Straight Thinking 031768 the Decision to Die
Straight Thinking
031768
THE DECISION TO DIE
Sunday. What kind of person do you think you would be if you had other parents, if you were a boy instead of a girl, if you were living in a different place in another time? Would you still be a Christian? Maybe you aren’t a Christian; do you think you would have accepted Christ if things were different somehow? (Read Jeremiah 31:29-30.)
Monday. Judas Iscariot was the worst product of the best environment. His failure points out the fact that good surroundings do not necessarily produce good people. Even an apostle of Jesus in the presence of perfect influence yielded to temptation. But if Noah could be a good man in his wicked world, no one should suppose that Judas was just a victim of circumstance or a slave of fate. Neither can any of us excuse ourselves on that basis. (Read John 12:1-6.)
Tuesday. We can make something bad out of anything. Judas stumbled over the little pile of coins people gave them to buy food for Jesus and the twelve. Judas couldn’t blame his sin on the Lord who made him treasurer for the group. Neither can we blame God for misusing the gifts that he has placed in our environment for our benefit. (Read John 12:1-6.)
Wednesday. “The soul that sins will die.” Judas was a son of Abraham with all “the rights and privileges that pertain thereunto,” but his ancestry didn’t keep him from sin and death. God judges each of us by the deeds done in our own body whether good or bad, and warns that the road to eternity leads from deeds to destiny. Living is a deliberate thing. (Read Ezekiel 18:4, 5-13; Luke 3:8-9; Romans 2:6.)
Thursday. Count yourself fortunate if you have Christian parents. You may not appreciate their constant influence till you go away on your own, but accept their help now in strengthening your will to meet temptation later. Your forefathers’ faith won’t prevent your eternal destruction. Remember Judas, the descendant of Abraham. (Read Acts 1:24-25.)
Friday. God created us with the power of thought and the gift of choice. Consequently, we’re not machines that run on heredity and environment. We are persons, whose lives depend on our use of heredity and our reaction to environment. We’ll be whatever we will to be; we’ll do whatever we will to do; and we will what we do. (Read Ezekiel 18:21-32.)
Saturday. Heredity and environment are the post and crossbeam on which today’s social evolutionists would crucify the human race. But our eternal death hangs on our own free will to die. The last scene in the life of Judas Iscariot shows him as the one that put the noose around his neck and cast himself down from the tree of life. (Read Matthew 27:3-5.)
Virgil Warren, Straight, March 17, 1968, p13 christir.org