Yellow jackets and sin

Recently I’ve been thinking greatly about the fact that every sinful thought wants to run its full course in a person’s life. It doesn’t want to stay merely a sinful thought, but it wants to grow up as a child would grow to be an adolescent and then an adult. A lustful thought doesn’t want to stay a lustful thought. It wants to become adultery or worse. A covetous thought doesn’t want to remain so, but spring up into a life consumed by consumerism and paralyzing greed. Something happened recently that gave me a vivid picture of this:

Last week as I was raking leaves for my wife’s mom, I felt something sting my arm then my shoulder. I heard someone yell, “bees!” and I sprinted down the hill only to see that my shirt was covered with them as a swarm of yellow jackets chased me. I shed my yellow jacket filled shirt and outran the mob to the bottom of the hill. Pain. My arms began to swell. I plucked out the stingers and went inside for medicine. On my way in I noticed over 50 yellow jackets swarming over their disheveled nest.

After about an hour, I determined to finish the job and spite the bees that inflicted so much pain on me. Gasoline. Lot’s of gasoline. I figured I can finish the leaves and gain my vengeance by incinerating the pile. After 30 minutes of flames, most of the bees had either been toasted or had fled. I went it for clean up and discovered the largest nest I’d ever seen. It was larger than my 3-month-old baby girl. I raked it out to the middle of the driveway and peered inside the nest only to find larva. It was a bee-making factory. Yellow jackets of all sizes and forms were either stationary or emerging from the nest. Some were half-way out of the nest, squirming, attempting their escape. They never made their escape. I burned them too. As I thought back about that experience and about what I’ve been learning about sin, the two seemed to converge. Those bees sought my destruction. Some were full grown some still in the nest, but their end was to sting me, not always, but in this instance. The phrase, “be in the business of killing sin because it’s in the business of killing you” comes to mind in some way when reflecting on this. Really, that's why Jesus says, "if you hate your brother, you have committed murder" because hate is the child form, essentially the same person and DNA, of the adult.

A Quote from a Quote

Here's a thought from a friend on John Owen's mortification of sin:

“He goes on to say that sin never takes a break, it is always crushing and every sinful thought wants to go to its end. A lustful thought wants to commit adultery. Covet something? It wants to oppress people. Every "baby" sin wants to grow up and be a ravaging adult unless it is stopped dead in its tracks. Killed on the side of the road. Let it walk, and it will get stronger. Kill it now he says. How? Well, know you are too weak. Run to Jesus. Beg the Holy Spirit. Use the sword of the Word. Wrestle. Use the free will you have. Count on Christ. Call a friend. Confess. There are a lot of different ways to help. Here is the one thing you do not want to do. Don't take a break. Don't say, "I will take a holiday from killing sin." Never.”

A Call to Maturity

Philippians 3:15-16
Paul’s call to maturity is running in a way that he wouldn’t look back (to see how far he’s come or to dwell on the entangling sin that once hindered him) or to look to either side of his path that the world may pull his gaze from Jesus. God will reveal it to you if you are really one of his and if you are running in a manner than isn’t pleasing to Him. How can He reveal this to us? Through His Word, written and spoken, he brings the dark corners of our hearts into the light. And through close fellowship with others who are running this race unswervingly.

And to those who are thinking that Paul is speaking of a salvation earned or achieved he says, “only let us hold true to what we have attained.” This removes any doubt that works save. There are so many that say that they do. Hell is going to be full of statesman and moralists. Jesus, His glory, His work on the cross is the greatest and truest, the only kingdom worth fighting for. Many will try to stray from the truth. Many will try to believe only comforting parts about Jesus – it is worthy to fight. It doesn’t mean fight by beginning a crusade over all those who don’t believe. It means depleting, through conversations and love and service, false notions about who Jesus is.

The 4th

Today is the day we celebrate independence in the US. It doesn’t seem to carry the clout that it once did. Now, it seems to be more about the grilling out, beer, and fireworks than it once did. But I guess that’s the excuse for most holidays in the US. Very seldom is the question asked, “Now why do we celebrate this day? What’s the significance?” I don’t consider myself a cynic but I’m pretty apathetic today that today means we are free from suppression, totalitarian reign, communism, suffering, and poverty. I can worship when, where and how with freedom and not worry that someone will be ‘off with me head.’ many have died to protect and preserve this - past, present and future. Maybe I’m moving toward gratitude but it seems that the more we get, the more deserving we get. This ‘I deserve’ ideology is still undeveloped in my mind but there seems to me to be a correlation between it and my apathy toward singing “for purple mountain’s majesty” today.