I used to have a sign in my locker at work that said, "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine." It was a bit of irony since I worked in an emergency dispatch center. It never ceased to amaze me the effort people would invest in making bad decisions; so bad that a call to 9-1-1 would become inevitable. I have a few hundred examples I could use but one particular incident comes to mind.
It seems a homeowner decided that he didn't like the looks of the angled section of the stove pipe on his wood stove. Apparently it wasn't quite right and he didn't think it was safe so he removed the section he and went to the local hardware store to find a suitable replacement. Now most people would consider this laudable behavior and it would have been if there had not been a load of live coals and fresh logs in the wood stove. If you are like him and don't see a problem with this scenario, let me introduce you to what firefighters call the fire triangle. Heat + Fuel + Oxygen = Fire. Live coals= Heat. Logs = Fuel. Removed section of stove pipe = Source of Oxygen and thus we have Fire..... fire no longer contained in the wood stove but shooting out the hole where the stove pipe had been. Fire burning while no one was there to watch it and so it ran up the wall, spread through the ceiling and continued. Sadly, the man's house was fully engulfed in flames when he returned from getting supplies to make it safer.
Sometimes we Christians just don't think things all the way through to their logical conclusions. We make decisions based on partial information or worse yet, from positions of unsound doctrine or heresy. Our brains are so saturated with the slime and gobbledygook of the world we aren't being fed the truth (milk or meat) of the Word. We are certainly not taking every thought captive (2Cor 10:5) . How can we claim to be His when we are not willing to forsake our own way to follow Him? ( Isa 55:7)
If we are truly believers, we live to serve Him. If we are the elect of God, we have had an individual spiritual crisis of biblical proportion for which the only resolution is being united with Christ. We have passed from being dead in our sin and have entered into eternal life, being spared the torments and horrors of our well deserved judgments (Gal 2:20). Through Him we have redemption and forgiveness according to riches of his grace. (Eph 1:7) How is it that we professing believers, the elect of God, can justify being so ignorant of the things of Christ? Why is it things like discernment appear to escape us? How is it we can live our lives looking no different than those who do not know the forgiveness of their sins? How do we begin to justify the embellishments of our testimonies, as if being saved by grace through faith is not amazing enough? We lie, cheat, steal, and divorce in the same numbers as non-believers. If we dress, talk, live and act the same as those from whom we have been set apart, how will they ever believe God changes people? How can we believe God has changed us? How will they value and employ the precepts of the bible if we do not?
Titus 2:11-15
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;
14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
15 These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
(NAS)
It seems a homeowner decided that he didn't like the looks of the angled section of the stove pipe on his wood stove. Apparently it wasn't quite right and he didn't think it was safe so he removed the section he and went to the local hardware store to find a suitable replacement. Now most people would consider this laudable behavior and it would have been if there had not been a load of live coals and fresh logs in the wood stove. If you are like him and don't see a problem with this scenario, let me introduce you to what firefighters call the fire triangle. Heat + Fuel + Oxygen = Fire. Live coals= Heat. Logs = Fuel. Removed section of stove pipe = Source of Oxygen and thus we have Fire..... fire no longer contained in the wood stove but shooting out the hole where the stove pipe had been. Fire burning while no one was there to watch it and so it ran up the wall, spread through the ceiling and continued. Sadly, the man's house was fully engulfed in flames when he returned from getting supplies to make it safer.
Sometimes we Christians just don't think things all the way through to their logical conclusions. We make decisions based on partial information or worse yet, from positions of unsound doctrine or heresy. Our brains are so saturated with the slime and gobbledygook of the world we aren't being fed the truth (milk or meat) of the Word. We are certainly not taking every thought captive (2Cor 10:5) . How can we claim to be His when we are not willing to forsake our own way to follow Him? ( Isa 55:7)
If we are truly believers, we live to serve Him. If we are the elect of God, we have had an individual spiritual crisis of biblical proportion for which the only resolution is being united with Christ. We have passed from being dead in our sin and have entered into eternal life, being spared the torments and horrors of our well deserved judgments (Gal 2:20). Through Him we have redemption and forgiveness according to riches of his grace. (Eph 1:7) How is it that we professing believers, the elect of God, can justify being so ignorant of the things of Christ? Why is it things like discernment appear to escape us? How is it we can live our lives looking no different than those who do not know the forgiveness of their sins? How do we begin to justify the embellishments of our testimonies, as if being saved by grace through faith is not amazing enough? We lie, cheat, steal, and divorce in the same numbers as non-believers. If we dress, talk, live and act the same as those from whom we have been set apart, how will they ever believe God changes people? How can we believe God has changed us? How will they value and employ the precepts of the bible if we do not?
Titus 2:11-15
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;
14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
15 These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
(NAS)
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