Soon after I moved out of my parents’ house, I secured a job with a small, carpet-cleaing company in north Georgia. I enjoyed working there, learning to professionally clean, tint, and dye carpet. One day when I went to work, my boss told me that we had a large job to do. When we pulled up to this house, it looked like one of the large, brick mansions that you would see on TV. The owner and his wife were both of the snobby sort, but they gave us the job of cleaning, tinting, and dyeing the carpets throughout their entire house. This job took us two days to complete, and we even cleaned the wool carpet in his Rolls-Royce.
Besides the snobbish couple, there was also a Great Dane that resided in their house. It appeared that the large canine did not go outdoors at all, for everywhere we looked, there were large “doggie deposits” on the expensive carpets. Before we could clean the carpets, we were required to clean up the disgusting doggie doo. However, with a Great Dane loose in the house, we knew that it was just a matter of time before another ‘land mine” would be found.
I have been doing a good deal of thinking lately about the 21st-century Christian, and how they remind me of that wealthy, snobby couple. Christians want to be saved from Hell, but they don’t want to give up their sinful life-style — they are not willing to get rid of the Great Dane. They are wanting to live the life of a child of the King, but allow the Great Dane to continue living with them, and dirtying up their lives. When someone tries to help them by saying, “Get rid of the dog,” they get offended, and say that it’s “part of the family.” When you were saved, you were also sanctified, or rather, set-apart from that mess. If one is saved and cleansed from the filth and condemnation that was caused by sin, why would a Christian want to continue to have something in their lives that stinks and is disgusting? That old life-style WAS a part of you, but you were cleansed, and the Great Dane was put out. He will try to sneak back in. Don’t let him back in, and by all means, don’t invite him back in!
One more word of caution: Don’t replace the Great Dane with an elephant.