Simple Warnings

What a great spring we’ve had with some abundant rains, of course never enough for farmers and ranchers, and moderate temperatures, which we haven’t experienced for several years. But, one can feel summer coming on because the afternoon temps are beginning to creep up into the 90’s, which really isn’t bad, unless the humidity decides to get jealous and rise up into the 80% range, then it gets tough working out-of-doors. The air-conditioners at home and at work are starting to get a workout, a sure warning sign the next electric bill will definitely be higher. This is the time of year when we receive lots of warnings and see evidences of warning signs: Warning! Teeny-tiny little yellow flowers in your yard turn into grass burrs that find their way into your house and under bare feet at two in the morning, stopping even the biggest meanest macho dude dead in his tracks. Warning! Don’t be kicking at or running the lawn mower over one of those big mounds of dirt out in the middle of the yard. Fire ants are carnivorous and travel in packs of five hundred to one thousand, it seems, looking to devour something. Disrupt their den and you’ll find out. Snakes are everywhere! It’s mosquito season. Zika virus is out there. You may think it’s something new - I think (my opinion) it’s been around for some time. Not to lighten the warning in any way, but we’ve often heard of people coming down with a “summer cold” that resembled the flu and were quite sick. So control your mosquitoes and protect the children from them, and the sun, two real important things to do. I’ve had about all I can take with these snails, how about you? Crunch – mush. Yuck!

[John 16:1-4] Argentinean race driver Juan Manuel Fangio was only a lap through the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. As he approached a dangerous bend for the second time, Fangio noticed that something was wrong. The faces of the spectators, which he usually saw as a whitish blur as he drove by, were all turned and looking at something ahead of him. "If they are not looking at me," Fangio thought, "they must be looking at something more interesting around the corner." So he braked hard and carefully as he rounded the bend. There he saw that his split-second assessment had been accurate. Ahead of him was a massive pileup that he would have smashed into had he not heeded the warning signs. Sometimes warnings are subtle and take a trained eye to see, as in Fangio's case. Other times the warnings are so blatantly stated that it's hard to miss. Scripture utters many warnings, but one particular one continues to be a warning people either miss or ignore. Paul stated the warning in this way, "Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good character“‘ (1 Corinthians 15:33). Time and time again this warning is not heeded. Paul even said, "Do not be deceived..." meaning that if we aren't careful, we will deceive ourselves into thinking this isn't true. And yet, so many of us seem to think we are the exception to the rule. We seem to think they won't influence us. We seem to think we are stronger than others. And like so many have found before us, our bad friends drag us into things that corrupt our morals. The bottom line is this, either our friends are pulling us towards heaven, or they are pulling us towards hell. Even a "neutral" friend is dead weight on our desperate climb towards the Lord. Let's heed Paul's warning and choose our friends carefully. Let's not deceive ourselves into thinking we are the exception to the rule. The more righteous people we surround ourselves with, the greater chance we have of keeping our eyes on Jesus. ...”Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees...” (Mark 8:15)