The kitty offer was forgotten in all the business of life. But true to his word, the neighbor showed up about a month later with a box. “Here he is, ready for John. Let me carry the box to the basement for you.”
So they permitted the neighbor to take the box to the basement. He seemed in a hurry to leave, so they did not think too much about it that he did not open the box. They called John in for the great moment. Imagine, to their great surprise, that when John opened the box, out jumped a large black and white … skunk!

It was too late. The frightened animal ran among the boxes of “stuff” stored in the basement and refused to come out. Poor John got sprayed in the process. What a nasty trick!

Aaron tried for many days to get the animal out of his house, but nothing availed. It got to the point that the skunk would immediately raise its tail and turn its rear end towards whoever opened the basement door, in preparation of defending itself. After twice getting blasted with spray, Aaron was at his wit’s end.

Then came the first of the month, when the rent was due. Aaron approached his landlord, and hesitatingly told the story of the skunk, and asked forgiveness for the terrible plight he had created for himself—and the house!

The landlord was gracious. He forgave Aaron, but gently reminded Aaron that he was responsible for the whole mess, and for getting the skunk out. So Aaron returned home, relieved to be forgiven, but perplexed with his plight.

Another whole month passed. Aaron still had the skunk in the basement, and he went to pay his rent. “I forgive you, Aaron. But remember it is your fault that the skunk got in there. You should get him out.”

So it went, month after month. Always forgiven, but the problem never went away. Until one day … John was looking out the window. Here came the landlord’s son carrying a trap. “Look!” he cried, “Here comes the landlord’s son to take away the skunk in the basement!”

Realizing that Aaron was incapable of getting himself out of his own mess, the landlord had pity on him and sent his son to take away the skunk in the basement. Yes, the skunk was caught in the trap, and the landlord’s son did get smelly in the process, but he took away the troublesome skunk.

Do you see the difference between the forgiveness of God, and the Lamb (His Son) that “taketh away” the sin of the world? God had been forgiving humanity of their sins ever since the beginning, if they would but humbly ask Him. It was man’s fault that sin entered the world, and it was not God’s responsibility to take it away. But He, being righteous (true righteous meaning “doing above and beyond what we are obligated to do”), took it upon Himself to supply the remedy, and sent His Son into the world to take sin away—remove it!

Now, the skunk removed and the deed forgiven, Aaron can be assured of a good continual relationship with his landlord. And we, having sin taken away (purged by the Spirit of God coming into our heart) and forgiven of our misdeeds, can walk in assurance of peace with our God.

Jesus saved the world by taking away its sin! And whosoever will may partake of this salvation.

–Mike Atnip

How can you keep a pig out of the mud?

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a farmer’s son who was raising a pig for a 4-H project. Fair time was approaching fast, and Pete (the boy) was having a hard time keeping his pet clean. As all pigs are wont to do, it would instinctively investigate every mud puddle that it happened upon—even immediately after Pete had given him a good scrubbing with firm instructions to stay clean!

Pete knew that he stood no chance of winning the blue ribbon if he took a dirty pig to the show. But try as he might, he could not get his pig to keep himself clean once he had been given a thorough scrubbing. Pete’s only place to keep his pig was in a pen in which one corner stayed dry, but 90% of the pen was a mud hole—much to the pig’s great delight!

Pete schemed for days about his dilemma. How could he save his pig from his own natural instincts? He could put his pig in a strait jacket, but what would the judges think when he arrived at the fair with his pig in a strait jacket? And how could he walk his pig to town in a strait jacket? Oodles of puddles lay in the path to town, and he knew, he just knew, that his pet could never detour a mud puddle!

Finally, the great idea came upon Pete. He noticed that Skimps the kitty hated mud puddles! It would cost the life of his only kitty, but if only …

So he tried it. With a deft operation, Pete managed to take the soul out of the cat and put it into his pig.

How changed the pig was! He still weighed 220 pounds. He still had a snout and a curly tail. He still ate breakfast. But how he hated mud puddles with a passion!

The day of the show came, and Pete walked his pig to the fair. People stared in wonder at the boy and his pig walking down the puddle-filled road. The pig detoured or jumped over every mud puddle, with the amazing agility of a cat!

And so the pig, which had been given a thorough scrubbing some days previously, arrived at the show shining clean. What few spots he had received on the way to the show were promptly licked clean … you know, just like Skimps used to clean himself! By this means, Pete won the blue ribbon. The soul of the kitty in the body of the pig had saved the day!

