A FELLOW GOSPEL preacher relates the following story…

“The first year of our marriage was spent on a farm.  My wife, though reared on a farm, always allowed her parents to take care of killing as well as preparing frying chickens for the dinner table.  Her father would put a chicken over a block and chop its head off.  While I, on the other hand, was accustomed to catching a chicken and wringing it neck.  After we had been married a while, we had some chickens ready for eating.  I picked up a nice plump fryer, handed it to my wife, and told her to wring its neck.  (After all, to be a good farm wife, she would need to learn these things.)  She took the chicken by the neck and began spinning him around and around.  She then dropped him on the ground, where he lay stunned and confused for a moment.  Suddenly, the chicken hopped up on his legs and ran out of sight.  After 45 years of marriage, the two of us still laugh when we remember that incident!”

THOUGHT: If we’re not careful, we can treat sin like this preacher’s wife treated that chicken many years ago.  She didn’t kill it; she only disturbed it and ruffled its feathers a bit.  The Bible tells us that we must mortify (e.g., put to death) the sin that is in our lives.

If you want fried chicken, somebody must kill the chicken.  Likewise, if you want to go to heaven, you must put to death the sin in your life.  (Mike Benson)

“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.”  Colossians 3:5-6