Keys to the Kingdom
By Carolyn Tucker
Rat-killing Machine
When my son Aaron was in high school, his sister Mariam talked me into buying a Boston Terrier puppy for him. (It didn’t take much convincing since I’d had three spunky Boston’s before.) Aaron named her Chloe and when she was old enough he began to train her to hunt rats. He’d grab his gun and off they’d go into the fields and woods. After a few training sessions, Chloe quickly caught on and was finding and killing rats right and left — a literal rat-killing machine. One day they came upon a huge packrat’s nest of sticks and twigs and Chloe went into action. As she headed full-throttle into the nest, Aaron saw something black and white in there. He immediately took off running for dear life and watched from a distance as Chloe excitedly backed out of the nest with a skunk in her powerful jaws. Up close and personal, the varmint sprayed Chloe smack-dab in the face. This time she didn’t kill her prey and she stank for weeks.
Apostle Peter didn’t beat around the rat‘s nest when he wrote: “So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech” (1 Peter 2:24 NLT). Christ followers can be a sin-killing machine if we want to do what‘s right and please God to boot. Sin is a choice.
“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (James 4:17 NLT)
We’ll never go wrong by doin’ what’s right. But we could go wrong by doin’ nothin‘. We know that Moses’ faith enabled him to choose God’s will and lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt. He chose to obey God rather than the momentary enjoyment of sin’s pleasures. Sin is a choice. And sin will always stink after the dust settles.
“Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, ‘You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ Jesus replied, ’I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin‘” (John 8:31,32,34 NLT). The only way to know the truth is to read God’s Word for ourselves. The answers to all of life’s questions are found in black and white. Not sure you believe that? Keep reading, keep studying, and keep asking God to reveal His Word to you.
Apostle Paul shoots straight when he writes to the church of Galatia: “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives” (Galatians 5:16,17,25 NLT). Sin is a choice, so let the Holy Spirit lead you away from it.
John the Beloved encourages believers to hold fast to Christ Jesus. His teachings encourage us to go deeper into the truth and ways of God and deeper into our devotion to Jesus. “If we freely admit our sins when His light uncovers them, He will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and He will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 TPT).
The Key: Keep walkin’ in the Light ’cause you’ll never go wrong by doin’ what’s right.