwelling Holy Spirit. Our good deeds done with impure motives will be burned up. Believers will be judged and rewarded for those good deeds done with pure motives, those deeds done in the Lord's righteousness and all to His glory!
There is both impure and pure salt. I'm thinking that to have salt in ourselves would be synonymous to having God's indwelling Holy Spirit, which all believers have, along with eternal life, and therefore we cannot lose our salvation. Even though we have God already in our lives, we are still told to "be filled" with His Holy Spirit.
(Matthew 5:18) And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
Because Christianity is all about a personal relationship with the Lord, when we sin and stray, we will not lose the Holy Spirit, but we will certainly quench God's spirit. In this, if we are struggling with some sin, even though it might SEEM enjoyable, any sin is deceptive, divisive, and destructive, and God will allow consequences in our lives to discipline us, to get our attention, and to bring us back to Him. One might think that there isn't all that much difference, but there is.
There have been two times in my life where I started drifting away from God, and being around other believers, thinking that I was getting more out of life that way. What drew me away from God was "the promise" of having close friends. And even though my straying was not all that dramatic, when I returned to seeking after the Lord and being around His children - the differences WAS very dramatic! It was literally from darkness to light!
Did I have to lop off any limb? Figuratively, yes. Both times I had lost friends. I had walked away from good friends, to be with other friends, who either brought me closer to feeling hopeless, or outright turned on me. I had to cut off that limb, to then lose those other (shallow) friends! But, the Lord God replaced that "limb" when I went back to Him, and developed deep, meaningful friendships with other steadfast believers.
In all likelihood, when I had strayed, I probably negatively impacted other young Christians. Maybe even inspired them to walk away from their faith. If so, I pray that they saw my "return", which encouraged them to do the same. Our faith is a journey. In our personal relationship with the Lord, the closer we grow to Him, the more like Him we will be... the less likely we will cause a young Christian to stumble or stray from their faith. The closer we all draw to God and His great love and peace, the closer we will draw to one another.
