Crossing over the Ohio River from West Virginia to Ohio, we noticed a really loud hissing sound. Since our windows were all rolled up and we were using AC, we figured it must be the car. The sound came and went, sometimes lasting for 15 - 20 seconds, and then it would be gone for a minute or two. It really started to upset us that something was broken! As we drove along getting closer and closer to our destination, the sound became more and more frequent. Just sure there must be someting wrong with the car, the next time it happened we pulled over and tried to figure out where it was coming from. But we looked around inside the car in vain. Suddenly I knew what it was! I rolled the window down, and sure enough the sound suddenly got a whole lot louder. Something I should have know right awy, having grown up in the area, but had totally forgotten.
Any ideas? It was the seven year locust! Now, you see and hear those things a lot more than just seven years, but every so often they come out in big numbers. As they hang around in the tree tops, they rattle their wings and make a harmless buzzing sound. We have them in Massachusetts, too, but not in the same amounts, at least not that I have seen so far. Perhaps you have found their golden, empty shells looking like some kind of alien from space. They grow bigger by clinger onto something, their outside dries out, and they step out of their skin leaving this eggshell skeleton behind. In Ohio, I remember seeing them everywhere. They would fall out of trees and climb up the side of the house, or fly around the porch ligh, or fly into the windshield. Not little critters; Big green bug eyed monsters that look menacing but are completely harmless.
Thinking about them reminded me of a time when I was a young boy growing up and walking through the woods. I remember hearing the crazy things rattle, and thinking how cool they were/ I took a shortcut up a hill to the back of our house. There was something different about the sound that day but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.
Later that day, a neighbor boy came by and told us his father had killed a timber rattler in the woods not far from our house. Then it clicked what was funny about the sound. Instead of that noise coming from over my head, it had come from the ground a few feet away from me.
What happened? I got used to hearing the sound, which was perfectly harmless; and then when I got a warning of real danger, I ignored it. Do you do this? People have heartburn all the time. Then they have a hheart attack, and find out they've actually had several without realizing it. What if as Christians we immerse ourselves in things that are "close" to sin, "similar" to sin, "a whole lot like" sin, and refuse to distance ourselves? When we tolerate people who try to erode our faith, what happens when we get under attack and need all the faith we can get? Will we hear the call to arms? The devil doesn't have to get us to do evil. He just has to keep us from doing good. How familar are you with the Word? Is it something you live by, or just happen to remmeber when it's convenient? If someday an opportunity to do good comes by, and you don't see it, how terrible. When a pit of sin looms up and we fall right in because we aren't looking fot it, how awful!
In other words, pay attention! Stay alert! Just think of the all the almost-true religions there are, that sound right and "feel good." Be sure of what you're hearing! Don't just nod your head and then nod off!
Randy
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1 John 3:18-19 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
2 Peter 1:10-12 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
Hebrews 10:38-39 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Mark 7:14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
Acts 27:21 But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss.
Matthew 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Matthew 24:4-5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Luke 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.