In January, I had the privilege and great blessing of traveling to India with Pastors Eldon Nelson, Del Palmer and Kevin Olson and seminarian Bob Lee. I saw (and the Lord taught me) many interesting things.
When I got back, one of the questions that people asked me was: “Did you see any [exotic] animals?” They meant elephants, or tigers, or snakes. I had to answer “No, the only exotic wildlife I saw was in a ‘3-star’ HOTEL!” When we were in Tirupati, we stayed in a hotel that had 3 stars after its name on the sign.
It was there that Kevin noticed a huge SPIDER on the wall.
I believe the hotel (or one place we stayed) was where we saw a GECKO on the wall. As Proverbs 30:28 says: “The lizard you may grasp with the hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.”
And the hotel was where I killed a COCKROACH in the bathroom…. reminiscent of my old California Lutheran Bible School days.
My impression is that people outside the AFLC might wonder why WE are so concerned about sin. After all, we probably don’t have a lot of “visible” sins in our lives (spiritual “elephants”, or “tigers”, or “snakes”) that we can’t ignore. However, I’ve come to see that I have a lot of “spiders” and “geckos” and “cockroaches” in my old nature that keep coming out in my life…things like procrastination…or irritability ….or wrong attitudes….or wrong priorities. It is because we still have sin in the “civilized hotels” of our lives that we still need a Savior!
David, the psalmist, was aware of his old sin nature when he wrote in Ps. 19:12-13: “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression.”
Even our little sins are serious because, as Isaiah writes in Is. 59:1-2,: “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” Our sins separate us from God and His answers to our prayers.
And Jeremiah writes in Jer. 5:25: “Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have withheld good from you.”
David realized that we must fight against these sins every day… whenever they expose themselves. Ps. 101:8 says:
“Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
So as to cut off from the city of the Lord all those who do iniquity.”
It is not that we should be focusing on the “insects” of our sins, but rather on the Lord Jesus, the ONLY ONE we can go to, for complete “pest control”. We can bring these “pests” to the Lord because of His great promises to us:
Is. 55:7 says:
“Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.”
Is. 38:17b says: “For You have cost all my sins behind Your back.”
Is. 43:25 says: “’I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.”
We may think we don’t have sin in our lives because we don’t see any spiritual “ELEPHANTS” walking around in our daily behavior, but we still have the “little creatures” of sin that expose themselves to others. Are we bringing THEM to Jesus, as well?
