Snakes in the House

"The solution to sin is not to impose an ever-stricter code of behavior. It is to know God." - Phillips Brooks

Our house stood empty for two months. Shortly before closing the sale, we stopped by to collect a few stray items. A small black rope extended from a closet, and I stooped to pick it up – then it moved! To our dismay, two big bull snakes had moved into our house! Using sticks from the yard, I wrangled the angry serpents out the door and into the bushes where they belonged.  Jesus understood the tendency of voids being filled with negative influences. He told the story of a person who cleaned up his life but failed to fill it with things of significance, making it a target for Satan’s minions. “When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” (Luke 11:25-26) I grew up in a world that understood true Christianity as cleaning out movies, alcohol, cigarettes, and playing cards. But once those were gone, more damaging vices such as pride, arrogance, greed, and lust moved in. Clean out what needs to go, but fill your life with the love, joy and peace that only God provides.