Unwelcome visitors can give you a real surprise and Lyn wasn’t at all ready to meet her unwelcome visitors.
“I’m going swimming in Grandpa’s new pool,” Lyn had said. The heat of a summer day in Texas made the pool a popular place for all the family. Lyn splashed into the pool then climbed on the rubber mattress. How relaxing to float quietly around the edge of the pool. What a good idea Grandpa had when he put the new pool in!
“Why?” asked Lyn. Her pleasant swim had just begun and she was not pleased to have it cut short.
Steve’s next words convinced her to get out right away: “There’s a skunk in the pool!”
Steve later said he had never seen Lyn moved so fast! She got off the mattress and out of the pool as fast as she could. Two baby skunks had fallen in and were caught in the filter. Steve got them out, but since Lyn had floated right past them, he just had to tease her about a “new perfume.”
I think you and I would have jumped out of the pool every bit as fast as Lyn did. Skunks have such a strong, unpleasant smell that no one has to be told to leave them alone. But I wonder if you and I ever think of sin being as terrible as that awful smell of a skunk. You run away from a skunk, but do you run away from sin? When you see or hear things that are bad do you go away, or do you look or listen more closely?
The next time you smell a skunk and try to pass by quickly, remember that that is the way God feels about sin. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:55This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5). God’s Word, the Bible, says, “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” Proverbs 4:14,1514Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. 15Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. (Proverbs 4:14‑15).
But don’t think only about the matter of staying away from sin. I hope you will also think about God’s love for you and how it is so great that He punished His own Son, the Lord Jesus, for sins so that He could offer us a free pardon. “Christ also suffered for us ... who did no sin, neither was guile [deceit] found in His mouth ... who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2:21,22,2421For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (1 Peter 2:21‑22)
24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24). Have you come to Jesus for that free pardon of your sins? No one else can give it to you.
Lyn’s “visitors” that day at the swimming pool were unwelcome, and she got away from them as quickly as she could. But I’d like to tell you of some unwelcome visitors that were not avoided. In fact, some people got so used to them that they hardly noticed they were there!
It is always at night when these South American “visitors” come. They are large beetles called venchukas. They carry a deadly disease, and the people they bite can get very sick and even die. Venchukas hide in thatched roofs of huts. At night they come down the walls to bite people while they are sleeping.
Once when we were visiting some friends who were very poor, we slept outside in order to avoid these nighttime visitors. We preferred the stars to the beetles. At another place beds had already been made up for us inside, and, sure enough, before we turned off our flashlights that night we found venchuka beetles already starting to crawl down the walls. We killed all that we could find and asked the Lord Jesus to keep them away from us. We spent a restless night thinking about those awful beetles. To our amazement, the beetles did not bother our friends at all! They were used to them and slept soundly with these beetles in their huts night after night. One night when one friend had already gone to sleep, we found one of those beetles right on his nose!
Perhaps you are thinking that you could never get used to sleeping with venchuka beetles. But sometimes boys and girls get used to something far worse than these nasty beetles. Have you become used to sin? Have you been so much in the habit of telling little lies that you no longer feel that it is wrong? Some people are so used to seeing and hearing bad things on TV that they can watch these things without ever thinking that what they are seeing and hearing is sin in God’s sight.
God has never changed His mind about sin. God is holy and cannot have even just one sin in His home in heaven. But He loves you and has made a way that your heart can be washed from its sin. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18).
The longer our friends lived with the beetles, the less the beetles bothered them. If you continue to live in sins of lying, bad words, and unkind thoughts you also will begin to think that they are not so bad. God’s Word, the Bible, warns us that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:44Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4). Every sin is serious in God’s sight. Turn to the Lord Jesus now while you are young and He will save you from your sins and make you ready for heaven. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly [freely] pardon.” Isaiah 55:77Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7).
I hope you will not forget about these unwelcome visitors and will turn away from sin just as quickly as Lyn got away from the skunks. Sin will ruin your life, but the Lord Jesus can give you everlasting life. Come to Him today!
ML 07/08/1990