Inoculation…. The idea is to get just a little bit of it, enough to make you have a few symptoms, but not have the real thing…
I was inoculated for small pox when I was a child. I remember the needle, and I remember having a giant scab on my arm.
I was inoculated for flu a few years ago. I also remember that needle, and I remember that it made me feel so bad I decided not to do that again. Why be sick on purpose? (That may be unwise. The real flu can be deadly.)
What have you been inoculated for?
Have you been inoculated against sin? Or, have you been inoculated against the gospel of Christ?
It’s not an original thought. It is a concept I heard from an evangelist. I was a little taken back, but the point is very valid. Many people have been inoculated against the gospel of Christ by ‘religion’. They have had a small dose, enough to give them a few symptoms, but they don’t have the real thing.
Are you ‘going to church’ and getting a tiny little dose? Only to leave the building unchanged? "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." (2 Peter 2:22)
Maybe you leave the building having swept away a little of the dirt in your life. Did you decide to stop some behavior that is sinful? But you have nothing in its place? Do you operate on your own willpower? Jesus warned….
"When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn't find anyone, it says, 'I'll go back to my old haunt.' On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he'd never gotten cleaned up in the first place." (Luke 11:24-26 The Message)
Operating on your own willpower, however strong it is, will fail. Eventually. Permanently. If you don’t have His Presence within you, you have no inoculation against sin. And sin WILL kill you. Eternally.
Praise God, I am inoculated…. against sin! But I had a dose of religion for many years, and it kept me from having the full blown relationship with Christ that I enjoy today.
Jesus, The Christ, came so I can be healed from the rampant disease of sin, the disease that kills.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” ( Luke 9:24)
Thank You Jesus, I didn’t just get a few symptoms and live thru it.
I was sick, and died….in order to live!
And live eternally….in the Presence of Almighty God.
