The Divine vs the dreaded domino effect

Some of Lord Jesus Christ's words in the Sermon at the Mount were as follows:

13 - It is you who are the salt of the earth, but if you become insipid and lose your strength; what is there left to give taste to it? It is good for nothing anymore, but to be thrown away, and stamped underfoot.

14 - It is you who are supposed to be the light of the world, a city built on a hill that cannot be hid.

15 - Men do not light a lamp to hide it under a bucket. They put it on a lamp stand where it gives light to all which are in the house.

16 - Therefore, let your light shine like that lamp in the sight of all men, that they may see the beauty in your life, and praise your Father which is in heaven.

Inspired by these verses, here is my story as it represents the Divine domino effect::

In my younger years I was a womanizer. As an artist I belong to a breed of people who easily succumb to the sins of the flesh. In a study conducted it was found that "professional artists and poets have about twice as many sexual partners as those who do not "indulge" in those activities. Some 425 British men and women were surveyed for the report, which has just been published in well-respected academic journal The Proceedings of the Royal Society. You're after numbers: between four and 10 partners for artists, three for what are rather harshly termed "non-creative types".

This habit had been very worrisome for me for a long period of time until one night I found myself looking up to heaven and praying asking God to free me from this captivity. A few weeks later my prayers were answered and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit by a Pastor. It was then that I started calling God in a more complete manner by adding "The Father Almighty" to distinguish Him, the Father of Truth, from satan who is also a god but the father of lies.

My transformation helped me to turn away from that captivity to sin and made my life turn 180 degrees. No more womanizing, no more smoking and not even alcohol to name a few. But that was only the start. I soon realized that, like what I have experienced in the fraternity, my baptism in the Holy Spirit is just the beginning of the long gauntlet that I have to endure till the last breath of my life. It is the true and genuine initiation to become the real man that God the Father Almighty wants men to be. It is a life full of love and obedience to Him and to love ones neighbors, even enemies.

Along the path to holiness are temptations of every kind and in various forms. And since my weakness as an artist is womanizing there came a time that my faith in God the Father Almighty was tested.

I met a young lady, beautiful and sweet. She seem to have liked me because of something that's lacking in her life - a father. She revealed to me her attempt to commit suicide because of a broken family. I am much older than her and I have my wife and two kids. She's an atheist and I'm a Christian.

As the days, weeks and months went by, I reflected on the situation I was in plus the fact that I am bringing the Good News of Salvation to her. One day I decided to give her an advise - that if I really love her as a person it has to be in the Christian perspective and I will not allow her to become a mistress because this will place her into a humiliating situation not only in the eyes of people but most especially in the eyes of God the Father Almighty. My conscience is clean because nothing really happened between us.

I tried to leave that past behind but it bothered me deeply inside because I felt that I betrayed my wife who didn't know the situation. I told some of my male friends, who are also husbands like me, about it. Their advise were "don't tell your wife about it". I understand that they want me to avoid further trouble because women might forgive but will take a verrrrryy lonnnggggg time to forget.

But as the weeks passed by I made a decision to reveal it to my wife. That decision is to ease me of that heavy burden in my conscience and to express my honesty, sincerity and love for her. But most of all to present to God the Father Almighty an offering not to commit the same sin again.

I decided to confess to my wife to make this act a deterrent once another temptation of the same kind attacks me. And although I have to endure repeated resurrections of this case every time we had some arguments I feel relieved that I was able to avoid that problem.

Another deterrent for husbands not to commit adultery is the experience of being beside one's wife all those months of her pregnancy until the very day of the birth of the baby and the post natal care for both the wife and the child.

My wife had a C-Section for three times, which means that I have to take care of her almost all the time up to the point of giving her a bath each day for several weeks just to be sure that the wound will not be infected. I also personally give a bath to our all our kids since they were babies.

Imagine if I gave-in to that temptation. I surely would have had a hard time slicing my body into two to attend to two families, one legal and one illegal... and two sets of children, one legitimate and one illegitimate. So, it was just a matter of strong decision and deep conviction not to succumb to sin!

It just simply being brave to face the problem squarely. It is unlike those fratwars that a lot of cowards pretend to be brave by hiding behind the sheer number of their members in the "battlefield" but are cowards when the numbers on both opposing camps are equal.

The arrows of the evil one continues to fly each and every day. But sincere prayers and dependence on God the Father Almighty by always remembering Him and His statutes each and every minute of the day spares one from all temptations.

As a comparison here is the possible dreaded domino effect:

The recent death of a hazing victim puts in focus a fraternity whose members are in really deep trouble. By having all the power and connections and battery of brilliant lawyers they could always attempt to parry the accusations of anybody or any institution that blame them for this gruesome act.

Lets' focus on the individual fraternity member, a Christian for example. Afraid that he will be incarcerated because of his actual participation, he will start to succumb to the designs of the group to evade the law and therefore become part of an injustice. And as the plot becomes thicker and thicker he, together with the rest of those involved, will dig and hide deeper and deeper within layers upon layers of lies of all forms and shades.

The whole uneasy situation becomes a dreaded domino effect that will haunt the guilty for the rest of his life wherever he goes. Even though he goes Scott-free. he might not repay a debt but one or more in his family will.

To men, especially brilliant lawyers, the absence of concrete evidence is an easy escape from justice. With the power and genius at one's disposal, evidence could always be thrown into oblivion.

Will they continue to ignore the Truth that God the Father Almighty is an all-seeing and an all-knowing Living God"

One can always hide from the blind eyes of a dead-cold, lifeless and helpless venerated religious statue gathering dust in one dark corner. But my God and Almighty Father, the Holy and Living God is waiting to unleash His wrath!

Read more reflections on this article: A CHRISTIAN AWAKENING