This parable is by no means perfect. Yet it explains how that man can avoid the “mud puddles” of fleshly delights which fill this world we live in. Not by strait jackets, but by a change of character. If we box ourselves out of society by moving to some remote island, we may avoid many temptations. But that is not true freedom. The real freedom comes from having the character of Jesus placed into our hearts by a new birth. When this happens, we will hate sin just like the pig with a kitty heart hated those mud puddles.

Have you been born again? Has the nature of God been restored in you? Although we know that Pete could never put a kitty soul into a pig, we know that God can put Christ within us, thus saving us from our sin.

Hallelujah, what a salvation! ~Mike Atnip

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Pe. 1:4

-Thomas von Imbroich, taken from one of the letters to his wife, which he wrote to her in prison- mid 1500s. (From the book, Golden Apples in Silver Bowls)

Fruit or Doctrine? Which will be judged by?

Click the link for a
Book review of Will the Theologians Please Sit Down, by David Bercot.

“Christianity is a crime which the world can never forgive.”

Get ready to get hammered if you preach that Christians will overcome sin in their life!

John Nelson–who wrote the above quote–was one of the first laymen to preach with John and Charles Wesley. He was forced into the army by people angry at his preaching and open rebuking.  It seems in those day that vagrants and other unwanted folks in a community were taken care of by simply forcing them into military service.  It would seem to me that an army of outlaws would not be very trustworthy, but we’ll leave that for now…

John Nelson was considered an evil man in his day.  His crime?  Tell folks they can know their sins are forgiven, and tell them they can, and should, live above sin.  He had bricks, eggs, potatoes and other objects hurled at him, and the house he was preaching at had all the windows busted out on one occasion by an angry mob.  His wife was beaten so severely by other women angry at John’s preaching, that the baby she was carrying in her womb was killed.

The crime?  Telling people that real Christians do not sin willfully.

While I do not agree with all of John Nelson’s theological points, the little book has proven to be thought-provoking and convicting…or at least challenging.  As mentioned, John reproved everyone he met for sins like swearing.  If you can imaging getting abducted into the army (by the way, he refused to kill anyone, according to Jesus’ command) with a bunch of godless outlaws as your companions, and then faithfully reproving them for every swear word–yes, EVERY swear word–then you can imagine John’s situation.  But it had its rewards.  On one occasion, within 24 hours all the soldiers around him quit cursing in his presence because of his rebukes.  And others people fell under conviction of sin at one of his reproofs.

The early Methodists were known for their reproving of sin.  You can read more about them in my book How the Circuit Riders Saved America.

Whether you read the book or not, just remember that Christianity–the real Christianity–is a crime the world cannot forgive.  And if the world is forgiving us and not persecuting us, then maybe we had better look to see if our walk with God is real.

As yet He does not speak of the second resurrection, that is, the resurrection of the body, which shall be in the end, but of the first, which now is. It is for the sake of making this distinction that He says, “The hour is coming, and now is.” Now this resurrection regards not the body, but the soul. For souls, too, have a death of their own in wickedness and sins, whereby they are the dead of whom the same lips say, “Suffer the dead to bury their dead,” — that is, let those who are dead in soul bury them that are dead in body.

It is of these dead,
then — the dead in ungodliness and wickedness — that He says, “The
hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God; and they that hear shall live.” “They that hear,” that is, they who
obey, believe, and persevere to the end. Here no difference is made between the good and the bad. For it is good for all men to hear His voice
and live, by passing to the life of godliness from the death of ungodliness.
Of this death the Apostle Paul says, “Therefore all are dead, and He died
for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto Him which died for them and rose again.”

Thus all, without one
exception, were dead in sins, whether original or voluntary sins, sins of
ignorance, or sins committed against knowledge; and for all the dead there
died the one only person who lived, that is, who had no sin whatever, in
order that they who live by the remission of their sins should live, not to
themselves, but to Him who died for all, for our sins, and rose again for our
justification, that we, believing in Him who justifies the ungodly, and being
justified [made just] from ungodliness or quickened from death, may be able to attain
to the first resurrection which now is. For in this first resurrection none
have a part save those who shall be eternally blessed; but in the second, of
which He goes on to speak, all, as we shall learn, have a part, both the
blessed and the wretched. The one is the resurrection of mercy, the other
of judgment. And therefore it is written in the psalm, “I will sing of mercy
and of judgment: unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing.”

-Augustine, The City of God

“I am come that they might have forgiveness, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Is that really what He said?  No, of course not.

Forgiveness of committed sins does not save a man from his sins, in the same way that washing the mud off a pig does not save the pig from getting dirty again.

Only the life of Christ, His blood transfused into us, can save us from the corruption of spiritual death, which we all inherit.

The blood of Jesus gives life into the human spirit once again.  With Life Eternal now in us, we can be saved from sin.

That is why Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life!”

Saved from sin by the blood!