Jackson's Junction--December 2016

Good morning, or afternoon, or evening. Whenever this letter finds you, I hope it finds you well. I am writing this to you the day after the election. It’s a day I look forward to every four years. Not because we get a new president per say, but because it’s the day when all of the political ads end. I guess the ads wouldn’t bother me as much if they would just talk about what each candidate would do, but instead each ad is full of hate speech toward their opponent. Whatever happened to building each other up or don’t let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth? I think I’ve read that somewhere. Luke 6:45 says, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

In his book “Good Call”, Jase Robertson tells a story about cleaning out a duck blind one spring and the difficulty they had getting it clean. I found the story fitting to all of the political junk being spewed about. He said, “The strangest thing we’ve found in our blinds during our annual cleanings was a female buzzard, which had built a nest and laid an egg in the middle of one of four tree blinds. The smell was indescribable and produced an immediate gag reflex. In an effort to relocate the buzzard, I discovered the hard way that an angry buzzard’s best defense is projectile vomiting…The incident with the buzzard reminds me so much of our spiritual well-being. As a Christian, there are some situations you can’t reside in and stay faithful to Christ. 2 Peter 2:22 describes the problem of not breaking free from you past lifestyle and declaring Jesus Christ as Lord: “Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit’ and, ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.’” Real buzzards were made by God for the specific purpose of feeding on rotten things, but from a spiritual perspective, who wants a buzzard-type lifestyle? As a human, if you feed on evil, rotten things, your spiritual lifestyle will stink. And just like the buzzard defends its domain with projectile vomiting, people spew filth from their mouth toward Christians when their evil behavior is threatened. 1 Peter 4:3-4 says, “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you.”

This election may have gone how you wanted it, or maybe it didn’t. Either way what things are overflowing out of your heart? Are we spreading the good news of the Gospel, or are we contributing to the filth that is being spewed about?
Jase concludes the chapter with this thought. He says, “Evaluate your life and determine if you are influencing others for good or being influenced by evil. There is no middle ground.
Matthew 24:28 states: “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.” Who are you running with? What does your lifestyle smell like?”