The First Step!

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Psalm 51:3

The pages of history are salted and peppered with stories of great men who did really stupid and foolish things. Imagine what Adam and Eve had before the fall and what they gave up for one bite of the forbidden fruit. How much sense does that make? Their son Cain decided that killing his brother Abel would be smart. We know how that worked out.

If you want to start today and go backward the list is just as cluttered and maybe even more so. The Governor of S.C. is just the latest victim of colossal embarrassment because of sin.

Satan doesn’t tempt a man to commit some grossly immoral sin at first. He takes you one step at a time. You are not tempted to jump off of the deep end. You are tempted to put one toe in the water. It is gradual and before you know it you are in “over your head.”

King David was a man after God’s own heart. That was the way God described him, and yet when this man of God saw Bathsheba bathing he put his toe in the water of lust. “How could just thinking about it hurt anything?” Those must have been the words of Satan. As the king stood on his roof that day he turned his heart from God to his own desire. That was the first step of rebellion that ended in adultery, murder, suffering and pain.

The first step in any journey may seem unimportant, but without that first step you will never arrive at your destination. That first step is significant in both glorious and ghastly situations. I do remember the very first time I stood face to face with the girl who would become my wife. I was walking down the hall in the music department at the college where we both attended. The hall was narrow and I had to step aside to let her pass. It was so totally insignificant, except for what began to grow in my heart after that split second encounter. Now there are 19 grandchildren who are eternally grateful that my heart was turned toward their grandmother.

There you have it. The reason to say “no” to the littlest sin is that it may be the first step on the road to ruin. “Oh I will put my toe in the water and then get out before it gets too deep.” That may have happened and if so you should thank God you did not get swept away in the tide, but can you guarantee that the next time you step into the quicksand you will not be sucked down and destroyed?

If you are standing in the shallows of Hell thinking that at just the right moment you will turn around and call on God again, then be warned! Get out now. And if you are tempted to put even one foot in the world, DON’T DO IT!

It is a big deal, it is a very big deal!