Fatal Mistake
We all can do, and we all do make mistakes, and most of the time we, “Live to fight another day,” “Escaped that one with our hide in-tact.” The Humorist asks us to assess this, “A wise man learns from the mistakes of others – a fool has to learn for himself.” So how keen are you to make some more mistakes? Or are you very keen to distance yourself from making mistakes. But some mistakes are indeed very fatal, like slipping on ice or loose rock high up on a mountainside, which is normally fatal. Drink – Driving and a serious car accident, if not fatal, it can leave very permanent scars and disabilities. Falling from a tall building or a bridge, falling down a flight of stairs, or bleary eyed you take the wrong medication, or too much, and this too can be fatal. Movies and stories abound about “Fatal Attractions,” all that can go oh so wrong so very quickly, and then there is often a funeral for one or both, a very “Fatal Mistake.”
Driving in the “Outback” or in a “Wilderness,” then you have a breakdown, puncture, get stuck in sand, swamp, water crossing, or just plain getting lost, “up a creek without a paddle,” as is often said. You are totally lost, outside of radio and cellphone coverage, snow and cold or a heatwave or heavy rain, and that decision to travel then, to travel that path, that road, or whatever the error in hind-sight was, can so quickly turn into a “Fatal Mistake.” Unfortunately there is no “Reset Button,” to push, so that you can go back to the start, and to have a second shot at doing things better.
In our “Daily Lives,” we are constantly making decisions all the time, for “Live fish swim upstream, but dead fish float down.” Part of life is making decisions, all the time, that continual swimming upstream. The “First Rule of Management is simple; “Make a decision.” There is no room for delay, procrastination, deferment, you must “Make a Decision,” or else you start to lose ground and start to float back downstream, giving others the opportunity and benefits you are reluctant to receive. But you ask, “What if that new decision was not the very best one to make? So, back to the “First Rule of Management which is simple; “Make a decision.” Swim, decide, plan, listen to great advice from successful people, read good books by trusted and proven leaders, prayer and trust in God, and make a new decision, make it wisely, and make it quickly, but definitely avoid, “Fatal Mistakes.”
In life you will find people, which fall under that lose category as, “Scammers.” All they want is all that they can get from you, as fast as possible, and then to disappear as fast as possible, one of those “Fatal Attractions” which causes you to make a “Fatal Mistake.” Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.” So is the path you are on, the person you are trusting, the group you associate with, making you a better person, helping you to achieve more and better, or is it a “Fatal Mistake?” Hebrews 3:12 “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” There is much deceitfulness, temptation and sin abounding around us, beckoning us to, “Come on in the waters fine,” but back to this verse, Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.”
Galatians 6:7-9 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 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. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” Back to Paul in Hebrews, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called today;” we need to remember that what you sow, you grow, and if you sow to the flesh, sow the wrong seeds, you get the wrong crops, and the judgment that you do not want to hear, “Failure,” a very “Fatal Mistake.”
Jeremiah asks us to ponder this dilemma in Jeremiah 8:20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” There was a fantasy series of movies that were popular a few years ago, and they were grouped as the “Left Behind Series,” and their core concept was that Jesus had “Raptured” his people away secretly, and those “Left Behind,” were abandoned. It made a series of Books and Movies that made some people very rich, I guess it has a theme similar to Jeremiahs thought. But the real truth is that when Jesus returns, it is a very noisy and very public display, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the [very loud] voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
In 2 Thessalonians Paul asks us to ponder this, 2 Thessalonians 2:8 “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:” Here we find that any and all “Wicked” are consumed away, ceasing to exist, a very “Fatal Mistake.” Back to Jeremiah 8:20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved,” a very “Fatal Mistake.” Summer has not quite ended for this ole world, but it is fading very fast, and this verse will then be a reality. Past time we considered the path we are travelling on, are you safe in “Jesus Christ” and “Righteous,” or are you on the path of “Wicked,” and that is a very “Fatal Mistake.” Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Any other path but the “Narrow Way,” is a very “Fatal Mistake.”
