A Small Package

“A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”  Galatians 5:9

 

Once I was experimenting with natural yeast and made my own leaven.  At the time I was trying to figure out how to make natural breads using whole ground wheat berries.  I used the natural yeast of wild blackberries to activate the leaven.  Ultimately I only cooked one loaf as my taste buds were not accustomed to sour dough bread, yet the leaven did work.  Just a little leaven and the whole lump of dough rose, ready to bake, just like the commercially produced yeast that I had always used.  While this verse talks about separation and essentially how a little comprise will spread throughout the Church, the same effect can be readily seen in the world in which we live.

 

Years ago outside of the post office in Petoskey, Michigan, there was someone standing out there trying to collect signatures to legalize medical marijuana.  Their argument was that people with terminally ill diseases should be able to choose smoking marijuana over hardcore pain killers. 

 

At the time if they were standing there trying to collect signatures to legalize marijuana as a whole, so-called recreational marijuana (as if it is something that is to be equated with a hike or going to a park!) I would have thought they were nuts.  Well eventually Michigan did pass medical marijuana, as well as many states, but shouldn’t it have ended there?  Finally those who had a ‘humane’ argument for the validity of such an argument had won their case.  Yet fast forward to where we are now, not only as a state, but as a nation and many states (even the country of Canada) has legalized marijuana for all.

 

A few days ago the whole ordeal of how a little compromise, a small package, can lead to such a huge sin was on my mind.  While driving around the state yesterday, I saw two billboards regarding marijuana.  The one was telling parents to keep their stash locked up, the other stating how youth smoking marijuana can cause damage to the develop of the brain.  Now there are billboards going up warning people?!

 

This is just one of the many small packages that I would think that the average person, whether someone who has truly accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior or not would both agree that the current ordeal of these matters is a much larger package than the small package they started off with.  Let’s take a look at one more example…

 

American’s sat in front of their televisions watching things that compromised with God’s Word, things that were contrary to God’s Word, for many years.  I myself when I was younger used to watch the Roseanne television show.  I knew that it was not good, but justified it, at the time, by readily comparing it to things that were much worse. 

 

I had attended a Southern Baptist church when I was younger and recall that they at one time boycotted ABC television and Disney (who owned ABC), due to the fact that Ellen had a gay kiss on screen.  Mind you, for those who are reading this and are younger, this was not 50 or seventy years ago, but was in the mid 1990’s.  As I went through the episodes of Roseanne, over time, I began to see a trend.  Suddenly Roseanne’s boss was gay, then her sister was a lesbian, then it turned out to finally be her mother.  The trick was simple, accept a small package of evil (shouldn’t have been watching Roseanne), then as people accept it, suddenly, the plot of the show tries to normalize immoral and anti-biblical concepts.  The same could be said also with a famous talk show host in the 1990’s.

 

When she had won the hearts of many of her viewers, she finally goes public that she is a lesbian.  While this sort of thing has been talked about before, understand, we as a society, did not get here overnight and don’t expect things to get better, without our nation truly repenting for our sin.

 

Only several years after the on-air kiss that had many Southern Baptists roaring mad and boycotting…of which I wonder if the fact that Disney is filled, even back then, with the occult wasn’t a reason enough?…states had passed legislation allowing same-sex marriage.  A few years later and the Supreme Court rules that such a thing is legal in all of the land.  Of course with the United States as the leader and example of the so-called free world, other nations quickly followed suit.

 

Who would have thought or even imagined that such a small package, the nation excepting viewing gay and lesbians through television would have ballooned into the legalization of marriage between two of the same sex, something that is clearly against God’s Word?

 

“And He answered and said to them, Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?  So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has yoked together, let not man separate.”  Matthew 19:4-6

 

Things didn’t stop there, even such a large package, something that would have been unbelievable to most of America in 1950, became even bigger.  Now Congress is contemplating sexual orientation and the transgender movement is being paraded all over the United States as acceptable right.  A recent article I read from a pastor even mentioned that in the UK they openly state that the Bible is ‘incompatible with human dignity’.  How long before things get much worse?

 

Sin might start off small, it might seemingly not matter to compromise a little.  Ask any person whose life is in shambles due to sin, even many who are in prison for life, if that is what they intended, if that is where they saw their life going and you will get a resounding ‘no’.  God has set the standard, not only for the Church, but for each individual. 

 

“Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convict, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”  2nd Timothy 4:2

 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23

 

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.  Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lusts and enticed.  Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.  Do not be led astray, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no change or shadow of turning.  Of His own purpose He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.  So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;  for the wrath of man does not bring about the righteousness of God.  Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which has the power to save your souls.  But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  Jacob (James) 1:12-22

 

Even if you only have a few ‘small’ packages in your life, what will you do if you have not repented and by faith believed into Jesus Christ as your Lord & Savior?  What will you do when you stand before God at the Great White Throne judgment and are cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity?

 

“And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away. And there was found no place for them.  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, out of the things which were written in the books.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one, according to their works.  And Death and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”  Revelation 20:11-15

 

This world is not getting any better and while I would love to see a time of great repentance before God, the next thing just as well might be the Rapture (1 Thes. 4:17).  Take heed, stay away from small packages.  If something is contrary to the Lord, let it remain contrary to your life and do not allow it to interfere with your walk with Christ!

 

“Woe to those who desire the day of Jehovah! Of what good is this to you? The day of Jehovah is darkness, and not light.  It is as if a man fled before a lion, and a bear met him. Or he goes into the house and leans his hand against the wall, and a snake bites him.  Is not the day of Jehovah darkness, and not light; even very dark, and not any brightness in it?”  Amos 5:18-20

 

“Turn away from you the crooked mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.  Let your eyes look straight ahead, and let your eyelids look straight before you.  Ponder the path of your feet, then all your ways will be established.  Do not turn to the right hand or to the left; remove your foot from evil.”  Proverbs 4:24-27

 

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also become holy in all conduct, because it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.”  1st Peter 1:13-16

 

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?  And what agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?  And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  Therefore, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.  And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”  2nd Corinthians 6:14-18

 

Amen!