There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 16:25

Isn't is wonderful how good little children become right before Christmas so Santa won't catch them being bad and bring them a lump of coal instead of presents? We even sing a cute little song about it to encourage them, and remind them throughout the year when they are straying into naughtiness.

If we can do it so easily for an imaginary character like Santa, why do we find it so hard to do for a real God? Is it because His punishment for misbehavior is so much worse that we can't face it, or is it because of the sinful rebelliousness in our hearts?

Ever met someone who is too smart for his own good? The wise guy who schemes to get the best things for himself, even if it means shortchanging someone else? The smart aleck who plays pranks on his neighbors, even though they complain bitterly about it and plead with him to stop?

Although a lot of wise guys end up in prison because of their clever plans, many live among us as chronic troublemakers. They don't see their attitudes as being wrong or foolish. They think they are so much wiser than their neighbors, that their neighbors are the foolish ones for not joining in with their cunning schemes.

Pride is considered a virtue nowadays. If you do well in school, on the job, in life in general, you are supposed to be proud of yourself. You are supposed to gather all of life's pleasures and prestige and profits that you can get and enjoy it all. You are to congratulate yourself at how well you are doing compared to the neighbors, your co-workers, and society in general.

But is that really the best for you and for society in general? When people become proud of themselves, it is usually because they are unfavorably comparing those people to themselves. Discrimination against other people because of race, sex, religion and other personal characteristics comes from pride. Mistreatment of people from lower economic classes and educations comes from pride. A disregard for the "rules" that everyone else is expected to follow, the feeling that you are entitled to special privileges at other people's expense, comes from pride.

Pride also leads to an unteachable spirit, one that thinks that you are so wonderful that no one can tell you anything. No one is so intelligent or so talented that they can't learn something useful from others. Sometimes it is a lesson in humility that is very hard for the proud person to take to heart, but that can be the very thing he needs to come to grips with a flaw in himself quite obvious to everyone but him.

The biggest problems come when proud people manage to become powerful leaders over their people. Communism was started among a group of intellectuals who thought they knew better what was good for everyone than the "common" people did. Ask anyone from the former Communist European countries about their leaders. Then ask them if those same leaders, who came to power and held power by murdering millions of their fellow citizens, really did know what was better for everyone.

It is amazing how many systems of laws that mankind can devise, from family rules to national governments, and still not understand that they will only succeed to the extent that they agree with God's ways. After so many centuries of trying it man's way, we still are dealing with warfare on every level of relationships to the extent that we insist on spurning God's law of love and justice and trying anything else.

The problem arises when man puts himself in the center of things when deciding what is good and what is evil. "Thou shalt not murder" is quite explicit and good when you consider that you might be the victim, but a hindrance when someone else is in your way and you would like to be rid of them. That is why people who advocate abortion focus on the woman and her rights instead of thinking of the baby, to put her in the center of consideration and thus appeal to the selfishness in man. That is why people who are against the death penalty for murderers put the criminal in the center of the controversy and not the victim, again appealing to selfishness by getting others to put themselves in the position of the person on death row and not the victim and his family.

God is infinitely wiser, and His ways have been proven to work for everyone's good when people sincerely try them. For a sample of His wisdom, read the book of Proverbs in the Bible. God inspired Solomon, the wisest man ever to live on the Earth, to arrange these nuggets of wisdom in order to give us a guide to train children in the difference between wise ways and foolish ways. It's a good starting point to begin to learn the wisdom of God for anyone. The ultimate wisdom is to become a child of God yourself. God will send you the Holy Spirit to guide and train you in wisdom and truth. God loves you and wants the best for you.

God's way is to consider the highest good for all concerned, not the highest good for a given individual. The "Thou shalt not"'s of the Bible are the best resolution of a situation when the interests of more than one individual conflict. Governments whose laws are based on them protect the God given rights of everyone.

God's law is based on one unifying principle: love for God and love for your fellows. A person can keep the whole law by always acting with love towards others, because love does no wrong to a neighbor. The problem that keeps us from following this simple principle is that we don't always act in love towards others.

God doesn't just judge actions, He judges attitudes. The attitude that God wants people to have towards each other is a lot more than just politeness or tolerance. We are to positively seek the highest good of everyone, even if it means sacrifice on our part. If you are able to break one law, you are able to break other laws as well. With each law broken, it gets easier and easier to break others. Sin is not just one single act of disobedience. It forms a chain of increasingly bad acts which gets longer until God intervenes to break the chain by the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ applied to the repentent sinner.

