by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
I was thinking more about your claim that life was just a game to you. I can see how it appears to be a game to you. You’ve been playing hide and seek with your family and friends, trying to see how much you could get away with. So far you avoided accepting responsibility for your choices. It isn’t that those consequences aren’t there, but it is sure easy to pretend they don’t exist when you don’t have to deal with them today.<\/p>\n
Asaph saw this in the wicked: “And they say, “How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the ungodly, Who are always at ease; They increase in riches<\/em>” (Psalm 73:11-12). He was tempted to give up godly living because of it. “If I had said, “I will speak thus,” Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children. When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me- Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors<\/em>” (Psalms 73:15-19).<\/p>\n A seeming lack of immediate repercussions doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Smoking will bring about cancer if it doesn’t cause you to die of something else first. It is a simple fact. You’re young, but I can already hear the wheezing in your lungs. You see, life has rules. You walk off a cliff and you will get hurt — it’s the rule of gravity. You fill your body with poisons and damage will happen, even if you get high while poisoning yourself.<\/p>\n Is there a difference between committing suicide rapidly or slowly?<\/p>\n Satan fooled Eve when he said, “You will not surely die<\/em>” (Genesis 3:4). It probably looked like he was right at first. She didn’t die physically that day or for a long time thereafter. But death was introduced into the world when she ate and she did die.<\/p>\n Don’t let Satan, through smoking, fool you too.<\/p>\n I’m praying you return while there is still time for the damage to heal — both the physical and spiritual. I want you to have a beautiful life.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Consequences of Choices by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I was thinking more about your claim that life was just a game to you. I can see how it appears to be a game to you. You’ve been playing hide and seek with your family and friends, trying to see how much you could get away…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65606","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25976,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":65606,"position":0},"title":"Searching for My Friend","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Searching for My Friend by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Once again I lost a dear young friend to the seductive snare of drugs. It grieves me to the depth of my heart to see a life full of potential and capable of great joy being twisted toward ruin, sadness, and loneliness.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Searching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":65594,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/a-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":65606,"position":1},"title":"A Game?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A Game? by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Several times you mentioned that life was just a game, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I've puzzled over where you got such an idea. You know as well as I do that this isn't a concept taught in the Bible. God taught you\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49815,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/impact-of-moral-choices\/","url_meta":{"origin":65606,"position":2},"title":"Impact of Moral Choices","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Impact of Moral Choices Text: Proverbs 11:1-31 Honesty and Humility (Proverbs 11:1-2) A merchant can be dishonest in two ways. He can use a scale that reads balanced when the two sides are not truly level; or he can use weights that are not accurate. High precision was not available\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15400,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/moral-principles-for-young-people\/independent-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":65606,"position":3},"title":"Independent Thinking","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Independent Thinking by Jeffrey W. Hamilton During the teenage years, we begin to assert our independence. We want to make our own decisions about our lives. For many years other people have made decisions for us, but now we want to make our own. In many ways this is desirable.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/thinker.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":65801,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/the-blame-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":65606,"position":4},"title":"The Blame Game","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Blame Game by Jeffrey W. Hamilton It is hard to name a sin where the sinner accepts responsibility for his own choices. It is so much easier and soothing to accuse other people. Adam blamed his choice to sin on his wife. \"The woman whom You gave to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16504,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":65606,"position":5},"title":"Proverbs: Practical Advice on Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Proverbs Practical Advice on Life by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Started November 17, 2014 Draft Finished October 26, 2018 Part 1 - Monologues Overview of Proverbs\u00a0(Proverbs 1:1) The Objectives of Proverbs\u00a0(Proverbs 1:2-7) Gangs\u00a0(Proverbs 1:8-19) Wisdom's Offer\u00a0(Proverbs 1:20-33) Wisdom Guards\u00a0(Proverbs 2:1-22) Wisdom's Benefits\u00a0(Proverbs 3:1-26) A Sample of Wisdom\u00a0(Proverbs 3:27-35) A Choice of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo by Alabaster Co on Unsplash","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/proverbs-300x243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65606\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}