Welcome Back! I hope you had a great 4th of July weekend with family and friends. This weeks blog i owe to Mark Hall of Casting Crowns. Casting Crowns has a song called “Slow Fade” and Mark did a short video devotional on it. The devotional was eye opening and showed me something new in scripture and life. SO A BIG SHOUT OUT GOES TO MARK HALL AND CREW! Thanks for all you guys do in the ministry. Now lets roll…

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.(2)But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.(3) He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

How many times have you seen godly men fall or families you look up to tumble? I have seen in numerous times in my life.People who you would have never thought could stumble fall flat on their face. The thing is none of this happened overnight. They didn’t go to bed and wake up to crash and burn time. It was a slow process or a slow fade.

I want to show the slow fade of a man in the verse above. Lets look at it again, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. Do you see it? First he was walking, then standing and ultimately sitting. If you are like me when you first see that you are like WOW!  Lets break this mans “slow fade” down.

The verse says Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked. Who was this guy going to for council? What was he clicking on? What was he reading or watching? These things he is learning  and the images he is seeing are gonna start flowing out of him until he is standing. He is not gonna be just standing it says he “will be standing in the way of sinners.”That means people who don’t know God see him see him and are all confused. They now want nothing to do with the Lord. Finally we see him sitting all scabbed up. This man had hit rock bottom. He has no where left to go.

Where are you today? Are you walking, standing or sitting? The path to destruction is slow. Let me use porn for example. I have talked and read interviews with porn addicts. The theme is usually the same. I started off looking at magazines or websites occasionally maybe  once a month if that. That would be the walking stage. I would say that this would be the best time to re-evaluate your situation before things get out of hand. All addicts go on to say they started looking at porn on a weekly basis. They have already gone from  magazines and soft core sites to more hard core porn. This would be the standing stage. It has already starting taking a toll on your daily life.  You start thinking about it more and more. The final stage of sitting you are an addict. You look at porn on a daily basis. Your life revolves around it. You can think of nothing else. You are consumed by porn, all your money goes to porn you have been found out. You have lost your family, job, who knows.  This is not only about porn this happens to drug addicts, sex addicts, alcoholics, work junkies and people who fool around on their loved ones. As i said above where are you today?

There are a couple of things i believe can help you keep walking in life. First is a relationship with Jesus. He loves you!  It says in John 8:12 “I am the light of the world.Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”Second is accountability!! Find someone who will call you out. Give them permission to call you out. Man up! Talk to your friends, wife ,pastor about what is going on with you. You cannot do it by yourself. None of us can. One of my favorite verses is Ecclesiastes 4:9 Two are better than one, because they have good return in their work:if one falls down, his friend can pick him up. But pity the man who falls and had no one to help him up! Don’t get mad when people call you out it says in Proverbs 12:32 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. I have a friend who has that verse posted in his office at work. Be open to correction. Set yourself up for success not failure. I want to close this out with some of the lyrics from “Slow Fade”

Be careful little eyes what you see
It's the second glance that ties your hands
as darkness pulls the strings..
Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end
is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray.
It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself way
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day..Its a slow fade..


 


THIS IS MY FAVORITE PART OF THE SONG!


The journey from you mind to your hands 


Is shorter than you are thinking


Be careful if you think you stand


you just might be sinking.


Thanks again to Mark Hall of Casting Crowns for opening my eyes to something new. You can also check out his other devotions on You Tube. Until next week take care and know that you are Loved by us and Jesus!!


STEVE OH

LOVE JESUS/LOVE PEOPLE