"One Bad Apple"

“Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals." (1 Cor. 15.33)

Everytime I read this verse I think of the phrase “one bad apple, spoils the bunch”. I’m sure you all have heard of this phrase, but have you ever thought about what that means? The phrase comes from the fact that when apples are placed in a closed container such a paper bag the ethylene (the stuff that makes apples ripen) that is produced by them is heavily concentrated because it has nowhere else to go but to swirl inside the bag. Let’s say then that one of these apples in the bag is over ripened or even moldy (these kinds of apples would produce more ethylene then their non-moldy counterparts), what would happen to the other apples? The amount of ethylene would be greatly increased in the bag and cause the other apples to ripen at an alarming rate, which would eventually cause those apples to over ripen much faster than they ever would have without the moldy apple.

So what?

I brought up the apple illustration in order to prove the point in 1 Corinthians 15.33 “bad company ruins good morals”. The bad apple represents the “bad company” (people we shouldn’t be around). The “good morals” are represented by the other apples (you and me, hopefully). Unfortunately I bet we can all think of someone that we hang out with that we aren’t supposed to be (I want to pause right there and state that I am not condemning having friends that aren’t Christians, I am saying however that we shouldn’t be constantly hanging around people with bad morals). If we are hanging around people that have bad habits or morals then what will happen to us? What will happen is, we’ll become moldy!

Have you ever noticed that you pick up habits from those around you? If you’ve ever been around both me and my brother then you have probably noticed some similarities in the way we act. My brother and I hang out and by consequence we have a lot of the same mannerisms. This same thing happens no matter who you hang out with. If you hang around people who cuss all the time then guess what…you will probably start cussing! If you hang out with people who are disrespectful then you will more than likely start being disrespectful!

This week I want you to think about the people you hang out with. We’ve got to start realizing that we have to let our “good morals” be a good influence on the “bad company”, instead of letting the “bad company” be a negative influence on our “good morals”. Make a good choice of who your friends are and don’t let bad company corrupt your good character. Don’t let yourselves get moldy! –Jack D.

What's Your Appetite?

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2.15, ESV)

To those of you who know me, this may come as a bit of a shock, but I am not going to be talking about our appetite for food today…well at least not physical food. No, tonight I will be talking about our appetite for spiritual food. So without further hesitation, (beware! Corny food joke ahead) let’s dig in:

I know of many Christians that go throughout the week and the only time they ever read the bible (or even think about it), is on Sundays and sometimes Wednesdays (when they go). I was this same way before I came up here to bible school. Some weeks I would look at the word and study it but most of the time I was just content with not looking at it until Sunday morning rolled around. Folks, there is no reason to sugar coat it, so I’ll just come out and say it…there was a real problem with that mentality! My problem was that I didn’t have much of an appetite for the word. 

As I’ve gotten older I’ve made a conscious effort to study the word more and as a result my appetite has grown more. Any logical person can figure out that when appetite grows, so does food intake. That’s how our stomach works, and consequently that’s how our mind works as well! When we have a greater appetite for the word, we will study it more and more in order to fill that appetite! 

Have you ever noticed how much better you feel after you’ve eaten? If you’ve been desiring pizza all day, how wonderful is it when you finally get to scarf down that first piece? It feels good! The word of God works the same way friends! If you start to study the bible I guarantee that you will start to feel better! When you start to fill that spiritual appetite with study you, you in turn feel spiritually healthier! 

This week I want to encourage you all to dig deeper into the word! Some ways to do this might be by:

1)       Thinking of a subject and seeing how often and where that subject is addressed in the bible.

2)      Having a conversation with a friend concerning a passage in the bible that maybe you don’t understand.

3)      Picking a chapter and studying its context to see how what the writer is talking about, fits in with the entire rest of the book. 

I hope this week you will give one of these a try. Start of small and pace yourself with bible study. It’s a very good thing to study, but if you try to do too much, you may find yourself biting more off than you can chew. Try not to let another week go by, by starving yourself without the word, instead try and nourish your spiritual body with the word. Be filled, not famished! -Jack D.

