As I walk through the wilderness of this world

This is nothing more than a bleat from a sheep (in staccato fashion) about life in the wilderness:

1. It's intellectual suicide to become an apostate. No worldview makes so much sense and plumbs our totality as the Biblical one: the God of the Bible, Creator and creation, mankind in his image; sin and death, fall and fallen world, our destitute state and hopeless plight; the story of redemption, the sent-Messiah, the God-man who made peace between God and man by his sacrifice, his death and resurrection; hope renewed, Eden reclaimed, the call to return to God; rebirth and rejoice; the resurrection and glories to come in the new heavens and the new earth where our great God will dwell with his thankful people! All unfolding in Scripture, in history, in our lives. Promises made, promises kept, by the One who cannot lie, nor ever change, who is faithful till the end for his own thrice holy name's sake. As C.S. Lewis said: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

2. At the same time, the flesh is weak, the pull of the world is strong, and the devil is a cunning and formidable foe.

3. Our hearts are prone to wander. We ought to guard our hearts (Prov 4:23).

   The old self has been dealt a fatal blow, but it refuses to expire. It must die, but it wants to take us down with it.

   We must beware the jaws that bite, the claws that catch. Kill sin or sin will kill you.

4. The world is like a painted desert, with beauties to behold, and majesties in which to marvel, but it’d be deadly to abide therein. Those who stray too far and wander off from the flock will die in sand-blasted, wind-torn wastelands.

   God's flock should keep together and keep moving forward. The Israelites had to follow God’s shekinah in pillars of cloud and fire, and keep moving through the Sinai toward the Promised Land. They serve "as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did" (1 Cor 10:6).

5. For some Christian men, forbidden beautiful women might entice. Sirens who sing songs to seduce sailors to sink into the sea. Men in a fit of passion cast themselves overboard, plunging in pursuit, forever lost in the swirling abyss, drowned in the depths. All that remains are the billowing waves above and an eerie silence beneath. Prov 2:18 warns: "her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed".

6. Another temptation might be the lure of riches. Glittery bait on a fish hook.

   Wealth can lead to many "friends". Doors opened to circles once closed. By contrast, poverty can lead to social isolation (Prov 19:7), though so can wealth in that "friends" may not be true friends.

   Wealth can lead to newfound respect, status, or prestige, wherein the rich is sought for advice and help.

   Wealth can lead to people forgetting God. No longer realizing their utter need for and dependence on God who "makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts" (1 Sam 2:7).

   Just to be clear, there are wealthy men who are godly men (e.g. Abraham, Job). Just as there are poor men who are scoundrels. It's not wealth that's the issue. Rather, the issue is "the love of money" (1 Tim 6:10).

   Some love money so much they will do anything to acquire it. Morality is a small obstacle on their path to riches.

   Hoarding hearts turn proud and vain like dragon's heart. They become as hard and as unbreakable as the coin they love.

   Some love money so much they end like King Midas ended, having lost the most basic need and simplest pleasure - human touch.

   Perhaps it'd do well to pray Prov 30:8-9: "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God."

7. Behind it all, the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), and the ruler of this world (John 12:31) is only too happy to keep one far away from God. To keep one living in illusions or delusions rather than reality. To keep one in darkness rather than light. It doesn't matter how that goal is accomplished, so long as it's accomplished.

   It can be accomplished through external trials or internal struggles. It can be accomplished through physical violence or psychological pressures. It can be accomplished through outward or inward temptations. It can be accomplished through the spectacular or the subtle. Screwtape matter-of-factly observed: "Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick."

   The devil is both dragon and serpent. Both roaring lion and wolf in sheep's clothing. Both chief fallen angel as well as disguised angel of light. Both "murderer from the beginning" and "the father of lies" (John 8:44).

8. Nevertheless to apostatize for the things of this world and in this life would be like trading in a lush banquet in Beverly Hills for some bread crumbs and a cold pot of stew in Juárez. That’s putting it mildly. Eternity is at stake.

   The "pleasures of sin" are "fleeting" (Heb 11:25), while Christ and his rewards are forever. What awaits those in Christ is "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading" (1 Pet 1:4). Deep down, Christians know this.

9. However, it can be a long journey until we arrive in Zion. It can be a painful and toilsome trek until we reach the celestial city.

   We travel on a poorly lit and unpaved road. A road fraught with obstacles and dangers, where one can easily stumble and fall. Or step off the path and lose our way home. Or fly off the knife's edge of a precipice we had failed to see.

   A road likewise traversed by ravenous beasts and evil men. Tricksters and bandits. Giants of despair club and beat the spirit, while Lyssan mania and madness assault the mind.

   A road criss-crossed by eye-pleasing but poisoned fruit. Rotten Halloween candy. Hansel and Gretel’s grim house of sweets. Delicious food and drink that weigh one down not unlike Kierkegaard's parable of the wild duck.

   A road to exotic locales with loose women and fast cars to wipe one's memory of who we are in Christ.

   A road to houses of learning that excite and delight, that tantalize and tease, but may threaten to puff up and pull in, further in, into inner sanctums of secret knowledge and elite societies. Ivory towers where only the learned "we" are truly in the know. We, the thought leaders. We, the trenchant trend setters. We, the intellectuals, whose ideas are more important than any particular individual, for our ideas enlighten the ignorant masses. So say we all in confidence and confidentiality.

   A road with no end in sight at times. No welcome rest anytime soon. Only treacherous terrain or difficult hills to climb as far as the eye can see.

   A road with oases that promise to quench our thirsts then turn out to be mirages. We pour cool water down our throats only to fill our mouths with sand.

   A road littered with travelers turned into pillars of salt as they cast a soulful backward glance at their former life and previous ways.

   A road which our adversary Apollyon roams to and fro, walking up and down on it, prowling like a roaring lion, to waylay wayfarers and devour them (Job 1:7, 1 Pet 5:8).

10. There's nothing new under the sun, but each generation thinks it has promethean light brighter than the sun to see beyond the sun.

11. Of course, this is why the Bible constantly calls for God's people to persevere. To overcome. To conquer.

    We have "a great cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1) who went before us and made it home by God's grace. Though dead, "they still speak" (Heb 11:4): they cheer us on and bring us good cheer by their testimonies.

    The prophet Isaiah "set [his] face like flint" (Isa 50:7). Even our Lord, nearing the cross, "set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Lk 9:51). No servant is greater than his master (Jn 15:20), and we follow and serve Christ alone.

    We take heart, for Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33). We can trust the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us (Deut 31:6; Heb 13:5). If we are his sheep, then he is our shepherd, and the rest of Psalm 23 follows. Soon, very soon, we "shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever".

    Our good God does not leave us without help, for, among many other gifts, he has given us his Spirit and his word, which is "the sword of the Spirit" (Eph 6:17). And he has given us one another.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Come, Lord Jesus!