Candy Corn

What is something that you used to like at one time, but then something happened and it made you not like that thing anymore?

As a young child I used to love to eat candy corn. I could take a handful and munch on them until they were gone and then I would go and get another handful. But years later (and still up to today) just the sight of candy corn makes me fell kind of “bleh.” I no longer like it anymore; it has become too sweet for my liking and I probably will never eat another candy corn again.

I can think of an example about some people who absolutely love swimming and doing things in the ocean, but something happened such as a shark attack or a near drowning experience, and because of that event something inside of them changed. From that point on, they no longer wanted to spend time in the water anymore. 

Some people have a great addiction to various things, cigarettes, alcohol, etc, but one day they put their foot down and tell themselves that they’ve smoked their last, or they’ve drank their last bottle. They used to enjoy those things previously, but something happened and caused them to not want them anymore. 

These examples are similar to a passage of scripture found in Hebrews 6, about how some people who have heard the things of God’s Word, and become Christians, that if those people should fall away from the faith of Christ and go back into the world, that it is impossible to bring them back to a state of repentance. 

Hebrews 6:4-6  “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

These people know God’s Word, and what is written inside. They know of Christ’s love for the world, and His desire to save them. They also know the single greatest command of Jesus, to love God and to love their neighbor. They have been “enlightened,” as it is written. Knowing the truth that is found in God’s Word, if a person makes the decision to forsake their lives as a Christian, then they truly are the people that Jesus spoke of in His parable of the sower. They are those who hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness, but then fall away.

Mark 4:13-17  “And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?

The sower soweth the word.

And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.”

Because of persecution they were offended. Because they let other things become more important, they forsake the way of Christ.

It really is a sad, sad thing. The gift of God’s Son is the greatest gift EVER, available to everyone! Jesus’ offer of forgiveness is free! Eternal life is free! But unbelievably there are people who have this gift “in their hands” so to speak, but they throw it away. Once you throw away Christ’s gift there will be no getting it back. Esau gave up his birthright-he didn’t get it back. It has been given to him to begin with because he was the firstborn, yet he gave it up, and then it was too late. 

I don’t know where the saying “once saved always saved” originated from but it is completely false. The life of a Christian is a daily profession, a one-way road that requires that a person stay on it to reach the end destination of the kingdom of heaven. We do not deviate from it, or alter the Bible to fit our lifestyle, and we certainly do not forsake it. Those who make the critical error of abandoning Christ can have no one to blame but themselves on Judgment Day, because they know how they should live, but they gave it up, and for that reason there is no place of repentance found for them. 

Never, never make this mistake. Never allow yourself to begin to doubt Christ, and His teachings. Never allow yourself to reach that point to where you give up your faith. 

In Christ,

Andrew