Tag: sin

ORAL HYGIENE (or “VERBAL SNIPERS”)

Neal Pollard

Routine teeth cleaning can be pleasant, but cavities, extractions, and root canals, from what I hear, are less than thrilling.  No matter how well you think you are doing with “home care,” the dentist will always have suggestions for how you can improve your “oral hygiene,” from flossing and regular brushing to avoiding certain types of food (i.e., sugary and staining stuff).

But, how is our spiritual “oral hygiene”?  Sometimes, we equate such with abstaining from profanity and vulgarity.  But, doesn’t God expect more?  Growing up in the church, I have preserved in my mind a “Hall of Fame” of people who have filled their speech and words with encouragement, truth, gentleness, and thoughtfulness.  They brighten the lives they touch, altering them for the better.  However, I have seen too many Christians in every congregation I can remember whose speech is rotten and decayed.  Ironically, they often are those who faithfully attend and are generally morally and ethically upright.  Yet, they have slipped the bridle off their tongue to the harm and detriment of others.

Neither one’s age, perceived position and importance, nor tenure in a congregation entitles him or her to riddle others with verbal bullets.  Insults, discouragement, destructive criticism, loveless rebukes, railings, and the like have proven stumbling blocks to many visitors, new Christians, weak Christians, or others who are spiritually vulnerable.  I cannot count the specific number of times I have tried to help these wounded ones pick up the pieces after razor-sharp comments made by thoughtless brothers and sisters who ought to know better.  The offenders may not have any idea of the havoc they cause, but I am certain that some will be shocked and astonished at the judgment.

Jesus taught that “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” and “that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt. 12:34b, 36-37).  What do we think James means when he says that the tongue “is set on fire by hell” (Js. 3:6)?  The kind of speech referenced above is certainly not ignited by heaven!

Please consider that your speech is a direct reflection of the content of your heart!  Be mortified at the thought of a word of yours causing anyone to stumble and fall!  However important or unimportant you believe yourself to be, realize the potential harm or good you do simply by what you say.  Am I talking about your speech?  Well, ask if your speech is “with grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6), wholesome, edifying, needful, and gracious (Eph. 4:29)?  If it is not, please keep it to yourself!

Let us remember the words Will Carleton wrote in “The First Settler’s Story”:

Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged birds;
You can’t do that way when you’re flying words.
“Careful with fire,” is good advice we know
“Careful with words,” is ten times doubly so.
Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead;
But God Himself can’t kill them when they’re said.

Swept Away, Enslaved Then Reunited

Neal Pollard

 

Seven years ago today, an 8-year-old girl was torn from her family by a violent tsunami wave that struck her hometown of Meulaboh, Indonesia.  She was recovered by a wicked woman “who called her Wati and forced her to beg, sometimes beating her and keeping her in the streets until 1 a.m.” (Fakhrurradzie Gade, AP, via Denver Post, 12/25/11, 14A).  When she stopped bringing money in to the woman, she told her to leave and find her parents.  She even told her the hometown from which she hailed.  Now a teenager, “Wati” had to draw on vague recollections to find her family.  She remembered her grandfather was named “Ibrahim,” and locals in Meulaboh took her to the man and ultimately to her parents.  They had long given up hope that she had survived.  230,000 people perished in that infamous tsunami, including tens of thousands in her province alone, but Meri Yuranda, Wati’s real name, was reunited with her overjoyed parents (ibid.).

Such reunions are, sadly, rare, but they are thrilling when they occur.  The imagination races with all the twists and turns of a seven year journey that began with a tidal wave and ended with a solemn, yet happy, rejoining.  That the girl would escape death and then survive an unhappy experience far from home is amazing enough.  That she would be resourceful and savvy enough to rediscover her family is almost unbelievable.

How it illustrates the terrible, spiritual circumstances facing the vast majority of this world.  Swept away and enslaved by sin (Eph. 4:14; Rom. 6:16-18), they find themselves in the cruel far country (cf. Lk. 15:13).  Too often, they never find their way to the Father.  However, when they do search for Him, they find Him (Ac. 17:27)!  It sets off a joyful celebration in the Father’s House (Lk. 15:25ff)!  The Father never ceases hoping and longing for the return of the wayward ones, but we must come back to Him.  What a happy ending is made when we are reunited with the loving, waiting Father!

Immune To Venom?

Neal Pollard

My son, Dale, tells me that the mongoose builds up immunity to cobra venom by eating smaller poisonous creatures, from spiders to scorpions to wasps.  That makes the mongoose an “ophiophagous” creature.  Ophiophagous animals are those which hunt, kill, and eat snakes (including the poisonous ones).  Many of these kinds of animals are thought to be immune from their prey’s venom, and they have antineurotoxic antibodies in their blood.  However, the most venom-resistant animal known to science is the wild and exotic Virginia opossum.  They do not build up immunity, but rather seem to be born with this resistance.

