Subtitle: Consider whether there is an area where you have strayed further than you realized. Ask God to help you let go and fill you with His peace.

Excerpt: Consider whether there is an area where you have strayed further than you realized. Ask God to help you let go and fill you with His peace.

Author: Rich Holt

Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Exodus 22:19, “Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.”

Background

Some time ago, a monumental vote took place in the N.C. House. Representatives voted to override a veto of a bill that will require women seeking abortions to wait 24 hours, receive counseling, and be shown an ultrasound before they have the procedure. Those against the bill argued for the rights of the mother and against the intrusion of government into the relationship between doctor and patient. And thinking about this issue, I couldn’t help but consider Herod and his thirst to kill Jesus by murdering all the babies of Bethlehem. I also thought about Pharaoh’s plan to control the Hebrew population by having the newborn Jewish males killed by the midwives. Talk about your government intrusion. So how does a government, a people, get to the point where it is sanctioning the death of babies? What counsel is present to vote “Aye” when the motion is made to slaughter the most helpless of creatures? How does a person place their doctor’s relationship above theirs with the baby, or God? As that goes, why do the Hebrews even need a law concerning sleeping with an animal? What set of circumstances brings about that necessity?

Application

Well, we all know it’s sin. But, we deceive ourselves when we think that it’s some grotesque, foreign form of sin that could never touch our hearts. Just as easily as a woman can ignore the fact that she was helpless as an infant or in utero, but can now, as an adult, destroy the life growing within her, we can leave our hearts vulnerable to the deceptive, coercing influences of sin. Pride, ego, and all the other forms are so inviting. They carried a band of God’s angels out of His very presence and into eternal damnation, so why do we think they have any less power today? That’s how we excel in noting the splinters in everyone else’s eye without noticing the log in our own. The sweet taste of superiority and importance dulls even the sharpest pains of our faults. So, resist that first bite. Stay close to the Master. Invite His healing and cleansing. Let the animals have their own.

Charge

As we seek Him today, consider whether there is an area where you have strayed further than you realized. Ask God to help you let go and fill you with His peace.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words