Week Forty-Three, 2018

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Numbers 21:6-7

We have all heard about invasive species. In some form or another, they are all across the country. Invasive species are dangerous because they have no natural enemies in our country, no native predators to control their growth.

In our state, we have fought citrus greening and the Mexican fruit fly, both of which have desecrated the citrus industry, costing millions. Now, we are dealing with the Burmese python, the Tegus lizard and Lion fish. The snakes and lizards are destroying the Everglades. Once the snakes are six feet long, they have no natural enemies and are eating up other wild life.

The Lion fish are taking over the gulf coast waters and destroying other aquatic species. Actually, the fish are quite attractive and would look good in an aquarium. But, no matter how beautiful, they are destroying the aquatic balance of their habitat.

Sin is like that. It often comes as a pet and multiplies into a destructive pest. Satan dresses sin into a beautiful package that is tough not to love. We are attracted too in and cannot resist its involvement in our lives. Once the hook is set, we are hooked and it expands into something we cannot control. It often comes in a “sexy” disguise.

So many people have learned the hard way that all of Satan’s apples have worms. You cannot eat at the Devil’s table without getting food poisoning. You cannot warm yourself at the Devil’s fire without getting burned. Satan shows you the neon lights of Sin City, but he doesn’t show us the graveyard. Satan shows us the booze, women and good times, but doesn’t show us the lifetime of shame and regret that often accompanies sin.

Sin usually comes wrapped in pretty packages, but underneath the beauty is destructive sin, an invasive species that is set out to destroy the world, one person at a time. Be careful of what you are attracted to and realize what is underneath.

Love is blind, but marriage is an eye opener. Anonymous

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SIN:

Psychologists realize something is wrong with the human race. Some call it a constitutional weakness; the Bible calls it sin. The Bible describes sin as the free act of an intelligent, moral, responsible being asserting himself against the will of his Maker. It has affected every part of our lives, even our minds.

Science has led us to the possibility of a Golden Age, but science has also brought us to the possibility of the destruction of the human race. Man stands at the crossroads; he must make a choice. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries were times of great scientific advance. Those multiplied decades brought us such marvels as jet power, nuclear power, television, and modern missiles, as well as many hundreds of gadgets that add to the comfort of mankind. Science gives us all these things, but it does not tell us what to do with them. At this point we must have moral and spiritual resources in order to use properly the things science has created.

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Walk a mile in my shoes, and then be willing to give your shoes away if your brother or sister is in need… ~ Dwight Short

Dietrich Bonhoeffer testified: “If Jesus returns tomorrow, then tomorrow I’ll rest from my labor. But today I have work to do. I must continue the struggle until it’s finished.”

“Be yourself” is about the worst advice you can give some people. ~ Thomas Lansing Masson

If you’re not happy without a gold medal, you won’t be happy with one either. ~ John Candy

Joy is the flag that is flown from the castle of your heart when the King is in residence. ~ David Jeremiah

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ~ Thomas A. Edison

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn