THE END THEREOF

Photo by MRB, cropped to hide the preacher’s identity.

Isn’t the photo above absolutely amazing!  Here she is preaching a sermon with her notes, her bible, a prop and a bottle of water at the ready.  Then she moves her bottle of water to the back of her prop, a glass container of water.  I didn’t hear another word of what she said.  There is the bottle cut in half by the water right next to her.  What in the world????            

You are seeing refraction, a phenomenon of light.  The light is being deflected while passing obliquely through the interface between one medium, air, and another, water, a medium of a different density.  Water is denser than air, so as light passes through the water in her prop, the light is deflected or bent in another direction, and we see the other half of her water bottle in another place. 

It reminded me of the scripture, ‘There is a way which seems right to a man, but ‘the end thereof’ are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12. KJV.

So, a man goes fishing with a bow and arrow or a spear.  He sees a fish under the water.  “Wow”, he says, “that will feed my whole family”.  So he tries to spear the fish.  He misses the fish altogether!  It ‘seems right’ to him that the fish he is looking at should be where it looks like it is!  

IT IS NOT THERE.  He is mistaken.  The fish is actually a few inches to the (north) due to refraction, the bending of light.  If he doesn’t become aware of this, he will grow weary and frustrated with his spearing or ‘bowing’ as it were, and he and his whole family will starve!!!

There are so many things that people are doing right now that to them ‘seems right’.  Yet according to scripture, the end of what they are doing ‘are the ways of death’.

Abortion is the most obvious example.  Many people support it saying, ‘abortion is a woman’s right’ and have an abortion right in the face of God who said, simply, ‘Thou shall not kill.’ Exodus 20:13. The end of this belief is the death of millions of babies. 

There is a moral standard.  The bible.  People seem to think they are right and ignore what the bible has to say.  They see the fish but miss it altogether.  Their ways unfortunately are the ‘ways of death’.  Where did this ‘seems right’ come from.

You just have to look at the beginning.  Adam and Eve did what ‘seemed right’ to them!

Unfortunately, they were deceived.  Look what happened to them because they chose to do what ‘seemed right’ and decided to disobey God.  And, unfortunately, this is our inheritance!  We are born with our back to God!  No wonder it ‘seems right’ to live a life without Him.  We just take everything for granted.  I did this for the first 26 years of my life.  

But it isn’t right to live this way.  It grieves God who loves you and longs for you to turn around and love Him in return.  Can you imagine creating a child, giving him everything he needs who never acknowledges your presence, never turns around and looks you in the eye, never gives you thanks?  How painful would that be?  Yet countless thousands of God’s children do exactly that!

How many people do you see praying over their meal in a restaurant or on some T.V. show?

We watch travel shows that take you to the most beautiful places on earth!  And there is the host standing in awe of the beauty of a place, but not acknowledging or giving thanks to the one who created it.  They keep their back to God and worship the creation and not the creator!  Once again, they see the fish and miss it altogether.

What God wants, what fills Him with joy, makes Him sing and dance over you is ‘The Pleasure of Your Company!’  Do yourself a favor and read the book ‘The Pleasure of His Company: A Journey to Intimate Friendship With God’ by Dutch Sheets!

And remember, you can get as close to God as you want!  He’s just waiting for you to turn around.  

TURN AROUND!

‘In His presence is fulness of Joy!’ Psalm 16:11.