Shipwrecked

Recently in the news there has been a sad story about a cruise ship that wrecked.  Even now, a week after the incident, rescue workers are trying to locate all the missing passengers.  What caused the ship to wreck?  Did the rocks just grow there over night?  Was it the fault of the map maker not to include the rocks on the map (something the captain suggested?) Was the ship not built tough enough?
No!  It was none of these things.  The captain veered off the usual route that ships travel and decided to come close to an island where he could show off to a friend who lives there. 
What seemed like a pleasurable vacation for many turned into a tradgedy. 

I suspect many who read about this shipwreck just shook their heads and said to themselves something like "what an idiot to have done something so stupid and irresponsible as that!"
Such an obvious act of irresponsibility is easy for us to condemn, yet how many of us do the same thing spiritually?  The Bible tells us plainly what is the right way to live and yet we blatantly deny what God has told us and go our own way.  Sadly, we too will shipwreck our lives by doing this. And sadly as well we tend to put the blame on something else besides ourselves.  "The devil made me do it." or "Everyone is doing it so it must be ok." We veer off course and into dangerous waters thinking no harm will come to us. 

In the book of Joshua we see how Joshua, a man of valor, courage, and leadership was reminded by God to not veer to the right nor to the left and that if he did and if the people of Israel did, then there would be severe consequences.(Joshua 1:7-8)  God was faithful to keep His promises to Joshua just as long as they were faithful to keep true to Him.

Do not think you will be the exception here.  God will not be mocked. Be faithful to follow Him and you will get to your destination safely.