Our last post mentioned the appearance at an online tournament by a player with the handle "Hellbent." We told that player we'd rather bow toward heaven.
The "H word" (not heaven) doesn't seem to be a shocking expletive today, compared to when we were growing up. We've actually heard a minister or two bring up that player's name during sermons, saying some people are "hell-bent" to do all sorts of bad things.
While that word isn't in the Bible, Hosea 11:7 in the King James Version says this: "My people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him."
"Backsliding" in the NIV is translated, "to turn from me." Turning away from God to your own way of doing things (such as drunken sprees playing poker at bars or casinos) simply asks for trouble -- because Isaiah 55:9 says God's ways are higher than ours.
When the trouble comes (note we didn't say if), it's time to turn back to God -- confessing your sins and mistakes before Him. Isaiah wrote about that, too. "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon" (Isa. 55:7).
This process is known by the Christian term repentance -- accepting God's rule over your life. Isaiah writes again, in behalf of God: "Before me every knee shall bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, 'In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength'" (Isa. 45:23-24).
Don't be "hellbent" -- seek Heaven and repent. Such turning to God is time well spent.
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