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Beezzz

by Jerry Ousley  
8/08/2009 / Christian Living

When my brother, my cousin and I were young teenagers we were heavily into model cars. We would buy them, put them together, and then, using parts from other model cars, "enhance" them. Sometimes this re-model job included heating a paper clip or bobby pin to the point that we could actually cut the plastic. We'd cut holes in the hood of the car to allow for a chrome "breather" to stick out for instance (of course this was in the days of the "muscle cars" and so you can imagine the kinds of changes we made).

One particular summer day we were doing our remodeling outside. Mom had run us out of the house because of the scent of melting plastic. Underneath the corner of our back porch a swarm of bumblebees had made a nest. We thought it might be fun to put a smoking rag in the hole and see what would happen. And so we did.

We got involved in a re-design issue and sorta forgot about the bees. But not for long. In a single moment we went from cutting on model cars to swatting for our lives. It seemed the air was thick with bumblebees. Somehow my brother and I got "out of range" but I really think they got away from us because they all decided to join the chase. My cousin had gone racing down the driveway and the bees were in hot pursuit.

I'd like to say that he got away. Sorry, Ron. You guessed it; they caught up and three or four stings later they decided to give up. While they had been after my cousin we got that smoking rag out of their hole and stood back. Soon everything was as it was (except my cousin had a few extra bumps).

This story made me think about life. How many times have we "stuffed smoking rags into bee holes?" We apply temporary solutions to serious problems and then forget about them. We don't prepare for the swarm that is certainly coming. All too often we apply this same principle to spiritual matters. We say a quick, "forgive me," and then go on our merry way. I don't want to take away from God's wonderful and complete grace through Jesus Christ. He does a complete work; there's no question. However, there are times we trample His grace. Perhaps we don't even realize what we're doing.

True repentance over sin that we have committed is accompanied by true remorse and possibly even shock over what we've done. You see Christians only begin to repent when they ask God to forgive them at salvation. Am I saying that God's grace isn't good enough for our future sins? No. Am I saying that He doesn't do a perfect work in our lives the first time? No. I am saying that even though we have become new creations in Christ Jesus that, while housed in this body of flesh we sometimes sin against God. We may not mean to do it. Perhaps we were a victim of the moment. That doesn't justify anything.

"Well, when we sin do we become non-Christians?" Not at all. "Do we have to ask God to start all over with us?" Absolutely not. It merely marks that we realize the wrong we have done to God. It's just like a child asking forgiveness and expressing sorrow for lying to his parents, or doing something he or she was told not to do. We tell God we are truly sorry then accept the forgiveness found only in His grace and we move on. But we don't do it to just "smooth" things over with God. We don't stuff smoking rags into bee holes, but finally and permanently solve our problem with God.

God will forgive us and even forget about the sin. That's good for us. So, don't just stuff rags but do what you know you need to do with God. Then you won't be running from swarms, but you'll really know what all the buzz is about . . .

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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