Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Doubts”
Our Bible verse for today: “In the spring when kings march out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel …” 2 Samuel 11:1 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “A little sin could be the beginning of a big fall.”
There’s a contemporary Christian song by the group Casting Crowns that I like very much. The title is “Slow Fade” and it’s about the fact that major failures in life never happen in an instant. They’re always the result of a long pattern of compromise that ultimately leads to major failure. Here’s just a part of the song:
“It’s a slow fade, when you give yourself away. It’s a slow fade, when black and white turn gray. And thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid … when you give yourself away. People never crumble in a day. It’s a slow fade … it’s a slow fade …”
In 2 Samuel Chapter 11 we read the story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba. As the leader of the nation, David was supposed to have been with the army out in the field leading the battles. But he had gotten lazy and casual. So he sent the army out without him and he stayed at home hanging out on the couch.
One evening he was strolling on his rooftop and he noticed a very beautiful woman (Bathsheba), on the roof of another house. He lusted after her, had her brought to his palace, and he had sex with her – even though she was married to another man (Uriah), who was a soldier out in the field with the army David was supposed to be leading.
Long story short, Bathsheba got pregnant, David tried to cover it up but wasn’t able to, and he ended up having Uriah murdered so he could marry Bathsheba himself.
The point is that David’s lust, the resulting adultery, and then the conspiracy that resulted in Uriah’s murder, didn’t all happen on the spur of the moment. Those events were just the culmination of a long slow fade that occurred in David’s life as he became physically and spiritually lazy. He had stopped doing the things he was supposed to do and he had stopped being in the places he was supposed to be in. And then, he fell.
The same is true with us. Spiritual erosion is a gradual thing that occurs over time as we get lazy and casual in the practice of our faith. Ultimately it leads to ethical and moral compromises, compromise that we probably would never have envisioned on that first Sunday morning when we decided to stay home from church instead of attending like we knew we should. And then it begins: one excuse leads to the next, and to the next, and then to the next. Then standards start to slip. Then more excuses are made. Then rationalization takes over. And then one evening you find yourself lying in bed with someone else’s spouse wondering how you ended up there.
It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away.
If you’re having doubts about an action you’re contemplating taking; if you have to stop to wonder if this thing is OK or not; then the answer is “No, don’t do it”.
If the correctness of a decision is uncertain; if the godliness of it is in question; if there is any doubt at all, then don’t do it. Why take the chance? People never crumble in a day. It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away. So don’t even start down that road.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 