While I was driving to town and thinking about that, I was also thinking about a "first." Then, my mind drifting back to the Duck Dynasty show from this past Wednesday night. If you have not watched that and plan to, this is your spoiler alert. I remembered Jase declaring war on some ants and decided to light them on fire. Yes sir, I lit some ant hills on fire for my "first."
This was much more fun than sprinkling poison on them. Plus, it was threatening rain and I felt good about that in case I got a little crazy with the fire. If you combine a redneck like me with fire and killing things, it can get out of hand. In fact, now that I think about it, I should have found something explosive to put in there with the fire. That would have been all kinds of fun. It did work pretty well with the lighter fluid.
I will admit that this is probably not as effective as other things are. Ant poison is probably still in the future. Joel is not here today so I only did a couple of ant hills because when he hears about this I think I'll have another "first." That will be Joel setting ant hills on fire.
Picture is not clear but those are ants running around on there
Then the Lord called the poor things home
Those are fire ants. I thought about a verse for these ants. Think about the fact they bite kids and try to take over people's yards. So, here's the verse (1 Peter 4:12)- "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you."
Sometimes as Christians we may say that people are "on fire" for the Lord. What I think we mean by that is that someone has a very strong, passionate, and excited relationship with the Lord. I did think about being "on fire" for Jesus today.
The thought that really came home to me as I thought about these ants is how those ants are like sin. They sort of creep in. A small hill comes and it doesn't look like much. If something is not done, that hill will get bigger and bigger. Probably one day someone is going to get bit. If that someone is allergic to ant bites, that can be bad. If that someone is a small baby, that can be bad.
While sin is much worse that ant hills, it does sort of creep in. If something is not done (repentance and confession), that sin will grow and grow and try to take over a person's life. Pretty soon that will become a habitual sin that is really hard to stop. I think this is what the Bible refers to as a stronghold. That sin can also be very deceiving. People will sometimes get involved in a habitual sin like cursing or skipping church. When that is mentioned to them, they may say something like, "Oh, that's just a bad habit I've gotten into." It is more than a bad habit if it's against God's word. It is a sin and possibly a stronghold. It is something that needs to be torched out of that life with the fire of God's word and love mixed with faith. The beginning of Hebrews 12 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith."
Fired up for Jesus and His abundant life
Barry
3 things I thank God for today
1. Fire
2. Grilling
3. Apples
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