10 If you faint in the day of adversity,
Your strength is small.
11 Deliver those who are drawn toward death,
And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
12 If you say, “Surely we did not know this,”
Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it?
He who keeps your soul, does He not know it?
And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?
If your day was anything like mine, you had some sort of contact with a bunch of different people today, each of them with their own hurts, fears, and challenges - family members, co-workers, servers in that restaurant where you had dinner. Are any of those people being "drawn toward death"? Are they "stumbling to the slaughter"? What would it look like for you to hold them back? Would the God of the Universe use YOU to make a difference in that person's eternity?
The Bible says that sin always leads to death:
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
James 1:14 & 15
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
If we say we didn't know, we aren't fooling God. He knows we know, and He cares how we respond. Consider Paul's instruction to Timothy:
2 Timothy 4:1-5
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead ◙ at His appearing and His kingdom:
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Are you ready?
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