BBD 04.27.15 Strangers in the House (Classic)
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The Burning
Bush Devotional
Classic
from 2007
04.27.15
Strangers
in the House
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. -
John 10:10a NKJV.
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved,
he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love
Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot
be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted
when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth
death. - James 1:12-15 NKJV.
Kim Ledford went on a lengthy vacation and finally
returned to her home. Shock, would be a mild term for what Kim experienced after
arriving at her home. She walked into her house, and discovered that there was
a woman wearing her clothes, and an unknown man was in her bed. Another man
confronted her, and asked why Kim was in his house! The police were able to
find the truth, and arrested the strangers for burglary. Now these strange
people have a new home called a jail.
Can you imagine the shock that Kim Ledford must have felt
to have all of those strange people inside her home? It would have been even
stranger though, if Kim had invited them to stay, and live there with her. Of course,
Kim did not do that, she immediately called the police. However, many of us are
not as smart, let me explain.
When we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live within
our hearts and lives. Our physical body becomes the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
Our body is the Holy Spirit’s house, and that house has been swept out and made
clean (2 Corinthians 5:17). What happens to that house when the strangers show up?
Let me rephrase, what happens to that house, your house, when sin knocks on
your door? Do you call out to the Lord for help? Or, do you invite those
strangers of sin to come on in and stay a little while?
It sounds very strange, because we as Christians know
that sin is deadly. We know that sin is as bad as giving a baby a rattlesnake
to play with (Romans 6:23a), but too many times we tolerate sin. We tolerate certain
levels of sin. We know that sometimes those shows on TV and the movies we watch
are inappropriate, but we watch them anyway. We know some of those books that
we read contain things that Christians should not read, but we read them
anyway. We tell our little white lies, because we don’t want to hurt anyone.
Some of us drink and smoke, and may even use some illegal substances sometimes,
but nobody is getting hurt are they? Some of us flirt and say things that are
inappropriate, but it’s all in fun, right? Some of us… _____ (just fill in the
blank).
The sad truth is that when we invite the strangers of sin
into our lives, we are just asking for trouble. If we allow them to stay around,
it will result in a downward slide with our growing more and more apart from where God
would want us to be. If we allow those strangers to stay, the thief will have
stolen our lives away, and we will never experience the abundant life that our
Lord wants us to have. Ask the Lord to give you the strength to throw those
strangers of sin out of the house.
Copyright © 2007-2015. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998 the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of
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Please pray for Justin Lewis who
is battling cancer. He is a 35-year-old Christian with a wife and four
children. Unless God intervenes there is little hope for him. He has recently been at MD
Anderson in Houston for about ten days with super chemo and needs to go back
soon for another super chemo treatment. They found new places of cancer on his
last scan. He is very weak and needs to gain some weight and strength prior to
the next treatment. Thank you for all of your prayers for Justin and his wife
and four children!! (Update: Justin has now completed two super chemo
treatments and is currently undergoing a third. He will have another scan at
the end of this treatment. The great news is that he was able to work four days
before going back for his third treatment!! Thanks for all of your prayer for
him, they are making a difference!!) Please also pray for Justin Lewis' sister
Tammy. Tammy has been in the hospital in New Jersey for about a week. She has
Guillian-Barre Syndrome and when she is released from the hospital she will
have to go to rehab and learn to walk again. She has three young children at
home that her husband is carrying for.
Prayer Requests: Please pray for
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hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Please also
pray for Shane Hall who is a young pastor who has cancer and for all those
afflicted with this terrible disease. My sister, Reta’s surgery for removal of
kidney and cancerous tumor went better than expected. She will now have targeted
chemo by pill or injection for nodules in her lungs. Please pray too for
Beverly who has been recently diagnosed with cancer. Many prayer needs are
posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page. You can also
post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer -
please pray for me.).
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