MAKING WISE CHOICES
Galatians 6:7-8
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Several years ago, over a long weekend, I was at a hunting sports show talking about trophy whitetail bucks with a few thousand hunters and others. We had a booth and had several world records on display. People would stop by and ask questions about the stories of the bucks on display.
Several times people would bring up bucks, with statements and questions about them. These bucks had flashed onto the scene at one time or another in the past just to disappear again. Some of these bucks had disappeared because of finding they were not real or were taken illegally... some just weren't as big as they were reported to have been.
Many hunters asked about one buck that had claimed world record status just to vanish into oblivion, like a morning mist when the sun comes up. One gentleman told me he had asked this the hunter that killed the buck in quearion, if he would bring his buck to an event to display it. The hunter responded by only saying, "I've got too many skeletons in my closet and no one believes I legally shot the buck".
I don't know if this hunter actually legally harvested the buck or not or if the story is true. However, I do know that a typical world record whitetail would be worth approximately $1 million to the successful hunter that took it. This hunter could have been a nearly instant millionaire except for the fact that he had made bad decisions in his past and it didn't only cost him all the money, but it cost him his reputation, his honor and so much more. These words were from the hunter himself
Bad past choices were going to carry with him for the rest of his life. In a few more years this hunter's name will be forgotten and his buck will only live in the memories of a few old men and many of these old men will question the validity of the buck and the hunter.
A short time after hearing that story another hunter stopped and asked about that same hunter and his buck that had vanished. This hunter had a high school aged son hanging on every word of our hunting stories. I turned to this young man and I looked him in the eye and told him, "please remember this the next time you have to make a decision between doing what's right and what's wrong."
The Bible tells us in Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sins will find you out". We cannot go through life living a sinful life without paying a cost for our actions. There are consequences for our actions and some of those consequences never come to an end.
Even if after a life of sin we choose to follow Jesus Christ, we will have to live with those things we've done in the past. In God's eyes we've been forgiven for our past and future sins and our eternity is assured, however, there are things here on Earth that will carry with us, and there is a cost to those things.
Bad decisions might not cost you a million dollars, but as we get older our reputation and testimony is worth far more that any amount of money. Make your choices wisely. You're going to have to live with them and possibly pay for them for a long time.
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