Solomon and Johnny Cash

It was a Johnny Cash song I hadn’t heard before.  It was catchy so I looked up the lyrics (because I like to know what I am singing about…).  And that’s when I found out what Solomon and Cash have in common: They both viewed lust as a problem.
The song is about “love” as unquenchable desire – lust.  It ends with the speaker falling deeper and deeper into a burning ring of fire.  It is just like what Solomon said in Proverbs 6 thousands of years earlier – minus the upbeat tune.  He said: Lust is bad!  Don’t fall in!  Don’t let her (lust) take you down and don’t think you are stronger than her.  Can a man hold fire and not get burned?
Johnny Cash knew that answer was, “No.”  The song ends with the singer trapped indefinitely in that fiery ring.  But what do we do when find ourselves in that ring?  Trapped by the desires of our eyes and heart…burning up with our own lusts and stuck….forever?
We need a Rescuer and His name is Jesus. 
He lived perfectly, experiencing our temptations but never yielding to them.  He took our place and our punishment before God so that we could have peace with God and no longer be slaves of sin.  Jesus’ offer is to save anyone who believes in Him and to free them from sin. 
No desire has to rule over us anymore.  No sinful action.  No wrong words.  No impure thoughts.  No matter how hopeless our particular addiction is or how natural our feelings.  No matter if our society sanctions our lusts or despises them.  No sin, no matter how strong, has no right to rule our hearts or our lives (Romans 6:14)…. if Jesus rules over us. 
Those who choose to follow Jesus don’t have to serve in a burning ring of fire anymore.
And we are free indeed (John 8:36).

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