YEAR OF THE RAT 12/8/08

This week, we are going to side track from the Christmas season and look at a yearly event in Chinese culture. The next two weeks we will ltalk about the day we celebrate as Christ's birth and then we will focus on Christ himself. But today let's talk about the 'year of the rat'.
How does China come up with the names of their New Year? Even though I have heard a story, I don’t really care, but I have often pondered the question, why!. Usually I pay no attention but I thought that this years 2008, the name was appropriate for our times. There are many things going on in our world that I could easily designate as ‘Rat infested’.
When my children were teenagers and while doing our regular Saturday morning chores, I swiped the broom under a little bookcase that stood on the wall by the front door. Along with dust I swept out an apparently dead mouse. It was so still, I knew it was dead! I called the kids out of their rooms and we three stood around and glared at the dead mouse. We lived in the country and Jim was outdoors. We called him in to take the dead mouse out. Then there were four of us glaring at the dead mouse! Jim said; "it’s not dead"! The three of us stepped back and declared it was dead! "Look at it, just laying there, dead"; I said! Jim took the broom out of my hand and touched the dead mouse and then the three of us scattered as fast as we could. It was alive! It was only pretending to be dead! Jim was quick! He cornered the mouse and then he was dead! The moral of this story is; "Never, trust a dead mouse, or a Rat for that matter"!
Many times we are drawn into believing what is being said or being accepted is okay, because the world around us says it is okay or as the saying goes; "everybody is doing it". Not so! To believe that is like believing the mouse is dead but is actually very much alive. These are some of the things I believe are led by the misguided ‘Rat Pack’ of the world. Abortion rights! The Homosexual movement! The exploitation of the First Amendment, that gives you the right to walk all over others, or "it offends me" syndrome! Our laws were designed to protect the innocent but instead the innocent ends up paying to protect the guilty because of their rights. Our world has always had perpetrators who would act out their desires, but today it is more prevalent because of explicit pictures that are formulated in the minds of the perpetrators. This is through the media’s of movies, TV, magazines and now computers. These have become like ‘dead Rats’ that are truly alive and well in our society.
A rat can be classified as an informant; It is like a mouse but larger and more voracious; It is also a term that is used to cause violence and intimidation by labor unions pitting one against another who refuses to strike. Nobody likes the proverbial ‘rat’ nor do we want to be one! Unless the Christian world becomes alive instead of dead to these realities we will find ourselves falling into the ‘Rat Trap’ that the world lives in.
In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul tells us about the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers, who will not inherit the kingdom of God!
Paul continues in Galatians 5 with some of the same but a little more explicit. Sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies etc. Paul says that we should not be deceived because these things can totally destroy us. Notice he mentions sexual immorality twice! Our world is held captive by sexual immorality! Paul never pulls any punches!
He asks that we follow his example in Philippians 3:17-20. With tears he reminds us that many live as enemies of the cross. They will find destruction, because their god is their stomach. Their glory will be shame, because their minds are on earthly things. However, those who follow Christ have a heavenly citizenship. Eagerly we await a Savior, who has the power to bring everything under His control. He can take us from pretending to be alive and make us truly alive. By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/26/08