“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).
In his book, “Rewriting the Family Script”, Roger Hillerstrom shares how a small, Midwestern town once sponsored a coyote hunt because so many farmers were losing chickens to the predators. Fifteen hundred coyotes were killed over a single weekend. However, within a few months the entire community was overrun with rodents, because their natural enemy, the coyote, had been eliminated. A year after that, the rodents weren’t so much of a problem, but the rattlesnakes were! Because there were so many rats and mice for them to eat, thus the poisonous snakes had reproduced rapidly.
At that point, the chickens were very safe, but the humans were in real danger! You see, the coyotes had been an important part of the environmental system – the food chain. When one part of that system changed, other parts adapted to the new reality. When we, as individuals, groups, or societies, and even some churches, get rid of God’s Word, and overthrow God’s standards, to do as we please, and seek to throw out God himself, the seeds of our ultimate destruction are sown. God is not mocked. We will soon reap what we have sown.
As the Apostle Paul exhorted the Christians in Corinth: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men and women of courage; be strong. Do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:13-14). Suggested prayer: “Dear God, amid the ever-increasing pressure in our society to get rid of anything to do with the Bible and with you, please help me to be on my guard, to be strong, and to stand firm in my Christian faith. Please help me to so live that others are seeing Jesus in me, and will want him for themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.” Anon.
This is nothing more than this old concept; “Baby – Bathwater” problem, ‘Do not throw the Baby out with the Bathwater,’ advising us of to be careful of what we despise and reject, what we throw out, what we discard, what we eliminate, or even to disregard, to treat as non-important, as it may well come around and bite us in the butt, causing us much more grief than what was bothering us in the first place, a dumb and inadvisable decision, thus making our troubles and trial so much more worse, digging a hole for ourselves, taking our finger out of the Dyke, that little spark that ignites a roaring brush fire, little things can so often turn into a major disaster.
Dayton O. Hyde wrote an amazing book, it is actually his life experiences in accepting Coyotes in a Ranching and cattle rearing community many decades ago, where on his vast Ranch, he kept and encouraged Coyotes, and he had miniscule problems with rodents, mice, ground squirrels, all kinds of pests that decimated his pasture, dry weather is common, grass lands are hard to cultivate and to maintain, but his Ranch flourished because he had a good sized community of Coyotes happily living among his stock and cattle, no problems with his stock, as they feasted on his pests, thus he always had good pasture, healthy stock, and the benefits even extended to his adjoining neighbours, who observed the benefits, were still often vocal Coyote Haters, but in reality were very tardy and slow to act against any coyotes, and also never lifted a finger to harm or to hinder their free ranging onto their properties.
But what are you “Killing Off,” that will cause you so much more grief than the original problem, it is good to kill off weeds and bad habits, negative thoughts, bad living, unwholesome thoughts, to instead cultivate and to grow good habits and a wholesome lifestyle, Galatians 6:7-8 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Newton’s third law simply states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, if object A acts a force upon object B, then object B will exert an opposite yet equal force upon object A. So, whatever you actively do, and whatever you passively do, or even fail to do, then there are long term consequences growing out from that action, or inaction. Jesus calls us to ‘Kill Off’ sinfulness in every shape and form, to put on Christ, to put on a New Life in Christ Jesus our Lord, and thus the consequences are “Eternal Life,” and any other inadvisable choices are just like “Killing off the Coyotes,” you killed off what benefitted you, and reaped and harvested sorrows and grief and sin.
Ephesians 4:30-32 “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” In this concept, the ‘Holy Spirit,’ can be akin to a Coyote, you can ignore it, and things are not so bad, you can grieve the Holy Spirit, drive it away, kill it off from calling out warnings and advice, and get over-run by disastrous plagues and disasters, these even may like poisonous snakes end up in killing you, and you have therefore most certainly ended up in killing off any chance of receiving Eternal Life with God in Heaven and Eternity, let us in all things be very careful as to what you encourage, what you ignore, and what you actively pursue and kill off, driving away from you. Are you, “Killing off Coyotes,” killing off the Holy Spirit, killing off God’s pleadings in your life, if you are, then plagues are about to overcome you and destroy you, so let us repentantly cling to Christ Jesus our Lord.