CESSPOOL WHIRLPOOL?!

CESSPOOL WHIRLPOOL?!

or,

SEWER of SIN

We took our grandkids, all five of them, to the local park; and, fun was had by all!  Forts were there to be conquered and defended.  Escapes were to be braved sliding to freedom.  Toadstools were in the right place for the elves (or, trolls) to skip to safety.  One could fly on the swings, bounce on the teeter-totters, climb the cargo nets, … But, the “funnest” ride was the tire swing – a contraption with a swivel that could spin, twirl, swing all at the same time, a horizontal tire suspended on three chains to the swivel.  As the kids began to descend from one orbit, D fell through the middle of the tire, ejected as Luke on the Death Star escaping Darth Vadar, surviving the fall by catching on the external antenna. (that was my vision)  But, D ran to his mama, whimpering, and explaining that he felt like he had been “flushed down a toilet and fell out like poop.”

Remember the scene from “Pirates of the Caribbean” where the ship was struggling to avoid the giant whirlpool sucking the crew to their death?  Biblically speaking, visualize the scene with the disciples valiantly struggling to get through the storm without Jesus, not having any idea where He had gone, off to pray or something.  Then through the rain, perhaps illuminated by a bolt of lightning across the sky, they saw a figure walking across the lake, intending just to pass them by, leaving them to struggle on alone, seemingly.  But, they called out, in fear more than faith; and, He answered!  He even allowed one of the doubting disciples to stretch his faith to the sinking point, perhaps to make a point?!

4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked 8 (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. (2Pet.2:4-8)

Our world is a swirling whirlpool emptying into a cesspool.  Think of a flushing toilet with the handle pulled.  The contents are headed for the drain, with nothing ahead but disappearance into the abyss.   And like the roaches in the juvenile joke about dying when the log rolls over, far too many are either blissfully ignorant or they are in sinful stupor.  They are swirling around in the eddy swimming or even surfing, “hanging ten” while waving to those leisurely sailing by, and turning a blind eye to those sinking out of sight.  And Satan somewhere has pulled the lever.

A few caught in the torrent are S.O.S.ing, sobbing that somehow they can be saved from their apparent fate.  And, the Savior does lift them, to soar away, singing His praise!  They are the serious ones, the separated ones, the saved!  They are calling to the others to turn for help.

But worst, far too many who have somehow escaped the vortex are sitting on the beach on logs that have drifted ashore, roasting marshmallows on gathered driftwood.  And, they seem to think “this is the life!”  They need to run to the mountains.

As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” (Gen.19:17) 

And, “Remember Lot's wife.” (Luke 17:32)