ON THE VANGUARD

SPIRITUAL SUICIDE
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23

Growing up during the 80s, I endured the styles of the time. For those of you who like me were around back then, do you remember the onslaught of fluorescent colors? Or how about the leg warmers, stretch stir-up pants, and parachute pants sported by many? My disbelief comes still when I think back to the big hair-dos. I need to ask, what were we thinking? But it was all part of the time we lived in. Now while I have shared before that the music selections we were allowed to listen to growing up were Christian based, I recall listening to one artist who sported the big hair. Do any of you recall Rick Cua? He, in my opinion, was a very cool, big-haired, man. His songs seemed to always cut to my heart, and, yes, I still have a few of his cassette tapes – yes, tapes.
I remember watching a Christian based show as a youth where Rick Cua was the special guest. The interviewer and he were discussing a problem that was rising in America at the time. They were discussing suicide. When the statistics were read and the opinions exchanged, Rick offered help to those contemplating taking their life with his song, Don’t Say Suicide. The chorus says: Don’t say suicide/It’s your move, consider it well/Don’t say suicide/The choice is life, or the lie that comes from hell. You may look at these words as elementary or lack-luster, but I can guarantee you they have stuck with me through many of my own problems.
I woke up this morning heavy from a dream where I heard specifically a voice saying to me, “Help!” In the dream I saw a man who was holding a gun to his head and pleading for someone to come and offer him a reason not to go through with it. Then I heard another voice saying, “The wages of sin is death, and too many people are committing spiritual suicide.” This may seem awkward, but I assure you this was my dream. The fearful part was not the voices I heard, however, but that I knew this person holding the gun just as I knew the voice speaking about the wages of sin was God Himself. I woke up heavy.
I apologize if this devotional seems a little scattered in content, but here is the point that I feel God has placed on my heart for today. Physically you may not be contemplating taking your own life, but what about spiritually? Are you and I making decisions willfully to sin? If so, then we are in essence holding the gun to our head. The wages of sin is indeed death, and to move into sin with purpose is the pulling of the trigger. Think back with me. Was it not the sin of a number of Israelites following Korah in betrayal against Moses that caused the ground to open and swallow them (Num 16)? Was it not the sin of King Saul that stripped his self-worth and demoted him of title (I Sam 15)? Was it not the forsaking of God and the embracing of the religions of his wives that steered Solomon away from the truth (I Kings 11)? In all these cases, and in many more, spiritual suicide was committed.
I urge you, as does the man in my dream, to cry out for help. Too many of us are walking into sin. We are not blind in this walk, but we are purposed. We have in our mindset that this sin will not harm us. But we are wrong – it will kill us. Let us stop convincing ourselves of the lies and come to grips with the truth that the wages of sin really is death. Let us put the gun down, and come back to God and His ways. Don’t say suicide.