Going off the rails...

We probably all know Christians who once seemed to be really going great, but today are spiritual shipwrecks. The shipwreck might have happened with some enormous, spectacular sin that had been hidden but now comes to light; or it might have been a slow, drip, drip, drip ruin.

But, unless the Christian was a total hypocrite from day one, the enormous and spectacular sins have normally come about in a drip-drip-drip way. Satan does not have to totally ruin us today. He knows that sudden, open and horrid displays of his malice often have the effect of driving Christians closer to Christ.

Satan is not impatient as we are. He has a lot of cunning, and a lot of experience. He knows that he can often ruin a man by degrees. He does not have to encourage you to head straight to the rocks today. If you lose 0.1% of your spiritual vitality today and repeat day after day, then in under 3 years you've lost the lot. Or, lose 0.01% today, and it only takes 27 years. Satan can afford that. Some unmortified sin which you do not mortify today, or tomorrow - and carry on like that - and it might take decades, but it will ruin you in the end.

There's only one way to be safe - make sure you repent of all known sin (and pray to be shown the ones you don't know about), and feed on Christ for spiritual growth, today. If you think this advice is too sensational, then it looks like Satan has already made huge head-way with you.

Miscellaneous news: The last two weeks I've managed to upload the Sunday morning sermon from Eldoret to our church website. Hopefully I will keep this up each week. There is a feed link there for those of you who'd be interested in being informed each time.