The choice is yours.

I remember when I first surrendered to go as a missionary. I remember how everyone told me that something like 80% of all people who surrendered to be a missionary never actually made it to the field.

(I don’t know the exact statistic, but it was a shockingly high number)

At that time I was like, well, I’m not gonna be that kid. I’m gonna be the real deal. Right now, I’m on track to be a missionary, and live a life for God. A year ago, not so much. A year ago, I was a long haired, foolish college kid. (Now I’m a short haired fool. Ha) I was in love with my sin and my flesh, and walking away from God.

Anyway.

At that time, I thought that everyone made it to the mission field, and that the people at camp (because I surrendered at camp) were just saying that to scare me.

Not so much. They were right. I can name, personally, several men, who, at one point, were men of God, loved their wives, loved the Lord, and all the right things. In fact, I can name more men who walked away from God than who still follow Him.

Now, I can name men (the same men) who left their wives, left the Lord, left the church, and joined the world. Not that they lost their salvation, assuming they ever had it, but they are heading away from the field instead of to it.

I wonder where these men went wrong. I wonder why they’ve turned and walked away. I compare these men to men who actually have made it to the field, or who have made it as a missionary. And when I say made it, I don’t mean done nothing for the Lord. I mean men who have shook the foundation of the earth, and made a difference for Christ’s kingdom.

In the end, it really comes down to one thing that separates the two: love of God more than love of self.

I noticed that the men who have walked away all walked off because they found another woman, or because they got caught up in drugs, or some sort of sin that is pleasing to the flesh, and not something the Holy Spirit approves of.

Keep in mind, I’m talking about men, not teens. Men who were married. Men who have kids. Men who have gone through, and graduated college. Men, not boys. (Rather, I should say adult males, because a man doesn’t turn from God.)

The men who have done, and are still doing something for God, have put the Lord above all, including their own desires, and are so in love with Christ that they don’t want to do anything that He wouldn’t approve of.

Those who walked away? They did what the flesh said felt good, or what the flesh wanted to do.
I don’t think I have any application or anything like that, but I can say this: following your flesh will lead you away from God. To go from a man who loves the Lord to a man who loves drugs, alcohol, other women, and all kinds of sin.

I guess, to boil this whole post into one idea, or a thesis statement, it would be this:
On the road of life, there are two choices: Good or evil, life or death, God or Sin.

And right now, and prayerfully, for the rest of my life, I want to be a man who follows good, life, and God above all other things. Above my sin, my desires, and all the things of the flesh.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--