I am a

decorator at heart. The decorating does NOT stop within

the four walls of my house, but spreads to the outside

yards.

I see a

house as a great easel to display your art on.

I have had

a black-spray-painted wooden rocker under one of the two

Bradford pear trees that grace our front lawn for about

three years now. Just this past Saturday this spray paint

queen decided that rocker looked very weathered and

needed another coat of paint.

As I walked

the rocker to the back yard, I noticed it seemed to be

covered with what I thought was layers of

"mud." Of course I had to wash it down and get

the extraneous "mud" off before spraying on a

new coat of paint. As I scraped, I realized the

"mud" was the tunnels created by Georgia

termites. As I continued to scrape, I noticed the

termites had eaten deep gullies into the rocker's two

wooden rocker pieces. When I later lifted the newly

painted chair, the chair fell apart in some of its

connecting "joints." The termites had infested

and started to destroy nothing less than the

"integrity" of the rocking chair.

Aside from

running immediately to Wal-Mart to buy a Termite

Terminate Kit, I got to thinking how this old rocking

chair could illustrate what the continued practice of

what God calls "sin" can do to a person.

The

Scriptures say: "The soul that sinneth, it shall

die" (Ez. 18:4, 20), "One sinner destroyeth

much good" (Ecc. 9:18).

There are

all kinds of examples of this in our so-called secular or

post-Christian world. I personally feel that God is not

dead and that His universal, absolute truths still apply

to us today.

Of course,

with all the class action suits against the tobacco

companies, the whole of America should know what smoking

does to a healthy lung. It's a free country, but make an

educated decision when you decide to smoke.

I love that

commercial that is presently being shown on TV that shows

a girl in a kitchen with a heavy black metal frying pan.

The commercial goes beyond the "fried egg in the

frying pan" metaphor: "This is what your brain

looks like when you take drugs." The girl proceeds

to take the frying pan and wipe out the dishes in the

drying rack and cupboards, break the window and smash the

light fixture: "This is what happens to your family,

your relationships and your life when you take

drugs." Finally! Truth in advertising!

Scripture

also says: "Be sure your sin will find you out"

(Nu. 32:23), "He that covereth his sins shall not

prosper" (Prov. 28:13).

The very

definition of "sin" is separation from God. If

you believe that God - among many other things

- is perfect truth, perfect knowledge, perfect

wisdom and perfect goodness, than I certainly do not want

for one second to be separated from that perfection. That

is why I believe the WWJD bracelets and product lines are

so popular. The standard or plumb line for creating that

rocking chair or creating a human life is the perfect Son

of God, Jesus Christ.

So the next

time you have an important decision to make about what

road to take or what career to pursue or about taking

drugs, remember the termites in the black wooden rocking

chair.

The chair

could not guard its integrity. You can.

[The

Herndons started and pastor His House Community Church

currently at 193 Johnson Ave. behind Mask Tire Co. in

Fayetteville. For information or prayer requests call

770-719-2365 or email at [email protected] .

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