Life by the Word

Chapter 1

The Forest Fire 

How many times in your life have you turned on the evening news and witnessed a blazing forest fire?  The newscaster is gasping for air, helicopters are flying around, airplanes are seen dropping tons of water out of the sky trying to extinguish this out-of-control blaze that seems to consume everything in its path.  It's a pretty scary picture that too many times we have all witnessed.

But now when I see this catastrophe, my mind can't help but ask what started this fiery blaze.  Was it a cigarette butt that was carelessly dropped that attached itself to a leaf, then a branch, then a tree, and so on?  Or was it a tiny ember of heated sunshine that lit itself to be caught up in this woodsy inferno?  Either way, at one moment in time, this place was at peace and all was okay.  The animals were playing, the trees were blowing in the autumn wind and all was right with the world.

Can you see where I'm going with this?  If you were to trace the forest fires of your own life and look back to the points where they first started, you might ask yourself what actions you might have changed or done differently to stop these tiny wrong decisions or embers from becoming blazes of destruction in your own life.

My dad often reminds me, "Alfred," he says, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."  It is a statement that has stayed with me for many years.  It's a statement that if we can understand it, can help us keep the awareness that is needed to prevent these out-of-control fires in our daily living.

I guess some biblical stories and examples can best back-up what I'm trying to convey here.  You don't have to look far or go too deep into the word of God to find the first bad decision and its ramifications. It is the good old story of Adam and Eve in the second chapter of Genesis.  Here we find Eve rapping with the serpent (Satan) and debating with the Devil on whether God said this and if God really said that.  Let me tell you something, once you get into a debate with Satan, you have already lost.  Lucifer was a fallen angel, the head angel who decided to try and take over the throne of God.  He was so persuasive in his tactics that he convinced one-third of the angels to join him on his attack of God's throne.  The Bible describes him as craftier than any other creature the Lord thy God made.  Can you see why Eve is in trouble here?  She's fighting and conversing with an enemy that knows the unseen spiritual world through and through.  Let's see if she handles the situation properly.  Anyone who has biblical knowledge knows that she does not.  I want you to concentrate on two things here.  First, that Satan does not ask Eve how she is or how she's been.  No, the first statement he makes is a blatant attack on God's word, putting doubt into Eve's thought process.  "Did God really say that you must not eat from any tree in the Garden?? (Genesis 3:1)  You see what's going on here?  Eve is at the moment of truth.  Death and destruction lie ahead if she chooses to eat from the tree.  Second, I want to make it clear that she takes only one bite and the fall of mankind has now begun.

One bite, one drink, one cigarette, one time the married husband goes to lunch with the beautiful co-worker, one time the teenager decides to try a deadly drug, one time she allows herself to give in to sexual temptation and becomes pregnant.  This is a perfect example of how this all works.  I want to stress strongly here that I'm not looking for perfection.  We all know that as long as we live in these earthly bodies, our sin nature and selfishness will war against the spirit that lives inside of us.  That is a given.  What I am trying to convey is that every time we choose to disobey God's written word or whether we just take one bite, the entire apple, or the whole tree, we set ourselves up for serious circumstances.  How often do you find yourself wishing you had seen it coming?

Adam and Eve knew what God wanted them to do.  They had the chance to eat from every tree in the garden except one.  Isn't it ironic that this is the one that the Devil focuses on?  Here we see Satan trying to argue the lie of the selfishness of God instead of the goodness of God.  The Lord allows them to eat freely from every tree but one.  Eve's selfishness and lack of obedience to God's word allows her here to begin the fall and give in to the temptation of the enemy.

Another prime example of a wrong decision and its ramifications is the Israelites as Moses is leading them out of the land of Egypt.  We read in Exodus 19:20-25 that Moses is getting God's instruction and the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai when the Israelites get impatient and decide to build a golden calf to worship instead of the Lord.  We all know the story.  God gets so angry that we read he's about to take these disobedient children of Israel out.  And I don't mean to lunch, either.

One thing puzzles me here.  Why didn't one of the thousands upon thousands of these rebellious people say, "Let's go up and find out what happened to Moses.  Let's send someone up to the mountain and see if he's okay and find out what God wants us to do."  You see, when we lose our patience while waiting for the Lord's instruction, our carnal nature then takes things into its own hands.  How many times in your own life have you done this?  Praying and seeking and still no answer.  Then you decide, ?Hey, forget it.  I'm going to do my own thing.? Then you find out months or years later that you should have waited just a little bit longer for the Lord's reply because you are in a really big mess now.

The Israelites suffered greatly for their impatience.  They suffered God's wrath even in his mercy.  I wonder how many of them would have been a part of this calf-building incident knowing what their actions would manifest.  It is so important to realize here that whenever we act out of emotion, we are usually going to make the wrong decision or reply.  Anger, pride, or rebellion does not allow us the right standing we need before God.  It is truly amazing that not one of these 400,000 newly freed slaves would have the wisdom to go and check on Moses.  They all acted in one accord on building this golden calf to worship.  And whether they dropped tons of jewelry or just one tiny earring into the pot to be melted down is totally irrelevant and doesn't matter.  They still were just as guilty.  Just like Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden and they all paid dearly for it.

I hope and pray that characters such as Moses and the Israelites and Adam and Eve can be used as blueprints of what not to do in your own life.  Whether it not be taking God at his word, impatience on further instruction on what to do, or just plain disobedience, we need to come to the reality that we all possess a little bit of each of the characteristics in these stories.  The 'not me' syndrome only sets us up for the same failures, failures in the sense of not having the awareness to do the right thing before the Lord and suffer greatly for it. 

I always say to my children there are two ways we can learn.  One, have the humility to learn from others and listen and study what they might have done wrong.  Two, learn from your own bad decisions.  I'm sure many of you will agree that the latter is much more painful that the first.  Let's hope this book starts to change these patterns and gives you a new insight to make the right decisions and live a more peaceful life here on earth.  And always remember, it is easier to squash a tiny ember of trouble than to have it grow into an inferno of destruction that gets totally out of control in your life.