HERE IN THE REAL WORLD

LOCK THE DOOR, NAIL THE WINDOW DOWN,
AND PULL THE SHADES!

It never fails here lately that at least once a week -sometimes once a day or more- I receive and email from someone saying to boycott this business or stop using that product. Some have said, “Don’t drive those trucks.” For whatever reason that certain businesses have decided to lay down with the politically correct and the Christian community has called for a boycott. Almost every part of our lives are touched by some a business that has decided to pander to what we may call the immoral crowd. Can we boycott them all, or should we?

In writing to the church in Corinth Paul said, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world” (1 Cor. 5:9-10). Paul recognized the fact that they, then, as well as us now had to do business with those who stood for things that went against the grain of our Christian beliefs. And, Paul never advocated that we lock the door, nail the windows shut, and pull the shades. They, those who are of the ungodly, are a part of this world just as we are. And, in many times they are involved in businesses that sell something that is essential to our lives: right down to the Christian bookstore where you bought your Bible.

Here is a partial list of the things I have seen that we are to boycott Stop buying certain gas; stop buying certain trucks (after you stop buying gas you can only buy the truck you can’t drive it!); Stop working at certain stores; stop buying certain food (of course after you stop working you can’t buy the food anyway!). Basically, “Lock the Door, nail the window down and Pull the shades!” Oh, and don’t turn the TV on either.

Maybe instead of boycotting there is another course of action. Maybe we frequent those businesses just as we normally would. We should use the situation to show the truth: to teach the truth. Instead of locking ourselves away and boycotting the world, we need to unlock the door raise the shades and open the windows and let our lights shine to the brightest. Instead of boycotting we need evangelize.

24 September 2006

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
little_sorrel@yahoo.com

IT RAINED CATS AND DOGS

Tropical storm Ernesto paid us a visit here in North Eastern North Carolina this week. By the time he made it this far north in the state he was a weak tropical storm. But, boy did he drop the water on us; estimates have been anywhere from 12 to 15 inches and higher. It fell; then it rained; then it poured; then it rain some more on top of all that. Water was standing in places I have never seen water stand. It rained cats and dogs outside. Then, I noticed something I had never noticed before: a small leak had developed and a little drop started inside! The rain fell so hard on the top of the house it couldn’t drain fast enough and a small trickle made its way inside. Yes, it rained cats and dogs outside, and inside it rained on the cat and dogs!

Sin is like that in our lives. God told Cane, “if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door” (Genesis 4:7). In this day and age sin bombards us like a down pour capable of producing the harshest of floods. TV, the radio, the internet are just a few of the places where sin “lieth at the door.” It is waiting for us to choose a path that is not well. We can take all the precautions to keep sin away, but it waits, biding its time until the right moment. We can turn the channel on the TV or put nothing but Christian programming on our radios. We can buy all kinds of filters for the internet. But, then just when we aren’t expecting it a “pop up” with suggestive material we slip through. Or, maybe we venture to a web page that has advertisements that are not what we need. Maybe God has turned your wine into water and the sin that lies at the door for you is the Kim Beam ad in the Sports Illustrated.

The New International Version of the Holy Scriptures translates Genesis 4:7 this way, “…….sin is crouching at your door.” Like a cat, sin is ready to pounce on the weakness of its victim.

We don’t have to be flooded by sin. Paul told those in Ephesus to “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). We have that armor in the Word of God. It covers our bodies and can keep the littlest flow of sin from forming a breach and seeping into our bodies. It can pounce and yet not penetrate. Through the word of the Lord we can stand strong in His armor and “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10).

With God we can stop that little trickle before it becomes a flood. Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). The dead waters of sin try to trickle in. It’s ready to seep in through the chinks in the armor. It’s ready to cause all the black mold. It’s ready to ruin the carpets. But, that little trickle can’t seep in if we have a river of “living water” flowing out. The next time you have a little trickle threatening to breach the dam, let the river of “Living Water” on the other side hold your dam up solid and strong.

2 September 2006
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
little_sorrel@yahoo.com