Choosing Life or Death
by Lonnie Mackley
GAL 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit,
from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Addiction is like a credit card of excess pleasure that we spend without thinking about
what it will cost us later. Then later on the bill of excess pain comes with it's destruction and humiliating consequences.
Sometimes those consequences are small and temporary, but the longer we practice that addiction the pain bill becomes greater
and greater until the pain bill collectors come pounding at the door of our life demanding payment now. Sometimes we
can continue to try to escape paying the pain bill by just using more of our addiction, but in time the consequences can become
very severe and permanent if we continue to ignore the warning notices. God and life's laws cannot be mocked, and nobody has
ever beat them yet.
1CO 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's
temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy
him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
I don't believe in trying to scare people away from addiction, but I do believe in
telling the truth so that the truth can finally help us to let go of the lies that are keeping us bound to it. The truth is,
when we break life's laws and abuse things, it will create damage that we have to live with. If we shove toxins
and drugs into our body all the time, eventually our liver and other organs will degrade and create a prison of pain that we
have to live in. If we overeat all the time, we will have to carry all that weight around and it will damage our
body and health and eventually kill us. Many people want to die because life has been so painful, but death many times
does not come instantly, and we live in mobile homes of pain and humiliation.
JOB 3:25 What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened
to me. 26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.
We use addiction because of a fear of pain without self-protection due to past unhealed
emotional trauma, but we are actually just creating the very thing that we fear, "more pain". Plus we trust in pleasure
to protect ourselves in place of God, which is idolatry. You might say, "Well God did not protect me from the original
pain that caused my fears", but the truth is that life does have some pain because people have a free will to hurt others
if they choose to. But God can and will protect us if we by our will invite Him to be part of our life and trust
Him to set limits on the amount of pain we will endure. We need some pain in life to learn and make right choices. Plus
enduring pain can build our faith and be a witness to others.
RO 6:23 For the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So the choice is ours, do we want to live in a mobile home of pain, disability, discomfort,
humiliation, and death?; or do we want to live in a peaceful normally functioning body and healthy life that will carry us
to the very end? Many people have over-pleasured themselves to death, and when their body died they stood there in terror
as a spirit wondering what was going to happen to them next. You must choose what your future will be; life, or destruction.
Choose life and health for yourself today, and remember that addiction always creates more pain than it relieves. It's just
a big con. If you obey God's life-rules you will be happy, if you ignore them long enough, you will be lost for good
with no way back. So choose life today.
DT 30:19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children
may live.
