Sin Lieth at the Door

It is a wonderful thing to walk with the Lord and to know that we have hope, a great expectation of the life to come. We can look forward to eternal rest, where there is no pain, no hunger, no suffering, and no stress. Our journey is not from mountaintop to mountaintop but it's down in the valley where, according to the proverb, "the rubber meets the road." We don't always languish on the grassy knolls, but we walk through the valleys, sometimes skipping happily, other times trudging...
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It is a wonderful thing to walk with the Lord and to know that we have hope, a great expectation of the life to come. We can look forward to eternal rest, where there is no pain, no hunger, no suffering, and no stress. Our journey is not from mountaintop to mountaintop but it's down in the valley where, according to the proverb, "the rubber meets the road." We don't always languish on the grassy knolls, but we walk through the valleys, sometimes skipping happily, other times trudging and struggling to continue. The path that Christians follow King David called the path of righteousness. Proverbs calls it the Path of Life. But there are other paths that can take us in a different direction. These paths lead to destruction. Some believe that a Christian can never follow that path to destruction and yet there is a presence who will try to turn us to that path. He will contradict God's Word. He will challenge God's will. He will try to make every person doubt that God even exists or, failing that, he will try to make every Christian lose their belief in God's credibility. He'll try to persuade us to follow our natural desires instead of the will of God. He will try to neutralize the importance of God in our lives and remove Him from the throne of our faith. He wants to be in charge, to rule. He tried to rule once and failed. For his rebellion he was cast out of heaven and the angels who followed him were cast out with him. He now rules, but only in the kingdom of darkness. There is no chance for him defeat God. But he keeps trying. He will keep trying until he is cast out once again, when he will suffer the ultimate defeat. He will be cast into the Lake of Fire, where he will have no more chance to come against God or against God's people. The danger is that he continually tries to get as many to follow him now as he can, and those who have chosen to follow him in this life will have no choice but to follow him into the Lake of Fire. God is great and life in the Spirit is a great blessing. But do not forget this one thing. The snake is still in the garden.