Saturday, May 2, 2015

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
(Revelation 2:20 -- ESV)

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A Texan explained it this way: 
Here in west Texas, I have rattlesnakes on my place, living among us. I have killed a rattlesnake on the front porch.  I have killed a rattlesnake on the back porch. I have killed rattlesnakes in the barn, in the shop and on the driveway.  In fact, I kill every rattlesnake I encounter.  I kill rattlesnakes because I know a rattlesnake will bite me and inject poison into me.  I don't stop to wonder WHY a rattlesnake will bite me; I know it WILL bite me because it's a rattlesnake and that's what rattlesnakes do.  I don't try to reason with a rattlesnake or have a "meaningful dialogue" with it.  I just kill it.  I don't "try to get to know the rattlesnake better" so I can find a way to live with the rattlesnakes and convince them not to bite me. 

 
I just kill them! I don't quiz a rattlesnake to see if I can find out where the other snakes are, because (a) it won't tell me and (b) I already know they live on my place. So, I just kill the rattlesnake and move on to the next one.  I don't look for ways I might be able to change the rattlesnake to a non-poisonous rat snake.  I just kill it.  Oh, and on occasion, I accidentally kill a rat snake because I thought it was a rattlesnake at the time.  Also, I know for every rattlesnake I kill, two more are lurking out there in the brush.  In my lifetime I will never be able to rid my place of rattlesnakes.  Do I fear them?  Not really.  Do I respect what they can do to me and my family?  Yes!  And because of that respect, I give them the fair justice they deserve, I kill them. 

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Donald Grey Barnhouse (March 25, 1895 – November 05, 1960), a famous biblical scholar and former pastor of the historic 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, once preached a sermon entitled: “Men Whom God struck dead.”   The subjects of his sermon were Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:2), Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:7), Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5, 10).
 


 
 





 
 

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