What controls you in life?

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   "For the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." Galatians 5:17
   As Christians we usually have one of two things that are controlling our lives. It is our Savior, or our Sin. When Sin overtakes us, it only leads to our spiritual and emotional destruction. When our Savior overtakes us, it always leads to victory and freedom.
   The effects of this concept of what is controlling our lives can easily be seen in an incident that took place in my life several years ago. It was when Lyndsey and I were celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary. We were traveling up through Central California, and had just driven past Santa Barbara, where there is a long stretch of beautiful coastline. While we were traveling up the coast there was a beautiful sunset that was setting over the ocean, and so I wanted to capture it as a reminder of our four-years of marriage. But in order to get a good picture I needed to get off of the freeway, because I was the one driving, and I needed to get closer to the ocean. So what I decided to do was pull off at the next exit and drive under the freeway bridge to get to the beach.
   However, as I was driving towards the beach, I came up to a railroad track, that was right before this small dirt road that veered left, and led down towards the beach. As I approached the turnoff I noticed a sign that said: “Warning – this is private property. No Trespassing!” And as I pulled up to the sign, just before the Railroad tracks I began having a conversation with myself. “I know that it says private property, but I am not really trespassing, because I just want to take a photo of the Sunset for my anniversary and then leave.” And as I was having this conversation with myself, I clearly began hearing the Lord tell me not to move another foot forward due to the fact that it is considered trespassing and I have to be obedient to the laws of the land. And even though I heard the Lord speaking to me, and trying to reason with me, I was still trying to reason with myself also.
    And so as I was going back and forth in the stillness of my heart about whether or not I wanted to commit this “little sin” or “trespass” in my mind, or obey the law of the land, and more importantly obey the still small voice of God . . . an Amtrak Train came ripping around a blind corner about thirty-yards away at full speed, and the engineer blasted the trains horn... annnnngggggggggggg..... in order to wake me up. I am not kidding you when I say that this was the most frightening near death experience that I have ever been through in my entire life. When that train came ripping around the corner and blasted it’s horn I literally froze. I gripped my stirring wheel so hard that I had white-knuckles, and I just shut my eyes as this massive train soared by us. I could literally feel the vibrations of this powerful train shake my entire car. 
   Even after the train passed us by I put the car in reverse and backed up about 10 feet, put the car in park and sat there thanking God for sparing our lives, and at the same time fighting back the tears because I was so shaken up by what had just happened. I remember thinking, "Lord, what if I wouldn't have listened to you? What if in that moment I would have started slowly moving forward over the tracks? What if Lord?" And I started picturing my wife getting hit first by this train, and then me. And I began picturing what it would have done to our car, to our lives, to the train and its passengers, and the thought was just to horrific for me to imagine. My heart didn't stop pounding for at least an hour, with continued tears silently running down my cheeks.
   Whenever I think back to that event I just thank God for taking control over my life and my thoughts, to enable me not to go another foot further towards those railroad tracks that day, because it literally saved my life and my wife's life. This story is such a great reminder to us of the fact that even when we are tempted to wander away from God’s Word, and commit the little “trespasses” in life, that anytime we do, the consequences can end up being more than we can ever bare to handle. And this is why we have to be men and women who do not allow sin to control our lives, but instead, we allow our Savior to control us. 
   "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37).

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