Psalms 119:133 Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me. NKJV
My Empire of Dirt
It was Trent Reznor from Cleveland Ohio, who founded the American industrial rock bang called ‘Nine Inch Nails’. Almost immediately before his death, it was however, ‘The Man in Black’ himself, Johnny Cash, who covered one of Reznor’s songs entitled ‘Hurt’. Nominated for seven MTV awards and a Grammy for the 'Best Short Form Video', the 71 year old Johnny Cash, made this song his very own. Profound in the extreme, Cash turned this song not only into one of the best anti-drug songs ever recorded but from his old twisted mouth, with an aged and broken voice, he made it a stunning personal testimony of regret and repentance regarding the selfishness of his past life, which was embodied in utterly sinful hedonism and the seeking of sparkling pots, which Cash found in the end to be full of dust and rust and rot. It is one of the most magnificent music videos ever made.I have great experience with selfishness and some experience of drugs. It is amazing how similar the destructive consequences are when you indulge in either of these. Largest of all, is the unseen but enormously evident stunting of emotional development. You see, while we indulge in drugs, we remain at a most juvenile and selfish stage of emotional development. Those not indulging in these same sinful practices, develop as individuals, they move on, they move away, they grow up and we drug users, like lost men over the stern of a fast moving ship speeding through the cold spray-filled night, in seconds dissappear over the darkest of horizons, drowning in a vast, slow eating sea of emptiness and utter loneliness. No matter if more juveniles may join us, no matter if we manage to get hold of those sparkling pots, we lose ourselves, for everyone we know, goes away in the end. Time proves this to
us, shows it to us, rubs our face in it. We lose our sweetest friend. We lose ourselves. Cash’s closing utterance to Reznor’s Lyrics, expressed in sobbing tears to the rising, heart pounding music is this:
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
What have you become my sweetest friend? What holes are torn into your own soul? Your empire of dirt has only let you down and hurt you, robbed you of true feeling, leaving you with unfixable and broken thoughts, whilst seating you on a throne and lying to your face. The drugs and the drug of utter selfishness in particular, have turned you into nothing short of a rotting retard, rolling in regret.
Christ died to save you, Christ died make us His very own, Christ died to restore our humanity and His most secret and greatest gift to us, is the return of our lost selves into our desperate and open arms, but healed, whole and complete in Him, with Him, for Him, by Him. Yes, I am convinced that Christ wants to give us back to ourselves.
Listen: - Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:8-10 NKJV
Pray:- Jesus, You are the Way, You are my way. Desperate I come to You, broken, lost, shattered, stained, a shell of festering fragments of what I was once a long, long time ago, even an unrecognisable shadow of what I might have been. Redeem O lord, restore O Lord. Yes, please redeem me from my sin and from the dark hand of him who has power over me. Stronger than the strong man armed, please, give me back my sweetest friend, yes, please give me back to myself. Amen.
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