"East vs. West"

 "A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left." (Ecclesiastes 10:2 KJV)

  "A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison - your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. "But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, 'There's the person who started that building and couldn't afford to finish it!'"" (Luke 14:25-30 NLT)

 This brings me back to one of the first Bible-Studies I went to, soon after I got saved. The person that was teaching the study was an Officer at the facility where I was got saved; I believe it was the Wednesday night after the Sunday when I actually accepted Jesus into my heart. He was sharing on a particular verse from PSALM 103:12, which says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." 

 The illustration that was given was how the earth turns, moving from west to east; if you are always heading west, then you will never be headed east. If, however you headed east, you would still never be headed west, but your days would be shorter and instead of chasing the sun, it would be passing by you, day after day. Additionally, if you went north to south, you would end up going south to north; each time you rotated, you would be headed in the different direction. 

 There is a catch to this east and west thing, which ever direction you choose: going west is like leaving everything behind, but going east is like starting over and over again, with each new sunrise. Additionally, if you are always going west, then those sins never catch up with you; that is, unless you turn back towards them... 

"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!" (Philippians 3:8-11 NLT)