I don't get sick often. I suppose that means I have a good immune system. I have a pretty elementary understanding of the immune system. By elementary I mean that I know Wesley (the hero from the movie The Princess Bride) spent 5 years building up an immunity to iocaine powder. That means he must have allowed himself a controlled exposure to the tasteless, odorless, but deadly powder that took out Vescini in mid laugh. It is a pretty amazing system that allows you to be exposed to harmful bacteria or viruses and eventually become immune to them. Becoming immune to harmful things is a wonderful thing but immunity doesn't work on everything. I smoked a cigarette when I was a teenager. The mother of a friend of mine smoked so we snuck a couple out of her purse one day and went out into the backyard and smoked like Colin Farrell. We were really pretty cool. Since I had never smoked I had to inhale hard to get the smoke past the part of my defense system that made it feel like I was being stabbed in the chest. I understand that pain and the reflexive cough eventually go away if you continue to smoke. I didn't, probably because I threw up after the one cigarette. Anyway, it made me think. When someone no longer feels the pain in their chest and the reflexive cough stops it probably feels like they have become immune to the poison in the cigarette. They haven't. The cilia that protects the lungs first experiences paralysis and then eventually dies leaving the lungs unprotected. I was watching a movie the other day and the language in it was pretty bad but it didn't bother me. At first I thought that maybe I had just built up an immunity and immunity seems like a good thing. But then I thought that sin doesn't really work like that. Scripture says that sin works more like smoke. The Bible calls it a seared conscience, which is more like the cilia dying. If someone stops smoking eventually the body does recover most of the time. The same is true with the spirit. I need to remember that my spirit never builds up an immunity to the toxicity of sin and when I feel immune I am in more danger than ever.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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3 comments:
There is a world out there full of compromise and tolerance isn't there? I had my filthy mouth cleansed by the Lord when I asked Him into my life in 1972. I hear filthy language every day come from my unsaved spouses mouth and it is like a loud clanging in your ear I stop and remember from whence I came and pray but when my spouse blasphemes the Lord or curses the Lord I take deep offense and want to run for the hot sauce and the soap and make a potent concoction to give him a "soap shake" if you will immediately. I truly shake my head and struggle when I hear professing Christians curse or say "Oh God" or "Oh Lord" and know they are not in prayer. I then go into prayer on their behalf. How can you praise and curse a Holy God at the same time.
The issue of sin is a condition of the heart. An unregenerated heart will not see what they do as sin. In our culture, people embrace whatever feels good as the barometer for their actions. But we have God's word which clearly states what is and what is not sin. In Romans 1:18b, we see that we suppress the truth about God an we become darkened. If we love sin, we cannot love the truth. Do we love sin more than we love God? And consequently, who/what is then glorified?
Our only hope is that the righteousness that God demands of us is given to us in His son and the finished work of the cross.
“You must’ve studied, and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal; So you would have put the poison as far away from yourself as possible. So, I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.”
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