“I want my life narrated by Morgan Freeman.” I saw those words on a T-shirt and smiled. That actor has one of the most distinguished voices I’ve ever heard.     The next day, I heard him narrating a TV program on black holes. Black holes are mysterious dense objects in deep space. Made by collapsing stars, their gravity sucks in all matter and energy around them so strongly that even light cannot escape. Anything that falls in can never get out.

    That image made me think of the swirling grip of sin. Did you know that human beings are subject to capture by the pull of sin so strongly that they can never escape? It’s true.

    These pitiable captives are compelled to continue sinning forever. They have been caught by the gravity well of their own black hole.

    When anything grips us, at first it is only a tentative tug, a little tiny pull of attraction. We can resist it at first. But if we draw closer, we become like a moth attracted to a candle. Eventually, our wings are burned and we die in the flame.     This is the way human nature works and the way our enemy takes advantage of us.

    Listen to this warning written by James: “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” (Jas 1:14) From being drawn into this web, being attracted or pulled into orbit, the next step is capture: “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” (Jas 1:15)

    Sin that was once outside of us, because we are now under its control and in its circle, now penetrates deep inside of us and gives birth to its own nature. We become one with the sin that grips us. We bond with it and are bound to it. We are no longer free, but sinners.  This produces death. And there is no way out.

    Last week I stood talking with a sad young man outside his home. He was so filled with despair that it was painful to see. His wife had left him. His children were gone. He saw no way out. He said, “I just have to be strong,” as he wept and cast about in his emotions. I don’t think I ever saw someone so miserable. And he is still stuck in that pit, a pit created by sin and its consequences.

    I urged him to turn around, to give his life to God. I told him that he didn’t have to face the struggle alone, that the Lord had answers for him if he would only allow the Lord Jesus to bring him into the kingdom of light so he could escape the darkness that gripped him.

     He was lost in his own personal black hole.

    Whatever your black hole is, face the fact that you cannot escape its grip on your own. You need a superior power to pull you out of a death-spiral, an inescapable gravity that draws you ever downward. Darkness, despair, and death are ahead.

    The pull of sin has been a factor in humanity since Adam’s fall. Adam was tricked by Satan. He used a lie to slander God, deceive Eve, and entice Adam to rebel and disobey.

    When mankind left God’s orbit, we fell into orbit around the black hole of sin. Here we will remain forever unless we are rescued.

    The answer to our dilemma is the powerful pull of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid the price on the cross to deliver us from sin, hell, and death. Hear his voice today as he invites you to turn away from darkness toward the light and receive his gift of salvation.

    Ron Wood is pastor of Trinity Assembly of God in Meridian. Hear pastor Ron each Sunday at 8 a.m. and again at 7 p.m. on WZKR SuperTalk radio at 103.3 on the FM dial. Join us at Trinity Assembly for Ministry Training Class Wednesday at 11 a.m. and for Sunday Family Worship at 10:45 a.m. Our website is www.trinitymeridian.com.