I don’t want any part of it.

It’s not good for you, although it may appear that way for a short while. You may not feel the consequences yet, but you will. It’s going to kill you, actually.

We’ve got to stop looking only at the short term, because the future ramifications will be here before we know it.

Your friends, neighbors, and coworkers will say it’s fine. It’s what’s expected. It’s what everyone else is doing, and it’s the best way to go. They may mean well, but they’re wrong.

Dead wrong.

Most people won’t understand until it’s too late, but hopefully there are some who are being wakened to this truth:

Living your life apart from God will bring nothing but misery and heartache in the end.

This is true for the unbeliever and the person who calls themself a Christian but walks lock-step with the world.

I thank God he let me experience the consequences of my sin early and often, both before I was a Christian and embarrassingly as a Christian, so that eventually I surrendered my life and my choices and told him I was ready to do things his way.

I can’t help but fear for the billions of people who stubbornly persist in their unbelief and rejection of God’s truth and rightful rule as Lord. People I know and love and want to be with forever in eternity! We all deserve hell, but God has made a way for those that would trust him. Please be one of those people.

To the unbeliever I would beg you to examine your reasons for unbelief. Is it because you honestly can’t see the evidence of a Creator in creation, including the intricate miracle of your own body? Is it because you doubt the eyewitnesses willing to go to their deaths as they stood by their claims that Jesus is Messiah? Or is it because you want to be king of your own world and don’t want anyone to tell you how to live? Your eternal future hangs in the balance. Ask God to help you see both your heart and his. He will do it, and I think you’ll see his heart is good and loving and safe. What do you have to lose?

To the professing follower of Christ who refuses to submit to the authority of Scripture (in fact, the word “authority” just made you throw your coffee cup across the room and run to your safe space), I beg you to return to the God of your salvation. The one who hung on a cross for your sin and mine, who died for your sin so you could be forgiven. What is it in secular culture that appeals to you so much? A sense of comradery and acceptance? A feeling of superior, evolved morality? God is unchanging and so is his Word. We can love people without applauding sin. We actually can hate sin because it separates people from God and we can still be welcoming and loving to those who are still figuring it out. And to those who reject God outright! Becoming like the world doesn’t help lost people, and it certainly won’t have a good outcome for you. Don’t waste this time you have to build his kingdom, because yours will inevitably crumble like sand.

Repent and believe. Trust in the God who loves you and knew you before the foundation of the world. Come into newness of life. Walk into love and joy and hope and peace beyond your circumstances. Today is the day of salvation.

Love you guys.

Angela