Tagging The Church

Well, my faith and trust in humanity slipped another notch this past week. For the life of me, I cannot understand the wanton destructive nature of some people. For example, the application of graffiti and the “tagging” of private and public properties has nothing to do with “art” and more to do with needing attention. This is a major problem in the “big city” and rears its ugly head around our little town every once in awhile. A not yet occupied, new hospital building was “tagged” inside and out last week with a clean-up cost that will take thousands of dollars. Not long ago some individuals decided to run around town breaking store-front windows, I guess just for something to do. They theorize that that is why business owners have insurance and it won’t cost them anything to repair or repaint. Yeh, right. Needless to say, I was cyber attacked last week through my email. What had all the appearances of a legitimate computer update turned out to be a destructive, malicious application, that rendered my hard drive useless. It was designed so well it even got around all the programs designed to protect my computer from this very thing. With the aide of another computer, I did recover most of what was on the disabled hard drive, but the time and property loss has been a burden this past week. I thought I knew better, I had a bad feeling, but I got suckered in, and lost. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I’m on guard, but I’m also a fool, at times.
One payday an employee received an unusually large pay-check. She decided to not say anything about it. The following week her check was for less than the normal amount of her weekly salary and decided to confront her boss about it. Already knowing about the mistake of the previous week, the supervisor inquired, “How come you didn’t say anything when you were overpaid?” Unruffled, the employee replied, “Well, I can overlook one mistake, but not two in a row!”
John’s mother ran into the bedroom when she heard him screaming. She found John’s two-year-old sister pulling the boy’s hair. She worked at gently relaxing the little girl’s grip and said to John, “There, there. She didn’t mean it. She doesn’t know it hurts to pull hair.” Mother was barely out of the room when she heard the little girl screaming. Rushing back in she asked, “What happened?” “Now she knows it hurts!” said John.
[1 Corinthians 3: 1-17 & 2 Corinthians 11: 1-15] The church is not exempt from the wanton destruction of men, both physically and spiritually. Satan is a very crafty being and is able to design programs that look very legitimate on the surface, but when used they can render the truth of God useless. When men enter the church for the sole purpose of bolstering their own name with creeds and edicts of how they think the church ought to be, God is no longer in the church. “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act accordingly to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2: 12-13) The world is listening to worldly men about salvation of the soul and are being misled. God’s word says we should be listening to God, for only He can save the sinful soul. “...work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. Should I fear the preacher or God? I must study God’s word to verify what the preacher is teaching me is from God. It’s my salvation.