Nuggets 65: Some Things Will Kill You

  • B. Shelburne
  • Apr 13, 2007
  • Series: Nuggets

I had to follow the dog back into the African village and destroy it.  The drooling, rabid animal had come on our front porch and tried to enter the house.  We were barely able to keep our dogs away from it.  I love dogs but I had no choice.  This dog would spread its fatal sickness to animals and humans.

"Break, smash, cut down."  God used strong words to say what Israel must do to pagan idols.  Canaanite idolatry was as deadly as rabies.  It seduced people away from the true God who could give life.  It involved sexual immorality and perversions, sometimes even human sacrifice.  It was incredibly enticing to the sinful nature, arousing extreme appetites that might never have surfaced.  If pagan shrines from the past were left standing, Israel would certainly be pulled in.  It was destroy or be destroyed.

Jesus also used strong language.  "If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away...If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.  It is better to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell."  Jesus did not literally mean for us to mutilate ourselves.  But if something is dangerous and seductive, you must put it away even if it is like your hand or your eye.  This is why the Ephesian converts made a bonfire with their books of sorcery and magic.

God does not allow us to take the law into our own hands but he does expect us to clean up our personal lives.  What needs to be put out of your life?  "Don't give the devil a foothold," Paul wrote.  Satan loves to kill and destroy.   He has deadly tools.  He may steal your mind with the wrong music or the wrong friends or the wrong website.  He may use a chat room or a flirtation.  A taste of drink or drugs may lead to horrible slavery and disintegration.  One can become addicted to bitterness, rebellion or greed.  The world anesthetizes us morally.  God calls us to wake up.  There is no place for some things.  They really will kill you.

Exodus 34:11-17;  Deuteronomy 7:2-6;  2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1;  Matthew 18:7-9;  Acts 19:18-20;  Ephesians 4:26,27;  John 10:10;  8:44;  1 Peter 5:8;  2:11;  Ephesians 4:22-5:18;  Colossians 3:5-10;  1 Corinthians 6:15-20;  10:14-21

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Copyright 2007 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons.

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