Consequesnce of a Moral Fall

The following is an article posted on the Walk in the Word website. It is written by Randy Alcorn. I thought it worthy of every Christians' time to read - especially those of us in leadership:

Consequences of a Moral Fall
- Randy Alcorn

Whenever I feel particularly vulnerable to sexual temptation, I find it helpful to reviewwhat effects my actions could have:

• Grieving the Lord who redeemed me.
• Dragging His Sacred Name into the mud.
• One day having to look Jesus, the Righteous Judge, in the face and give an account ofmy actions.
• Following in the footsteps of those people whose immorality forfeited their ministriesand caused me to shudder.
• Inflicting untold hurt on (spouse’s name) my best friend and loyal partner.
• Losing (spouse’s name) respect and trust.
• Hurting my beloved children (names).
• Destroying my example and credibility with my children, and nullifying both presentand future efforts to teach them to obey God (“Why listen to a person who betrayedMom/Dad and us?”)
• If my blindness should continue or my spouse be unable to forgive, perhaps losing myspouse and my children forever.
• Causing shame to my family.
• Losing self-respect.
• Creating a form of guilt awfully hard to shake. (Even though God would forgive me,would I forgive myself?)
• Forming memories and flashbacks that could plague future intimacy with my spouse.
• Wasting years of ministry training and experience for a long time, maybepermanently.
• Undermining the faithful example and hard work of other Christians in ourcommunity.
• Heaping judgment and endless difficulty on the person with whom I committedadultery.
• Possibly bearing the physical consequences of such diseases as gonorrhea, syphilis,herpes, and AIDS; perhaps infecting (spouse’s name) or, in the case of AIDS, evencausing his/her death.
• Possibly causing pregnancy, with the personal and financial implications