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My brother Rick had married a nice young woman after discovering she was pregnant with twin sons by him. I finally met these adorable identical twins on a break from college. I tried to be a kind, Christian influence and godly uncle to them. I regularly took them to parks and playgrounds, to get Happy Meals and to the kiddy pool. I told them Bible stories. I gave Ricky and their mother each a Bible for Christmas, and my identical twin nephews a picture Bible.

I met Rick at his apartment to talk with him about his marriage problems. His wife kissed him, then went out for a coffee so Rick and I could talk openly. I asked Ricky, why he wasn’t being a better husband, why he wasn't being a better father for his boys, why he was gone so much with friends, but he had already decided to leave his wife. He was meeting with me just to please his wife. Furthermore, he was not going to pay child support because he needed the money for, well, other things.

God had let him down again (so he said), and there was nothing left for him to do but to leave her and his twin sons.

“Ricky, you are about to destroy a good thing. Your wife and children are the best thing that has ever happened to you.” Then I broke out into a corrupted chorus of a popular song from this time, “Two boys arrived just the other day. They came into the world in the usual way. But there were jobs to work and drugs to take. They learned to walk while you were high. They were talking before you knew it, and as they grew, they said, “I’m going to be like you, Rick. You know I’m going to be like you.”

Rick started laughing. “You just made that up? That’s pretty good.”

“No, it isn’t,” I said. “Ricky, it’s true. Do you want your twin sons to be drug addicts? Do you want to make your wife’s life miserable? You have been given the power to change that by the choices you make. You need the Lord to help you. We’ve talked about this many, many times over the years. You probably thought I would do what other people have done here in the South. Walk an aisle, pray some prayer, change for a month or two, then back to the old ways again. You see that hasn’t happened with me. That’s because it’s true. What are you going to do with Jesus, Ricky?”

“Don’t know, man,” he replied, “You talk about God all the time, like you and he are friends or something. I’ve never had that. Prayed for it, didn’t happen. Never will.”

“And without faith it is impossible to please God. What are you looking for? What is it you want, anyway?”

“Don’t know,” he said as he blew a flume of smoke out of the corner of his mouth toward the ceiling. “But it’s not my wife and kids, that’s for sure. Besides, the way I got it figured, you ain’t nothing but a slave. You have to do whatever God tells you to do and I can do what I want.”

I said, “You know, you’re right. I am a slave; but so are you. You’re a slave to your passions and have been for a very long time. I have the same passions, but Romans 6 says that I can give those passions to God so they don’t control me. The real difference between us is that I have the Holy Spirit giving me the ability within to overcome temptation when it comes, and all you can do is give in because you’re powerless to fight it. So, who is really the slave? The slave of the God who gives life or the slave to passions that will destroy your life, and ultimately kill you? How many times have you tried to quit, anyway?”

He looked at me for a long time before speaking and took several long drags from his cigarette. “We’ve always been close, you and me. But, it’s like, you’ve changed. This God thing is like your whole life. I can’t do that. I just have other things I want to do.”

Was Rick’s disappointments in life due to God, or his own choices?

What are you blaming God for that is honestly, truly your own decision?

Please don't be like the person who sowed his wild oats and then prayed for crop failure!

Rejoicing, On the Victory Side!

Beau

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