The Sin of Achan

Today’s devo talks about sin and its effect on others. Today we will be looking a bit at Joshua 6 & 7. Please grab your bibles and read along starting in Joshua 6. In Joshua 6 wee see that Joshua and the Israelites were going about conquering the land as they were supposed to. They had just finished destroying Jericho, in fact we’re told that they “devoted all in the city to destruction” (Josh. 6.21). This is just as they were supposed to do (Josh. 6.17), however that’s not all they were supposed to do. In Joshua 6.18 we see that they were told this:

But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. (Josh. 6.18, ESV)

Keep that in mind because we’ll be back to this verse in just a bit. After they conquered Jericho, they were to move on to the city of Ai. They sent spies out to check out Ai and the spies decided that since the warriors in Ai were few that they didn’t need to bring all the Israelites to fight but only “3,000 men” (Josh. 7.3-4). As we continue reading we see that they Israelites lost the fight! To some of you this may be baffling after all, ‘how could they lose if God wanted them to conquer the land?’ The big reason is that they didn’t go to God! If they had they would’ve learned:

1)      How God wanted them to attack Ai

2)      That someone in their number didn’t keep the command found in (Josh. 6.18)

After the defeat they talk with God and learn what they would’ve found out if they had gone to him in the first place (see Josh. 7.11-12). They find out that someone had transgressed the command given them in Jericho! As the account goes we see that they narrowed the culprit down to an Israelite named Achan, and if you read at the end of the chapter we see that Achan and his “sons and daughters” as well as his animals were brought up to the Valley of Achor and stoned (Josh. 7.24). Because of one person’s sin, many suffered!

I know this post was a lot different than my normal one’s but I what I wanted you to see from these two chapters is that the sin of one person can affect many people. Because of Achan’s sin his family was stoned and even on a bigger scale we see that Israel was defeated in battle! What about us today? Our sin has the same effect on some. A sin as simple as cussing could result in another brother or sister in Christ falling away from the faith, or (looking at it on a more grand scale) could result in people seeing you act that way and thinking that all Christians are hypocrites. 

This is a pretty eye-opening thought to me. Our sin affects everyone and because of me the whole cause of Christ could be harmed! We sin, every single one of us (Rom. 3.23), we can’t help that however this week I do want you to think about everything you do and realize that your sin doesn’t just affect you, but those around you as well. - Jack D.

Our Adversary the Lion

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5.8, ESV, emp. added)

Have you ever thought about the devil as a lion? No doubt if you’ve run across this passage you’ve acknowledged the comparison, but have you ever stopped to think about lions? We are told in this verse that the “devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”, and that got me to thinking…How do lions hunt? When looking for information I came across this interesting fact:

“Lions are active during the day and at night but they prefer hunting at night.”*

Think about that…they are active both day and night but they prefer hunting at night. Since the devil is compared to a lion let’s look at how this fact applies to our “adversary” shall we? The way I see it is that the devil prefers to hunt us at our weakest point (that is to say our weakest point in our daily walk with God) but, he’ll hunt us even when we’re at our strongest point. Give that some thought…the devil ones to get you to fall when you’re already at your lowest point. Maybe you’ve been having a bad day, or you got a bad grade, or you got passed up for a job promotion, or anything else that get you to feeling down in the dumps, whatever it may be, Satan wants to use that to get you to turn away from the faith! A scary thought though is knowing that even though Satan wants to get you when you’re ‘down in the dumps’ spiritually, he’ll attack you when you’re on a ‘spiritual high’ (for lack of a better term)! I can see why Peter stressed being “sober-minded” and “watchful!” It’s because the devil will try and get you anytime, and anywhere he can! The devil is an opportunist! He takes every chance he’ll get! 

With this thought in mind this week I want to ask that you’ll try and avoid situations that could lead to the devil getting a hold of you easier. In other words, avoid situations that could lead to sin! Whether that be hanging out with some people that you probably shouldn’t, or going to a movie you probably shouldn’t be going to. If you think there’s a chance that a temptation you have will turn into sin, then do your best to avoid that situation! We need to be watchful for the devil, because I promise you he’s on the hunt! -Jack D.

* lion fact and picture found at http://www.facts-about.org.uk/zz-animals-lions.htm