“People don’t like the idea of consequences. They want to be able
to live their life freely and do what they want to do without any
consequences. And we know that’s just not the way life is.”
Charles Stanley, Pastor, and Author
There’s a running theme in life that our actions have consequences. We learn that from infancy when our parents, most of them anyway, begin to teach us; it might start with toys or with grabbing things we shouldn’t. In childhood, we learn about the resulting, painful skin burn when touching something hot – you know that one, the stovetop burner.
One of the hard lessons when I was young came from putting gum in my hair, even though I was told not to. Peanut butter did not work, and the resulting short haircut put me in tears.
Over the years there have been many false Christians that have gained our attention through their antics. Documentaries and docuseries are my thing. What sparked this topic is a docuseries I recently watched called, “Scamanda.” If you haven’t heard of it, it’s about a woman named Amanda Riley who faked cancer to gain donations, many of which came from folks in her church family. Allegedly, Ms. Riley was/is a “Christian.” She had been swindling people all while proclaiming and praising the name of Jesus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxvxx3W-Ztc. The result of her actions landed her in federal prison for approximately five-years https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/woman-formerly-bay-area-sentenced-five-years-prison-fraud-scheme.
Another strange scammer was Gwen Shamblin. Have you heard of her? She was a diet weirdo in the name of Jesus. There’s a docuseries about her antics called, “The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aupEwTeJrAM. The way down for Ms. Shamblin was by plane https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/plane-crash-killed-diet-guru-gwen-shamblin-tarzan-actor-joe-lara-was-r-rcna76276.
Consequences can be deadly.
Scripture teaches us about the deadly effects of disobedient actions from the beginning with the fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3). “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, NIV).
The Bible goes on to detail the rolling boil of sin after the fall with a hot cauldron of brotherly murder (Genesis 4). When the Lord asks you a question, do you answer Him with dripping sarcasm? I pray not! But Cain did (Genesis 4:9). The Lord tells us the consequences of Cain’s unrepented actions, the worst being the loss of his relationship with God, but we’re left hanging as to his ultimate fate https://www.gotquestions.org/how-did-Cain-die.html.
By the time of the flood, which was approximately 1,656 years after the fall, God’s patience with humanity had grown thin https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/timeline-for-the-flood/?srsltid=AfmBOoo5o0wDITgO52XTnlxojt5LowHx-hxun98fk03crEWNOQ3olR1W. Genesis Chapter 6 tells us about the increasing corruption on earth. In verse three, God’s loving nature still gives man the chance to repent with a warning that gave humanity 120 years to turn things around https://www.gotquestions.org/not-strive-with-man-forever.html. It’s heartbreaking to hear God say that He “… regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (v. 6).
Even as our ancient ancestors watched Noah build the ark and heard him preach (2 Peter 2:5; https://www.gotquestions.org/preacher-of-righteousness.html), by the time the ark was finished, only eight people boarded (Genesis 7).
Just think about, remember, what Scripture teaches us through the Israelites, especially with their exodus from Egypt and what could have been an eleven-day journey, but ended up being forty-years of wandering.
“And the LORD’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he
made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all
the generation that had done evil in the sight of LORD was gone.”
Numbers 32:13
“It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount
Seir to Kadesh-barnea. In the fortieth year, on the first day of
the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel
according to all that the LORD had given him in
commandment to them…”
Deuteronomy 1:2-3
After Israel’s first king, King Saul, lost God’s favor (1 Samuel 15), the king’s fate landed him in a state of madness, “Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him” (1 Samuel 16:14).
Even Israel’s next king, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), ended up committing adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11-12). Even though King David repented, the aftermath of his actions brought evil into his house and caused the death of his first child with Bathsheba. The churning waters in David’s house brought family drama, rape, murder, lies, deceit, and the list goes on.
To this day, we continue to live in a stormy sea of sin.
In the many psalms that King David gave to us, Psalm 51 is an example of the repentance and humility that John the Baptist preached in Matthew 3. It reminds us that all our wrongs are ultimately against God. And only God knows what’s truly in our hearts.
“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah 17:10
Second Timothy 2:25 tells us that repentance is a call from God, “… God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”
People, the Lord is urging us into the truth! In whose name you pray matters because God knows your heart. Like Jesus told Thomas,
“… I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
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