One Wrong Move And You're Dead

Choices. They come up every day. Even moment by moment.

What to do? Where to go? How to do it? When? Why?

Use the blue pen or the black pen? Looking fast ball or slider? Take this route or that one?

Most are insignificant and benign decisions that will bear little if any consequences past a minor annoyance or a fleeting joy.

The wise man of Proverbs however, has struck a key note on one decision that is made at least once in a lifetime by everyone.

Proverbs 14: 12 - "There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death."

Sometimes our decisions are not so clear cut. They require great thought and even some travail.

Even then we might make the wrong choice.

Sometimes it seems like a slam dunk.

It looks so right. So perfect. So clear. It's straight. No curve balls. No obstructions.

Hey, it seems like a no- brainer.

Who'da thunk it would have led to death?

Solomon is speaking of the road to the death after death. The second death. The one that counts. The final disposition of man's soul. The eternal forever.

I'd say that's the Big Kahuna of decisions. It's the one you want to be sure to get right.

Even then man is swayed by what looked good, rather than what was right.

Sometimes the wrong way seems like the right way.

But it isn't. Instead it kills you.

Some even think by making no decision at all keeps them neutral.

Silly rabbit.

God requires a decision. A non-decision is your default decision against God.

Sin often looks like the way to go. The party is over there. Clowns. Rides. Stuff to make you feel good. Dog and pony shows. Magicians. Baubles. Balloons. Shiny objects. Something that appeals to every carnal sense of the body (the natural).

It's generally a very easily accessed path. In other words, straight before us.

Everything is perfect about it. Except for one thing. It's a pathway to death.

Notice that Solomon says that it's "in the end" that we find out we have been on the wrong path all along.

Uh-oh. You went too far. You're in too deep.

It's a long road back if you're fortunate enough to find you were in the wrong place after all. 

I was on that road for many years. Man, it's a long stretch. Took me over 20 years to get to the end of it.

Some even take multiple trips back and forth, confused about which path they want to be on.

Fortunately I only made one in and one out.

There's only one right Way. All the other choices are wrong ones.

It's Jesus. He is THE WAY (John 14:6).

Follow Him. All the time. Every day. Look to the Cross. It's easy to spot. It's smack in the middle of the Right Way.

You actually have to miss it on purpose.

Keepin' it Real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com