Lesson One = Before You Begin, Consider The End

Common Sense Commentary:  Jesus warned us that before we begin something, we had better consider the end. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Luke 14:28. That wasn't just talk. Jesus, Himself, counted the cost and then finished what He came to do.  He came to die for our sins and as He died, He cried out... "It is finished." John 19:30. You see, "The wages of sin is death", and it will either be your death for your lust and sin or the atoning death of Jesus for your lust and sin, but it will be death ... "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15. So, before you begin .... consider the end.

Lesson learners of the past have passed on such wise axioms, gained by their own unfortunate experiences, to their children, since Eden. "Look before you leap", they warned. "Don't go off half cocked." "Think a thing through." "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." A person who goes public with his enemy's dirt should first consider what that enemy might know about him, and will also go public. The Apostle Paul cautioned the Galatians, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". Gal.6:7. This common caution has many similar counter-parts in every other language and dialect on earth. There must be several hundred different versions of the same advice, verbum sapienti (word to the wise). It is, no doubt, the single most widely used admonition in the world. The reason is all too obvious. The potential ... or certain consequences of dangerous, risky, unwise actions ... or words, are a constant presence in all of our lives. By "constant" I mean in every conversation and every action. Marriages are destroyed, hearts broken, children affected deeply, friendships ended, homes burned, cars wrecked, jobs missed, fortunes lost and lives ended. Also, millions of less important consequences to things like buying a boat, or R.V., or vacation home, using them once a year, and asking yourself, "What possessed me; what is wrong with me, how stupid can I be". One irrational decision;  a moment in time; you thought it was a good idea; You "needed" it.  It would help you relax and have fun . Hope springs eternal... but it doesn't get your money back.... to pay burdensome bills.  Other things like saying "yes" to a blind date, passing on gossip, telling a small lie that sprouts up as a mammoth thorn tree full of wasps, noxious fungus, suffocating pollen and poison fruit. No human over one year of age has ever escaped suffering the consequences of his/her own actions, and the lessons continue throughout life, no mater how old or experienced one becomes. Saying the wrong thing, using the wrong word, spilling, breaking, or otherwise ruining things ... It happens all the time. A small sin sown, if not immediately repented of, takes root and opens the door for even worse sins, and that to still larger ones, and soon the trend is set for a continuing cycle of  your life's deterioration.  The person who never drinks the first swallow of alcohol or puff of pot never becomes an alcoholic or pot-head.  The person who carefully guards his anger never becomes a hot-head. The prostituted, overdosed, addict on the cluttered, drug-house floor, with puncture marks on her arms and venereal diseases rotting out her vitals, was once an innocent, clean, healthy child.  Any one of us could have gone down that wayward path if we had not repented at some key moments and turned from an initial sin ... before it enslaved us. The greatest men and women who ever lived faced those life-changing moments, and, but for a kind word or severe rebuke from a friend, parent, or God's Holy Spirit, we too could have stumbled into that odious, quagmire kind of  miserable life. I guess the only cheaply priced consolation is that everybody makes mistakes, hits the brick wall, or yields to temptation at times. Thankfully there is a key to this pad-locked dilemma of ours .... the grace and presence of God in the lives of His born again children. If it were not for Jesus, we too would have no hope.... in the end ...eternally.  "Before you begin ... consider the end". Mrs. Blair's axiom.  RB


"...They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same." Job 4:8.
" He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity ...." Prov. 22:8.
"They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind...." Hosea 8:7.
"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy...." Hosea 10:12.
"For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he 
that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Gal.6:8.

Think about it !