The Vomit of your sins…

Yesterday at work a students came in seeking assistance with formatting on a Microsoft Word Document. As we were working on the document, the student noticed that I had the following proverb written on the white board behind my desk:

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
-Proverbs 26:11 (KJV)

Now where I work, I can't really get into deep discussions about the Bible, and sharing my faith is somewhat frowned upon, so while I had the text of the proverb upon the board, I did not identify that this was from the Bible.

As we worked upon her document, the student was more and more enamored by these words of wisdom. They held an even deeper emphasis for her as she is a veterinarian student.

I don't know how many of you have ever had a dog, but for those that do, I'm sure that you have enjoyed those times when you pet is sick. One of my favorite times (please read this knowing I am dripping with sarcasm) is when I awake in the middle of the night to the sound of a dog at the foot of the bed preparing to throw up.

When a dog throws up, for some reason they will turn around and try to eat what their stomach has just rejected. What is even worse is that our other dogs will run up to check out the "treat" just deposited on the floor, even attempting to partake of the just spewed "gastric delicacies".

I hope that by now your stomach is feeling just a little queasy about this topic. You see, our sins have the same appeal to God as dog vomit does to us. Both are disgusting. I have no comprehension of why a dog would want to eat its puke. When I am sick, I have no desire to follow in the wisdom of the dog. And fortunately, none of my friends will rush over to fight over my "expelled" food. The thought of it should turn your stomach.

Now let's put this in the view of the Lord. Just as I have no use for dog vomit, God has no use for sin, yet how many of us will continually return to sin, something that we know is wrong, something that sickens our Lord. And how many times have we lead others into sin?

But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
- Numbers 32:23 (KJV)

If we do not turn from our sins, our sins will eventually catch up with us and expose us. In John Wesley's Explanatory notes, he puts it like this:

Sin will certainly find out the sinner sooner or later. It concerns us therefore to find our sins out, that we may repent of them and forsake them, lest our sins find us out, to our confusion and destruction.

Christians must repent of their sins. Christians must confess their sins to God and seek his pardon. In some cases it may be that a Christian must seek out and confess their sins to others also. But if we do not, our sins will hunt us down and destroy us.

Drugs will destroy our bodies. Alcohol can do the same thing (why do you think they call it being intoxicated? If you are drunk, you have in effect poisoned your body). Pornography (Adultery/fornication) will lead to the destruction of the enjoyment of marriage, and can lead to illness (AIDS, Syphilis, gonorrhea). The list goes on…

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The above was part of message that I had put together some time ago. I ran across it while digging through a backup of my old laptop files. Shortly we will be coming upon a new year. Many people will make Resolutions to change their life in some way, or set some goal to achieve, but before the end of the month most will have already broken those resolutions. Now would be the time to reflect back on the past year. Take inventory of those things you know are displeasing to God, and seek his forgiveness. That is what Christmas is all about. Jesus came to pay the debts we could never repay. Now is the time to turn from the folly of you old ways. Now is the time to stop returning to the vomit of your past sins.

Current and Starting weight: 261 (I am maintaining my weight through the holidays, then plan to take part in a fast. I will give further details on that come 01/03/10)