Nancy and I were both saddened by the death of two friends with whom we went to high school. Their names have been changed in this post. I got the news today that a friend of mine David, died last night when his heart stopped from drug use. David and I both used to deal drugs in high school. We ran in two different gangs and were always at war with each other. One night we got in a fight in a bar and bloodily beat each other. The police came and several of us were taken to jail. That night in the cell David and I became friends, and we formed an “unholy” alliance of dealing, and selfishly using people. By the grace of God, I was delivered from that life into a holy union with Christ. David never chose that union with Christ. He stayed in the selfish lifestyle and self-pleasure of drugging and thugging, and it took him out.
Nancy lost her friend Linda. Her and Nancy went to high school together and used drugs together as well. Linda continued in her lifestyle. When I came to Guntersville, I spent 3 months doing a large renovation and addition project to Linda and her husbands home. Linda, again because of a selfish lifestyle and for self-pleasure, abandoned her husband and two children, ran off with a “man” half her age who used drugs, was about self pleasure as well, and they formed an “unholy union.” Nancy found out this morning that yesterday Linda took a gun and committed suicide.
Selfishness and the pursuit of self-pleasure leads to destruction. Whether you seek it in drugs, alcohol, materialism and possessions, employment, relationships, power, it is an unholy union that is a “seductive trap”, a deceptive lie, a false hope, that has no power to deliver you, but immense power to destroy you.
I hate this and it makes me angry that they died! There are “Davids and Lindas” all around us: they are our neighbors, co-workers, persons in front of us in line at a store...ect. Yesterday at our House Church we discussed the need for us to share the gospel. To not be lights under a basket; lights gathered and hid only in prayer closets, house churches, and church buildings (Matt. 5:13-16). There are Davids and Lindas that are trapped in darkness desperate for light. We need to have a sense of urgency and desperately abandoned our comfort and complacency to be missionaries of the gospel. Missionaries defined as: Someone who is willing to forsake everything except the Gospel, for the sake of the Gospel. I want you to please motivate me to become more of a missionary, as I motivate you.