Black fire!
By Walter Robokoff
2 Eternal Risk
Forget the reason you want to die for just a moment. Let’s assume the worst. I still raise the question – are you so certain of what you will find on the other side of the grave, that you’re completely willing to take an eternal risk?
Suppose Heaven and Hell really exist – just assume it for a moment if you can.
Suppose you take your life as soon as you get the chance.
You have just committed an irreversible act.
One that cannot ever, ever be undone – no matter how hard you wish you could.
Let’s suppose the worst – after all you might as well get ready for anything – any possibility – because you really have no idea what awaits you.
So let’s go for it and assume you do take your life.
Now stop right there for a moment. Think! Why do you want to commit suicide?
Is it not to escape the (unbearable) pain you have unconsciously been proving you can bear?
What if its not an escape after all? What if it’s right from the frying pay and into the fire?
No matter how bad things seem, there are people, who through their unseen faith, are baring more! Believe it!
If you really must go, if you have selfishly decided to get even – to hurt every one you know.
Know this – any children who suffer because of your selfish act, are twice as likely to commit the act themselves.
Picture one of them – the one who looks to you the most. Hanging from a tree, with a purple face, swinging in the wind.
All because your life convinced them that there is no hope in pain.
Nothing to learn, nothing to grow from.
And now you’ve got them following your example in what could very well be a very dark, horrifying, even terrifying, eternity.
If you’re really willing to take all those chances – though you know not what eternity holds, and risk everything on the unknown of which you do know one thing – as bold you feel as a risk taker, there is no coming back from this one.
It simply can’t be undone, ever.
Wherever you send yourself, there you stay.
Locked in forever.
Think your situation is unbearable? Think again.
There really could be worse!
BLACK FIRE
Part 2:
The beginning
The crises:
It may happen gradually. It may occur suddenly. You realize you’re not the same. You feel bad, very bad.
In fact it’s likely the worst you ever felt. It started like a small spark, but grew to consume you like a raging fire.
It has a weight and it’s crushing your soul! It’s dark, black, bizarre, eerie, and sinister.
It burns like fire but has no light – that’s because it’s a “black fire,”- commonly called depression.
Depression is nothing new. Its crises level of modern day existence is! Society seems inundated with this new plague, at least according to the media.
Quite honestly, one need not travel too far to find someone taking anti-depressants.
Perhaps it’s your neighbor, or even you. Depression in and of itself is not a sin. It appears to have many causes, and may even be a disease.
The church is no different than society in this regard. Since it functions as a part of society, it shares the same problems with society as a whole.
Is it spiritual?
Does this mean that depression is not a spiritual problem? That it’s solutions are entirely chemical or emotional? Not at all.
I believe the root and many other elements of this indescribably horrific experience are primarily spiritual!
This is not to deny the reality of chemistry or medical help. Though we are spiritual creatures, we share the same infirmities of the flesh as our neighbors in the world.
Understanding the spiritual element however does give the believer an advantage over the non-believer. The darkened sin-sick soul can only find its ultimate answer in God.
Early in the Bible God told Adam that the day he should eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that he would surely die!
According to the same passage Adam did not die that day, at least not physically. He actually suffered a far worse fate. He lost his intimate relationship with God, and died spiritually.
Just what does that mean? Well for one thing the lights went out! Adam likely lost not only his soul to spiritual death, but his hotline to heaven with it’s non-stop glorious communion with his creator.
The spiritual umbilical cord was broken. He lost the fullness of the indwelling Holy Spirit that gave him ceaseless communion with his maker.
Since that time mankind has suffered at the hands of every kind of affliction, sickness, disease, and pain.