The Killer Tide - James 1:14-15

When the massive tsunami hit South Asia in December of 2004, I immediately flashed back to a real life lesson I had about tsunamis a few years ago. I was in Kodiak, Alaska, with our On Eagles' Wings team of young Native Americans. They had just finished a string of grueling days of outreach so we took them to a special spot on the ocean for a few hours off. Many of us were fascinated with the beautiful formations we saw just under the water near the shore. That's when our host told me about what happened after a major quake in Anchorage some years earlier. Folks who were at this shore area watched the ocean suddenly recede dramatically, and that left all the underwater formations and shells totally exposed. They seized this unusual opportunity to go in and collect all these treasures of the sea - not realizing that the sudden disappearance of the water was the first sign of an impending tsunami. Moments later, the monster wave suddenly enveloped everything in sight, including the people who had run right into its path. Many people lost their lives that day because they ran to what they should have been running from. That's the kind of moral mistake that has cost so many people so much. It may well be that someone listening right now is checking out something that looks inviting and exciting - not knowing or just ignoring the fact that there's a tide coming that will carry you where you never wanted to go; take from you what you don't want to lose.
	Because God doesn't want that to happen to any of us, He's issued this tsunami warning for our lives - it's in James 1:14 and 15, our word for today from the Word of God. "Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." First, you see something that's wrong but it really looks good. You really want it. A little excitement in a movie, or a web site, or magazine with some sexually explicit stuff. The magnetism of some occult or supernatural things that seem to offer some power and excitement. The relief that getting drunk or getting high might give you. The thrill, or the release, or even the love you might find in a physical relationship with someone who isn't your marriage partner. Sin looks good. Satan isn't stupid.
So the desire conceives and it moves from wanting it to doing it - "it gives birth to sin." Now you've plunged into the thing that looked so inviting. And just like those folks who were enjoying what they experienced in that oceanless sea bed, sin may feel good and it may even right for a little while – until the tsunami hits, which it always does. Because "when sin is full-grown, it gives birth to death." Sin always kills. The tsunami tide of sin's consequences can sweep away a marriage, the trust people had in you, your position, your reputation, your self-respect, your closeness to God. When you plunge into that attractive opportunity, you have no idea of the shame, the guilt, and the hurt that will follow. So God says, "Flee the evil desires..." (2 Timothy 2:22). Then He says, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11). Maybe you've been playing with what you should have been running from. Flirting with what you should have been fleeing. God's idea isn't that you just resist temptation. He says you run from it. Because no matter how good that temptation looks, behind it is a killer tide. Ron Hutchcraft -- Israel Christian Fellowship PRAISE GOD BLESSED BE THE ONE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD