Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.

• Proverbs 10:16

When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.

• Ezekiel 3:18

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

• Romans 5:20-21

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

• 1 John 3:6

If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that.

• 1 John 5:16

“One of the worst things about a moral relapse ­to me- is that it throws such a shadow back on the time before during which you thought you were getting on quite well. Having found oneself-for the hundredth time-back where one started, it seems so obvious that one has never really moved at all, and that what seemed progress was only [a] dream, or even the irrelevant result of circumstances or physical condition.”

• C.S. Lewis, The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (13 August 1930)

What the internet says about a friend or relative who slips up after an extended stretch of sobriety is to listen first, show that you care, and then work with them to find a solution.  That might get messy, but if you love them enough, it’s worth it.

When I read this Lewis quote, something resonated.  I have had bad habits, none that are harmful to others, mostly battles of the mind.  I am irritated by people who say that they repent and make a 360 degree turn.  I do not like sloppy math.  A 360 turn means that you spun around, and you are still pointed in the wrong direction.  If that direction is toward the next drug, next drink, next smoke, next vape, next gambling bet, or the next porn video, you are back looking at that.  I prefer what a pastor said on a television show.  Do not worry about turning around or the degrees of the turn.  Turn to Jesus.

But even though I hate people saying a 360 turn, I have done it myself.

I have often wondered what happens when someone that might have been sober for months or even years gets off the wagon.  They have one slip.  Last week they went to a meeting and they say, “It’s been 3 years, 2 months, and 28 days since my last _____.”  They left the room a rock star.  Then they show up a week later and they say, “It’s been two days…”

Is it like what C.S. Lewis said?  Do you question if you have done any progress at all?  Of course, the anonymous organizations will tell you that once an addict, always an addict.  Thus, there is no progress being made other than you are training yourself that you can say “no” for just a day.  Then you say “no” just for a day tomorrow.

But these Scriptures can be haunting.  If you have a bad habit, God can give you the strength and the tools to resist today, and then do the same for you tomorrow, but looking at Proverbs 10 above, is that life?  With the constant struggle to focus your mind on Jesus, especially when exhausted, is that “continuing to sin” as First John speaks of?

I like what Rev. MacArthur says about the sin that leads to death.  If you survived the sin, and lived to tell about it, others can still pray for your deliverance.  But if God has had enough of your backsliding and this near-death experience goes beyond near death, then it is too late to pray for that one.  Okay, I made his summary a little more edgy.  Rev. MacArthur used a homosexual and a liar as being those sins that do not lead to death, until they do…  I have no temptations in many of the areas mentioned in this post.  We are all born with a sin nature, and each have that “ice cream sundae that we should never touch” that might be unique to only a few.

But I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel with my mind wandering.  I think of something that is not productive, and then my mind detours.  I put that thought into a fictional character.  I work on seeing that fictional character through that temptation or habit or trouble, and they are guided back to looking at Jesus again.  Maybe the ones that are written into a story are few, but in thinking of something unwholesome, my immediate response, before ever acting on that thought, is how do you help that person back to wholeness?

The Romans 5 passage is filled with hope.  Where there is greater sin, there is even greater Grace.

Praise the Lord for that.  As the athlete says, it doesn’t matter how many times you fall, only how many times you get back up.  God’s love is infinite.  God’s patience is infinite to a point (death).  And God’s Grace is infinite.  If I need a bucket load of Grace this week, the bucket will be full when you need some.

I guess what I am trying to say here is that sometimes when I write a post, I am reading what I am writing because I need to hear it myself.  I don’t have everything together.  But I know where my strength lies, and God keeps helping me to move closer to Him.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.