As a Grade A Snake Hater, my skin is already crawling.  However, what a splendid application there is.  In Genesis three, we are introduced to a creature many take to be nothing more than a serpent.  While this may be true, Satan is referred to in symbolic terms as “that ancient serpent” in Revelation 20:2—a seeming allusion to the garden scene (cf. Rev. 12:9).  Is it coincidental that the beguiling serpent is mentioned in the same context as Satan’s beguiling work in 2 Corinthians 11 (cf. 3 + 14-15)?  Whatever may be concluded about any connection between the serpent of Eden and the devil, there are some potent comparisons.  Like a poisonous serpent, Satan is destructive and deadly (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8-9).  As such creatures can strike suddenly and without warning, Satan can do the same (cf. Matt. 4:3).  Just as these can cause fear, so can the devil (Heb. 2:14).  The devil can be made to flee (Jas. 4:7), just as those nefarious reptiles can.

Keeping with our analogy and original illustration, can we build up immunity against the devil?  Yes and no.  We cannot, in the sense that we can ever court sin and temptation and hope to come away unscathed.  The wages of sin are always the same (Rom. 6:23).  However, in another sense we can.  By drawing close to God, we can build up devil-resistance (Jas. 4:7).  Building a proper relationship with the Lord serves the dual purpose of helping us stand against the power of the devil (see Eph. 6:10ff).  By being and remaining in Christ, we are free from the effects of the sting of sin and the spiritual death brought thereby (1 Cor. 15:56-58; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 Pet. 5:8-9).  Let’s work to protect our souls from the ravaging effects of sin by building righteous, submissive, and holy lives!

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Don’t Be Overcome By Night

Neal Pollard

Gary, Carl, and I visited the United States Holocaust Museum today.  There is no experience with which to compare this harrowing, sobering, and unfathomable tour of one of the darkest periods of recorded history.  That one human being was capable of treating another human being the way the Jews were treated defies understanding.  We saw pictures and videos of the pogroms, boycotts, concentration camps, executions, and experimentations.  An entire ethnic group across an entire continent was seized with terror for over a decade.  To have witnessed such atrocities and survive must have scarred and wounded the psyche.  Perhaps no one who survived this genocide saw more than the Romanian writer Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel, who spent time in the Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald, and Gleiwitz Concentration Camps.  In fact, he only reluctantly became a writer to share his dark experience at the hands of the Nazis.  In his first book, Night, he wrote,

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

I do not stand in judgment of Mr. Wiesel’s pain.  Who of us will ever know its depths?  But his words demonstrate how pain and suffering can undermine and even destroy faith.  Paul told the Romans, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).  We will not be cast in the throes of despair Wiesel has known, but when we encounter trials, difficulties, and suffering may we keep our faith in God strong.   It may be hard to love our enemies (Mat. 5:44), but may we maintain our love and fidelity to our God–no matter what!

Learning From The Church’s First Recorded Sin

Neal Pollard

The world likes to record and memorialize its “firsts”–the first airplane flight, Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier, Roger Bannister’s sub-four-minute mile, Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight, and so forth.  There are some firsts no one relishes.  Oklahoma City was the site of the first federal building bombed by U.S. citizens.  Nevada was the first state to legalize prostitution.  Hawaii was the first state to legalize gay marriages.  Andrew Johnson was the first president impeached.  The 1919 Chicago White Sox was the first professional team caught losing on purpose for money.

Acts 5:1-4 records the first sin in the church.  It was a sin concerning money.  This sin, committed by Ananias and Sapphira, was written to warn us.  It contains many lessons we need today.  Consider a few of them.

The church was imperfect in the days of the apostles.  The church was, is, and always will be imperfect on the “human side.”  It is inevitable because we are all sinners (cf. Rom. 3:23).  Yet, the divine side of the church was, is, and always will be perfect, as perfect as God is.  The New Testament instructions and teaching about what the church is to be and do is not subject to change, for its Designer is divine.  Yet, we will never find a “perfect church” here because it is filled with flawed humans like us.

The church is right, though some in it are wrong.  There are some hypocrites in the church, as there are anywhere.  There are liars in the church, as there are anywhere.  There are covetous and greedy people in the church, as there are anywhere.  These things are wrong!  But it is not a refection on the purchaser or purchase price of the church.  A church can have members who are less than they should be without such being the grounds for us rejecting Christ and His church.

It is wrong to cover up sin.  God did not cover up their sin.  He advertised it in Acts five.  Sometimes, we are prone, when we see someone practicing sin, to look the other way or make excuses for it.  How consistent is it for us to preach against the sin of those “outside,” then ignore that which occurs “inside.”

One can commit sin while doing good.  This couple was giving to support the displaced saints in Jerusalem.  They had a part in it, but they lied and thus sinned.  The Bible reveals others who sinned while doing good–Nadab and Abihu were worshipping (Lev. 10:1-3).  Today, there are good people who sin in their teaching and worship.  What about those who sprinkle for baptism, add instruments to their singing, place women in positions of authority and leadership, teach salvation by faith alone, etc.?

There are many other lessons to be learned from this infamous couple.  May we so live and labor that we will be remembered by the Lord on the last day, but may it be a remembrance for righteousness and not wickedness.  Let us do right and for the right reasons!

(I believe these main points came as the result of a conversation I had with Flavil Nichols at least fifteen years ago).