Tag: poison

Posted in communication, food, prayer, Scripture, spiritual battles, Uncategorized

Don’t Take the Bait–Don’t Be the Bait

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

 “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

They wandered into the blue blob. Most of us, if not all of us, have experienced those pesky little black ants that find their way into our homes. I suppose they are looking for food but sometimes I think they are just trying to be annoying. Let me explain. I was visiting my sister who lives in Georgia and I noticed she had a little blue thing on the window seal. What was a little more odd is that this little blue thing on the window seaI was in the bathroom. I also noticed that this little blue thing was really popular with those pesky little black ants. They would go into the thingy, visit a while and leave. Well I assumed that the little blue thingy was ant poison but much to my surprise no one was dying. What!?!

Well,  I finally asked my sister what was going on–after all, I hated for her to waste her money feeding ants. She explained that what was in the little blue thing was in fact poison but this one worked differently. You see, the ants would taste the poison, like it and then take it back to their hometown. Then, all the ants would have a taste and then they would all get sick and croak–you know kick the bucket. How ingenious! If they had died immediately when they ate the poison only a few would have died but this way the whole bunch died. It kinda reminds me of the garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. Satan tricked them, they sinned and their sin was passed on to all of mankind.

Satan was pretty smart then and guess what? He is pretty smart now. He loves to lure people into the poison business not just so they will be affected but that others will too. Let me give you two big pieces of advice. First, if you are a Jesus follower, stay alert for the poison of this world. Satan and those that follow him will do everything they can to spread their poison. They love to make a lie sound like the truth (remember the garden?) They also will make their values sound like just the right thing for you. Be aware.

One more thing. Don’t take the bait but also don’t become the bait. I think to often Jesus people bring the world’s poison with them to church. And, if we are not careful, the church begins to smell and act just like the world. Their values become the church’s values. Their way of business becomes the church’s way of business too. Someone said the problem just might be that there is too much of the world in the church. Remember we are too infect with world with the gospel rather than being infected with the world.

The world needs Jesus but the if they are going to hear and believe the message then we are going to have to stay clear of the poison and stay clean from it’s actions and attitudes. Sometimes the poison of Satan and sin can seem pretty tasty–but it is all a ruse. God gave us His Word to give us the wisdom to avoid the ways and poison of Satan. If you need help avoiding the bait–just ask your Dearest Daddy and He will direct you and help you. He’s got this.  Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Family, fear, life, Scripture, Southern born, sovereignty of God, Trials

Shiny, Like New…but Dangerous

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.” Proverbs 26:4

It was deadly but I didn’t know it. There was always something to find at 6008 Carlton Road. Like so many older, country home places things had a way of accumulating. Back in those days there were several unsanctioned dumps around the countryside, and no one thought a thing about using them—it was just part of living out in the county. The problem, at least for the Taylors, was we didn’t own a truck and, except for my brother who lived sometimes in Texas and sometimes across town, we didn’t know anyone who did.  So, we had stuff laying around.

One of the things we had laying around was an old washing machine.  It had long since quit working so it sat in the lawn behind the junk room for a long time.  It was there that I found something quite amazing.  In the lid, I think, was some short of “switchy” thing. It had wires connected to it and in the middle was a glass thing and in that glass thing was some silver liquid. Well, you can bet that that caught my eye. So, I decided that I needed to get it out of there. So, I cut it free from the old washing machine, put it in some sort of small container and found something—who knows what—and broke the glass.

The silvery stuff stuck together in a small puddle and if I took my finger and pushed it around it would always come back together.  I also found out that some of it would stay on my finger. Now I have no idea how this part happened, but I am certain it did.  Somewhere, somehow, I found a dime.  Now trust me that was no small deal because that in those days that would buy a Coke and a Snickers, so it was big money. So, I found this dime and for some reason, I put it next in the silvery stuff and guess what happened?

Well, what happened is, for whatever reason, the silvery stuff stuck to that dime like white on rice.  There were two things I didn’t know then that I know now.  First, back in those days the silver coins like dimes and quarters were really made of silver.  Second, that silvery stuff was something called mercury and apparently mercury likes silver and what happened next was almost magical.  No matter how bad that dime looked, when the mercury got all over it, it looked better than brand new.  It went from dull and old to looking shiny and new.  Like I said, it was pretty amazing. Well, I never found out exactly how long the dime looked that way because it pretty quickly made its way to the Minute Market down the road for that Coke and Snickers.

Well, I didn’t know that I was playing with something that was pretty dangerous—mercury.  We know now that mercury is nothing to mess with.  We know that it can cause some serious health concerns.  In fact, the people who build stuff aren’t allowed to use it anymore.  Between mercury and the lead paint our house was painted with, it’s probably a miracle we all turned out ok.  Of course, you can probably tell from these stories that I always was just a little different—adventurous but just a little hyper.  I’m sure I had some sort of syndrome and didn’t know it.

This caused me to wonder how many things do we have laying around in our lives that just like mercury…and the lead paint for that matter…are dangerous and poisonous? I wonder how many toxic habits or relationships we hang on to and handle either because we don’t know or are just too stubborn to let go? It reminds me of the monkey trap where someone would build a cage and put a banana in it.  A monkey would come along and reach into the cage for the banana only to discover that he could get his hand out with the banana.  Too often, rather than let it go, they would hang on too long and end up either in a zoo or some native’s stew pot.  Hmmm.

King Solomon, the guy who wrote the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, was one of the wisest men ever to live.  He said, “Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.” In other words—steer clear of fools and folly or you are bound to end up in deep weeds.  The crazy part about King Solomon is that in the end he ended up not taking his own good advice.  Let me encourage you, and me for that matter, to be careful about the things we allow to stick around in our lives.  Like the dime, it may look shiny and new, but it just might be dangerous…very dangerous.  Need some insight, a little wisdom?  No, problem just ask, and God will be glad to help.  He’s got this.  Bro. Dewayne