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Sep 03, 2025 06:00am

When Sin Starts Small but Ends in Disaster

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A young girl, just 16 years old, smoked her first cigarette. She said she wanted to look cool in front of her friends.

Like many others, Christine never dreamed how severe the consequences would be when she took that first puff. She never imagined how tough the addiction would be to overcome.

After 28 years of smoking, Christine was hit with hard news.

Oral cancer.

She quit smoking but the damage had already been done, and what she faced was far more than she could have ever imagined.

After rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, she thought the battle was over. But the cancer returned, and the doctors told her the only option was to surgically remove the cancer.

Christine had to have half of her jaw removed to survive.

And now, she, along with many others, shares her story on a national platform for the CDC’s anti-smoking campaign. She does not want to be put on display. She hopes that her story, her pictures, and her battle can be an example to others of the severe consequences of ever starting. She doesn’t want others to make the same mistake she did.

1 Corinthians 10:1–11
“I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, 7 or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, ‘The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.’ 8 And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.
9 Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites.10 And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death.11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.”

Paul reminded the believers in Corinth of the severity of disobeying God. Corinth was full of idol worship and it plagued the people, and if some in the church were tempted, Paul gave them a message.

They had the Scriptures to look to for examples of what would happen if they took part in rebelling against their Holy God. Verse 6 says, “These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did.”

God had instructed them. Temptation was present. The people made a choice. Sin was committed. Disaster followed.

And the same thing would happen to them if they made the same mistakes.

There are many events in the Bible that share the stories of men and women and the choices they’ve made. These stories aren’t written to highlight or glorify their sins. They are a warning, an example for us so that we can know and do better.

Just as Paul said to the believers in Corinth in his letter, I share with you today. Remember. Don’t learn these lessons the hard way. Don’t repeat the same mistakes. Turn from the sin of this world and follow Christ.

Learn more about following Christ at follow.lifeword.org and follow.lifeword.org/spanish.