Every avalanche begins with a single snowflake…a bit of crystalized water vapor so light that it takes a small eternity to reach the earth.  It falls in absolute silence and makes no sound whatever when it lands. Conditions must be perfect for this lone snowflake to be formed and to remain in a frozen state.  By itself, it is of no consequence and cannot long exist.

It may take many storms, many short, windswept days and long, freezing nights for such flecks of ice, piling up in uncounted numbers, layer upon glistening layer, to accumulate.  But when they do, a strange transformation occurs. Their combined weight becomes enormous.  Roofs can be crushed.  The sturdy boughs of great evergreens can be snapped like dry twigs.  A man or an animal can sink so deeply that they disappear without trace.

And if these snows should come to rest on the slopes of a steep mountainside, they become highly unstable.  The slightest mischance—a hapless skier, even a loud noise—can move massive drifts with the speed and fury of a tidal wave and the deadly force of an atomic blast. Everything in their path is broken off, smashed and swept away.  Any creature that survives the silvery tsunami is buried alive, its frigid tomb unmarked and impossible to find.

And so it is with the times in which we are now living.  I do not say, “THROUGH which we are now living” because, if things continue on their present course, the survival of humanity is far from assured. Indeed, as of this moment, the human race is in grave peril. Its very future hangs in doubt.

As we look around ourselves today, we see the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, possessed or sought after by aggressive regimes and their proxies all over the world.  We see brutality and butchery, fanaticism and fratricide… blood lust and savagery to rival anything witnessed in the very worst periods of this planet’s violent and tragic history.

Ancient hatreds are sparking explosions of animosity and ill will, spawning attacks and atrocities all over the globe.  Governments continue to tumble.  Erratic extremists seize power in the world’s most volatile regions.  Corruption and injustice abound.  Societies are polarized, their citizens pitted against one another, even as trusted institutions crumble and the norms of civilized conduct unravel at an ever-accelerating pace.

Deception spreads unchecked, while the truth is systematically suppressed, obscured or ignored. Blizzards of lies, selective leaks, and deliberate distortions blind the masses. Wall-to-wall propaganda intentionally misleads the few still struggling to learn what’s happening.

Whole populations are restless, feeling confused, disillusioned, vulnerable, and panicky.  As social order rapidly decays all around them, they sense that the momentum is not toward security, peace, prosperity and freedom, but toward instability, conflict, diminished opportunity and serfdom to all-powerful surveillance states.

As new threats multiply and the suction toward collapse and tyranny grows ever more powerful, calls are mounting for strong, autocratic leadership that can move quickly and surely to halt the slide, stop the slaughter and restore order. Countless millions across all countries are beginning to wonder if dictatorship may be preferable to anarchy, whether by one-man rule or a one-world junta.  They hope that the despotism stalking and seducing them will be benevolent, but they are wounded, weary and all but past caring.  They just want the chaos to stop.

But that’s not the worst of it.  The reality is, that humanity has a sin problem.  Spiritual cause and effect cannot be ignored if we truly want to understand how we got here and what, if anything, can get us out.

Like that first seemingly inconsequential snowflake, sin accumulates. Transgressions against God’s moral law pile up.  Sins of commission (doing the evil God forbids) are quickly smothered by far more numerous sins of omission (NOT doing the good to which God calls us).  Both the moral law and the royal law—the commands to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves—are thus broken.  How do we deal with this fact?

We rationalize that each smaller violation is but a minor infraction, a single instance that by itself is insignificant and incapable of doing any lasting harm.  Yet such sins add up, amassing into great heaps that stack higher every day.  Their combined weight is steadily building.

More serious misdeeds present greater challenges to our penchant for self-excuse.  Since they are undeniably damaging, we cannot plausibly pretend that such actions have no consequences or that intelligent creatures could not reasonably foresee them.  Instead we argue that they are aberrations, uncharacteristic of us.  We were after all, unbearably provoked; therefore, our behavior was justifiable under the circumstances.  Then, from a seemingly inexhaustible supply, we issue ourselves one more exemption from conscience, one more waiver of personal responsibility, one more disclaimer of any obligation to God or to the human beings our selfish conduct has wronged.  But in vehemently protesting our innocence, we lie.

We are sinners by nature.  We sin not rarely, but regularly; not occasionally, but habitually.  We are delusional—hoping that our desire to escape accountability for our choices will actually prevent God from judging us.  This is magical thinking.  It is fanciful and it is false.   We deceive ourselves when we deny that our lawlessness changes us.  It changes everything.  Lawlessness is contagious.   

Our disobedience is driving the crashing, thrashing, headlong rush to personal and global disaster.  We have not realized the danger posed by our own iniquity.  It is silent, so we thought it peaceful.  It dazzled, so we thought it beautiful.  It deepened so gradually, that we thought it safe.  Now everything is noise, and shaking.  The drifted banks are cracking loose.  A distant rumbling has become a shuddering roar and we are beginning to realize with shock and horror that we are in trouble from which there is no escape.  We are now in the first stages of a full-blown avalanche.

But God has not left us alone (though we deserve it).  There is hope, if we will humble ourselves, admit our guilt, repent of our sin and turn to God, trusting in His mercy.  He offers pardon and peace and eternal life as a free gift: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Our condition: All are sinners – “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23)

Our problem: Our sins separate us from God, who is holy – “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

Our predicament: We cannot save ourselves – “…Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”  (Galatians 3:10) “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”  (James 2:10)

God offers forgiveness – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9) “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”  (Isaiah 1:18)

God has proven His love for us even before we turn back to Him – “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

We need to come clean – “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”  (I John 1:8-10)

God has but one rescue plan – “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  (John 14:6). “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12)

Jesus did for the sins of all; anyone, anywhere can be saved – “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you…For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures…”  (I Corinthians 15:1,3,4) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.  For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13)

Change your mind, change your course, change your destiny – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”  (John 5:24)

You need not fear your past, your present or your future.  Commit yourself to God, “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”  (I Thessalonians 1:10)  Drop everything.  Do it now. Christ stands ready to receive you, save you and transform you.  Don’t keep putting Him off.  Don’t disappoint the angels waiting to rejoice over you.  Don’t waste another moment of the full and lasting life you were meant to live!