Left to Our Own Devices...
While I was checking my email messages this morning, I heard a crashing sound coming from the kitchen. Since I knew my children were still in their bedrooms and my husband had already left for work, I decided I had better check on the situation. When I walked into the kitchen, there, sitting quietly on the floor, were my two dogs and the cat looking innocently up at me. A kitchen knife was on the floor as well as a number of items which once sat on my table. My beautiful red table cloth, still on the table from Christmas, was hanging halfway to the floor, and a number of other items were sitting precariously near the edge of the table. I picked up the sharp knife (I'm still not sure how they managed to get that off the kitchen counter.), straightened the table cloth, put the items back on the table and took the dogs outside to their kennel. The cat sauntered off as if she had nothing to do with anything. (I'm sure she had a lot to do with the incident.)
With order established, I returned to my emails and pondered what had happened. Did the puppy get bored and decide to pull on the table cloth? Was the cat on the counter checking out the cake my daughter baked a few days ago? Did Hunter, our big dog, try to shoo the cat off and get caught in the table cloth? Hunter isn't inclined to fight with the cat, but he doesn't tolerate the cat on the furniture any more than I do. And how did that knife get all the way across the room? Well, I suppose I'll never know what happened, but I do know that my dogs and the cat were only behaving according to their natures. The cat, a curious creature, wants to know what is on the counter, the dog can't stand to see the cat get into anything he can't get into, and the puppy likes to pull on anything that moves or might move.
In any case, the entire incident got me thinking about an article in one of the December 2007 issues of Time magazine I read recently. According to scientists, our propensity for evil goes all the way down to our DNA--surprise, surprise. They confirmed what God has said about us all along. We sin because we are born with a sin gene, better known as Adam's curse or our sin nature. It's part of our DNA. So, our plight is that we will do what we are born to do, sin. Just like my animals who act out of their nature when left unattended, we will act according to our sinful nature without the power of Christ controlling us.
For the unbeliever, it's always going to be out of control, for there is nothing but a marred conscience and a sense of duty to keep him from sinning. What he/she suppresses on the outside will eventually come out in attitude and motive. For the believer, there is hope, because of Christ's work and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been given a new nature, and though we still sin, the desire to sin has been taken a way and replaced with the desire to do what pleases God. When confronted with temptation, we have the desire and the power of the Holy Spirit to choose what is right. So when we are left alone with ourselves, like my animals were left alone in the kitchen, things need not run amuck. We may call on Christ to deliver us and give us the strength to live in righteousness, even in private.
With order established, I returned to my emails and pondered what had happened. Did the puppy get bored and decide to pull on the table cloth? Was the cat on the counter checking out the cake my daughter baked a few days ago? Did Hunter, our big dog, try to shoo the cat off and get caught in the table cloth? Hunter isn't inclined to fight with the cat, but he doesn't tolerate the cat on the furniture any more than I do. And how did that knife get all the way across the room? Well, I suppose I'll never know what happened, but I do know that my dogs and the cat were only behaving according to their natures. The cat, a curious creature, wants to know what is on the counter, the dog can't stand to see the cat get into anything he can't get into, and the puppy likes to pull on anything that moves or might move.
In any case, the entire incident got me thinking about an article in one of the December 2007 issues of Time magazine I read recently. According to scientists, our propensity for evil goes all the way down to our DNA--surprise, surprise. They confirmed what God has said about us all along. We sin because we are born with a sin gene, better known as Adam's curse or our sin nature. It's part of our DNA. So, our plight is that we will do what we are born to do, sin. Just like my animals who act out of their nature when left unattended, we will act according to our sinful nature without the power of Christ controlling us.
For the unbeliever, it's always going to be out of control, for there is nothing but a marred conscience and a sense of duty to keep him from sinning. What he/she suppresses on the outside will eventually come out in attitude and motive. For the believer, there is hope, because of Christ's work and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been given a new nature, and though we still sin, the desire to sin has been taken a way and replaced with the desire to do what pleases God. When confronted with temptation, we have the desire and the power of the Holy Spirit to choose what is right. So when we are left alone with ourselves, like my animals were left alone in the kitchen, things need not run amuck. We may call on Christ to deliver us and give us the strength to live in righteousness, even in private.
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