Until the sinner asks for the free pardon that Jesus bought for him on the Cross, that record is always before God. The only thing that can erase it is that pardon. Without it, the sinner is confirmed as God's enemy among the citizens of Satan's kingdom, standing against God's will in the rebellion. No matter how many good deeds he has done in his life, the evidence against him will stand before the Heavenly court that will condemn him to eternal confinement with the rest of the kingdom of darkness.

One of the things that keeps people from being saved is that they trust in their own past history of goodness in the eyes of mankind. They may indeed be model citizens, totally law-abiding and generous to charities to a fault, and still be guilty of sins in the eyes of the Lord.

The ancient Jews fell into that trap by the thousands. They strove mightily to be pure in the eyes of God and man by making and keeping hundreds of laws. Yet, no matter how hard they tried to stay pure by obeying the law, the temple still did a brisk business in sacrifices to pay for the sins that they inevitably committed.

It is even worse when someone decides that they are good enough already and deliberately sins, relying on his past record having enough good deeds to outweigh the bad. Just as Earthly judges do not consider the past clean records of a criminal convicted in their courts to excuse them from their crimes, so our Heavenly Judge will not pardon the sins committed by an otherwise law-abiding person on the basis of their own personal records. Only the pardon bought by Jesus Christ on the Cross will suffice to cover the person's sins so that he doesn't have to pay the price for them himself.

The problem that separates so many people from God is from their sin, not from any intention on His part to be separate from them. God can't stand the presence of sin to the extent that He even turned from His Son when Jesus was on the Cross and the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him. Sin is the rebellious lawlessness that leads people to hurt others or themselves, and God doesn't want to have anyone doing anything like that.

If you read through the parts of the Old Testament where God gives His laws and the punishments for breaking them, you can readily see that the basic sin is that a person would somehow hurt God, another person, or another person's property. God's way is the way of love, because love does no wrong to anyone or anything. When a person deliberately does something to harm another, he has rebelled against God's basic commandment to love Him and love your neighbor. He has shown disrespect to God by not obeying His command, and thereby shown that he is part of the kingdom of darkness ruled by God's enemy Satan.

The children of God can come to Him with a confidence unavailable to the unsaved person. God never meant to be an unapproachable ruler, seated high above them beyond their reach. He created the human race to be His children, intending to have the same relationship with them as a good earthly father has with his children.

While it is possible for a Christian to sin, he won't stay in sin voluntarily because the Holy Spirit and the new godly nature born in him when he was saved will remind him that this isn't God's will. A spiritually maturing Christian will grow stronger in his ability to resist the temptations to sin. In the meantime, Jesus has paid the price for his sins so that he can come to the Father for forgiveness and cleansing from his sins. The Holy Spirit will never leave him nor forsake him, but will continue to love and guide him as he grows spiritually.

Before you get too proud and complacent about your fine personal record, remember that it won't avail with a human judge if you get caught in a criminal act. How much less will it avail before God, who never misses a sin but will freely pardon it on the basis of His Son's sacrifice if you appeal to Him for salvation before you have to stand before Him in your final judgment.

It may seem harsh that as little as one sin can cause a person to be eternally condemned, but one little crime can get a person convicted before an earthly court and sentenced to prison, forever marked as a convicted criminal. Do a serious enough crime, or enough lesser crimes, and you may be sentenced to prison for the rest of your life with no possibility of parole.

That is what happens when a person is sentenced to Hell. The Heavenly Judge has declared him to be a career criminal based on the unrepented offences committed in his lifetime. God is an all-knowing judge who can't be fooled into letting the wicked escape nor the innocent be falsely condemned. The degree of punishment will be tailored to the degree of the crimes committed, and even that can be escaped by turning to God while there is still time before the person's judgment and asking for the free pardon that Jesus paid for on the Cross.

If you are still unsaved, your criminal record is being compiled continuously to be presented at that final judgment unless the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has washed your sins clean. Would you rather have your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life as a saved saint, or in a book to be read at your trial? God loves you and wants you to be saved, but you must make the choice yourself. He won't force it on you. Please pray this prayer and be saved:

Dear God, I'm sorry for my sins. I want to join your Heavenly family and I submit to King Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I renounce anything to do with Satan, his kingdom, and his ways. Please save me and adopt me as one of Your children. In Jesus' Name, Amen