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Pet or Murderer?

Published Date: 
December 25, 2006

According to a 17 December 2006 article in The Associated Press, a 48-year-old man in Cincinnati, Ohio was killed by his 13-foot boa constrictor in his own home.  Apparently, he was found in the reptile's cage with the murderous creature wrapped around his neck.  What a tragic story!  His pet turned on him and killed him!

This story reminds me of two foreign students who were attending an American Bible college back in the late 1970s.  At the beginning of a new semester, someone noticed that they were not there.  Inquiries were made and it was discovered that they had transferred to a secular university.  Inevitably, the question was asked: Why?  The answer was not one that anyone there wanted to hear-"We like American sin!"  I don't know what happened to those two young men, but I am sure that it wasn't good.  They apparently made a pet out of sin, and like the man in the Associated Press story found out, some things don't make good pets.

The book of Revelation calls the devil "that old serpent" in chapter 12 and again in chapter 20.  Like the lethal reptile in The Associated Press story, the devil is called a murderer in John 8:44.  His spiritual followers which are called "unclean spirits" and "devils" in the Bible desire to dwell inside houses.  Those houses are defined in Matthew 12 verses 43 through 45, as human bodies (Matthew 12:43-45).

What a dangerous thing it is to play with the devil or anything associated with him!  Sin, American or otherwise, has terrible consequences.  James 1:14-15 says, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: AND SIN, WHEN IT IS FINISHED, BRINGETH FORTH DEATH."

Karl Lohman

Daily Proverb

Proverbs 28:6

Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.