Long time ago in the little old town of Odessa in West Texas is where we went to church. Highway Temple Assembly of God. We went to church on Sunday morning, Sunday evening (yes, believe it or not they had church on Sunday nights at our church, as a matter of fact, some still do) and on Wednesday evening. And sometimes we even went during the week if they were having a a revival.
Well this is how my story goes.
One Sunday evening we were on our way to church. As it was my mothers habit of cramming as many people into our little four door car as possible, because heaven knows seven kids and herself just didn't do the trick, she would stop and pick up other people that needed a ride to church.
We happened to live in what city folk would call "the country". It was only called "the country" because you could have and raise farm animals and grow crops and there were absolutely NO paved roads. Apparently pavement hurts the horses feet and the rattle snakes don't like it. I don't know why they didn't pave them, they just didn't.
Well like I said, we lived in the country and my mother picked up any body who said they needed a ride to church. We had been picking up these two sisters on Sunday evenings and that is what we were going to do this particular night. My mother had called them and told them to be ready when we got there so we wouldn't be late.
We pulled up in front of their house and for some reason only one of them was standing there. My mother asked her if her sister would be ready soon and she informed us that her sister would not be going.
You see, it was her sisters night to slop the pigs and even though she was all dressed up and ready to go it was still her night to slop the pigs. She had gotten too close to the pig pen and when she went to toss the slop into the pen she slipped and fell in. She had been a muddy mess. From her head to her toes. She was not going to have time to take a bath and get herself cleaned up in time to go so she was staying home. She had to miss church because she fell in the pig pen.
Oh my friend, how many times have we fell into the pig pen? How many times have we played with fire and have gotten burned?
God cleans us up and we go right back out and step back into the same old garbage that we have been wallering around in. We have forgotten to guard what is so precious.
We are so happy when we get set free from the sin that so entangles us. The joy is so exuberant in our lives we can hardly contain it. We are so in love with Jesus and it seems that nothing would ever change that.
But soon we start justifying the little sidesteps that lead us off of the path that God has set before us. We start getting our eyes on things that we shouldn't. We start dabbling in things that we should be staying away from and yet we think we can get justhisclose to it, and whammo, we fall into the pig pen. We don't guard our hearts.
When I was in driving school the one thing the teacher told me that I still remember was "keep your eyes on the road." He explained that if you start looking to the side of the road, whichever way, to the left or the right, and keep looking that way, then the car would start going in that direction and could cause an accident. He said to always keep my eyes in front of me but to watch what was going on around in case someone should try and run into me.
That is just like our walk with the Lord. We start walking with Him and something catches our eye and we start veering towards it. Pretty soon we have lost our way and we have gotten too close to the thing that would take us away from that love and we fall into the pig pen.
The Prodigal son didn't think that he would ever stoop so low as to end up in the pig pen. But that is just where he ended up. He gave up all that he had, love, family, status because he wanted what he wanted. He didn't appreciate what he had and ended up falling into the pig pen.
It is so easy any more for any of us to do that. With the Internet at our hands and so easily available we don't even have to leave our houses any more to fall into the pig pen of this world. Men used to have to go to the "seedy" side of town and go into some dark place and no one would even know they were there unless they saw them go in. Now they can just turn on their computer and it is at their fingertips. We can listen to filthy songs that degrade life and God. We can read books that would easily tear down the soul. And we justify it because "who is it gonna hurt."
So many times we think it is all innocent. Men think "well it isn't porn if it is her Victoria's Secret magazine." But Jesus said even if you look at a woman as to lust after her then you have committed adultery. We read our horoscopes thinking we will get insight into our lives, but God said he hates ALL forms of witchcraft. We encourage our little ones to act out by saying "do it for so and so, it is too cute" and then we wonder why they rebel against the discipline when it isn't cute any more.
Trust me, I know these things to be true in my own life. We justify it by saying, "it was just this one time" "nobody got hurt" "nobody saw me". But I am here to tell you someone did get hurt.
Hebrews 10 tells us that when we deliberately sin after we have been washed clean and been sanctified that we insult the Spirit of grace. It says we are treating the Blood that Jesus spilled as an unholy thing and we are trampling Him under our feet.
Woe be it to us if we do these things for Hebrews also says, how severely do you think someone deserves to be punished for doing this to the Son of God. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
So my friend, I beg of you, guard your heart, guard your mind, your mouth, eyes and ears. Oh be careful little hands what you do. Oh be careful little mouth what you say. Oh be careful little ears what you hear. Oh be careful little feet where you go. You can't unsay a word after it has been spoken. You can't un-see something that you have seen. You can't un-hear something that you have heard. You can't undo what your hands have you do. You can't un-go where your feet take you. And you can't un-think a thought that comes and takes up dwelling space.
So guard this thing, this salvation, this pearl of great price. Don't fall into the pig pen.
My friend there is coming a time that we may fall into the pig pen one too many times and just like the girl in my story there won't be time to get clean. Jesus will return and you will not have time to get your robes spotless, clean. You just won't make it.
Yes, I believe in grace, but I also know that the Word of God says that sin separates us from God. I do not want to take that chance and miss the opportunity to spend eternity with the one who set me free and cleansed me from all unrighteousness.
The only way I know how to do that is to stay as far away from pig pens as possible.
Jesus is coming soon my friend, I beg of you, don't fall into the pig pen.
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