The Jawbreaker

Ah yes, the giant jawbreaker! One of my failed childhood challenges. Who remembers the giant jawbreakers or has ever tried consuming one? The racquetball sized piece of incredibly hard candy is impossible to break with your teeth and much too big to put in your mouth to dissolve. However, it didn't keep me from trying! I don't know how many licks I took each day before I carefully wrapped it back up to try again the next day. Months went by without ever seeing any progress over that obstinate ball before I finally became discouraged, lost interest, and finally tossed it out! I suppose I could have hit it with a sledgehammer and broken it into a thousand little pieces so it could be easily consumed, but that would have defeated the purpose of a jawbreaker which was to provide lasting enjoyment. So today, I'm going to use an illustration of a jawbreaker and compare it to the blogs I write. My blogs are here. They challenge you to slowly enjoy the Biblical lessons they offer. Yet day after day, week after week, month after month there are few "licks" here and there. Are the blogs too hard? My experience has been that many people remain obstinate to God's Word. They become discouraged, lose interest, and finally go away and slip back into their sinful ways of living because the excitement sin offers is sweeter on their tongues that God's Word. For them, God's message is just too hard to abide by. They want God's Word broken down into pieces that adjust to the way they want to conduct their life and if it doesn't, they toss it out. Here are just a few examples of what I mean (there are many more):

1. There are people that say they love God, believe murdering someone is wrong, yet killing babies in the womb or even now as law states, in the 9th month of pregnancy is acceptable to them BECAUSE IT'S A WOMAN'S CHOICE. Do you see the hypocrisy? They agree murder is wrong, yet they want the right to kill a human baby. Therefore, they reject what God says in Proverbs 6:17 ... 'God hates the shedding of innocent blood'! How much more innocent is a helpless baby inside of a womb that is supposed to be protecting it?

2. There are people that claim they are of the Christian faith, yet side with the population that practicing homosexuals do so because they are born that way. How can they toss out what is clearly written in the Bible as wrong on every level on this subject? It is the very Word they claim to know and even quote scriptures from! Leviticus 20:13 and Romans 1:26 ... 'Men shall not lie with men as they do with women, being burned in their lust for one another & women likewise are changing the natural use of a man into that which is against nature.' AND BECAUSE they do not see fit to acknowledge God in this matter, scripture states God gives them over to a depraved mind...an immoral, perverted mind. It's sad because if God's Word contradicts their opinion instead of the other way around, they toss out God's view instead of their own. That is serious! God is serious.

3. There are other people who are weekend drunks. They believe getting drunk only on weekends cannot possibly be wrong because they remain sober Monday through Friday and so that somehow makes them acceptable in God's book. Galatians 5:21 ...'drunkards will not inherit the Kingdom of God' and 1 Corinthians 6:10 'don't be deceived NO DRUNKARD will inherit the Kingdom.' Whether you are a full time or part time drunkard don't be deceived, you will not be accepted into heaven. If it wasn't important to know this fact then why did God bother to even tell us?

4. There are three women I know right now who call themselves "good witches." The Bible has something to say about this too. Are they afraid? Wouldn't you think they would owe themselves the energy to read what God says about the title they carry and what they practice? Galatians 19-21 ' no sorcerer will inherit heaven'. Look up MAN'S DEFINITION of a sorcerer. If our dictionaries plainly define it, why don't they believe it? Sorcerer: the black arts, witches, warlocks, wizards, enchantments, spells, incantation, voodoo, divination, witching, shamanism, demonry. The man-made religion of Wicca is a good example. They toss God's Word away as false because Satan has made them believe their craft is sweeter and God's truths are too hard to believe.

5. There are strong indications The Church has fallen away! Sexual immorality has invaded the Church of believers! God will not tolerate any sexual immorality outside the church or inside the church. NONE! That includes but not limited to adulterers, fornicators, pedophiles, those practicing bestiality, transgenders', those guilty of incest, child-molesters, anyone caught up in pornography, homosexuality, and many many more. There are explanations in the Bible for all these things. If you need further explanations you can email me if you would like a detailed layout. But to keep it short because of time and space I'll be brief. In God's Word these are called "works of the flesh" and engaging in such will exclude you from heaven and your lot will be among the lost unless of course, you repent of your wicked ways and turn to Jesus Christ to renew, remake, and restore you.

Borrowing this verse from Isaiah 48:4 reminds me of those listed above, "I knew you were obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your brow brass." In other words, people who continually refuse God and ignore their sin are obstinate, stiff, immovable, and hard like a jawbreaker. And though they are hard, unmovable, stubborn, obstinate, defiant, resistant, and set in their own opinions and ways, they refuse to be moved even when they are going down into destruction. One day, God will be like the sledgehammer one needs to shatter a jawbreaker. Jeremiah wrote from God's mouth in chapter 19 verse 15 regarding what the Lord feels about resistors, the stubborn, those that ignore His words, His instructions, His warnings, "Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words." If we will not fall upon Jesus to be broken and made new then God will come upon us like a sledgehammer to a jawbreaker and break us into pieces and we will crumble underneath His judgment (Matthew 21:44). Sometimes listening to God and doing what He says might seem impossible, like licking a racquetball-sized jawbreaker until nothing is left. I'm reminded of what James 5:11 says, "Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." No one really wants to consume a giant jawbreaker with all the effort required but it can be done. So can following God in obedience to what He asks for our own good! Our walk of obedience with God can seem like an insurmountable task sometimes, but if we take it one day at a time (Matthew 6:34), press forward toward our mark (Philippians 3:14), rise up from the pits of sin and stay steady on the Rock (Psalm 40:2), our reward will be great (Colossians 3:23-24). God is going to render to every man according to how he responded, reacted, or rejected God's instructions. God made each of us for a purpose and not so we can defile our bodies with a myriad of disobedient, perverse, sexual, or demonic offenses (Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Romans 12:1-2, 1 Timothy 4:8, 1 Corinthians 10:31).

Finally, let us be patient enough to consume God's Word just as you would consume a giant jawbreaker ... slowly, purposely, consistently, without losing interest or tossing it aside. The more you work at it, the sweeter the taste. Don't give up. Take out the Word each day, read a little before wrapping it back up and placing it on the shelf. In time you will near the center of great revelation and knowledge. It's worth it. Trust me. It's worth it! God will give you the tools you need in order to serve Him appropriately. Do what you can each and every day to feed your spirit, remain pure, humble and patient, as you feast on His Word until He returns for us in glory! Until next time ...
-Pat-