SEE NO EVIL; SPEAK NO EVIL; HEAR NO EVIL! 8/21/11

WHEN YOU hear those words you automatically visualize the picture of three little monkey’s, don’t you? I do! We are such a visual people, aren’t we? Today’s technology has made it possible for us to see with our mind’s eye, just about every unimaginable, unthinkable atrocity, as well as a great futuristic, beautiful world, there is to imagine. Good or bad we can visualize it!

IN THE fifties I remember talking about seeing who you were talking to on the telephone. That came into the picture because of television. There was a song that didn’t make it onto the charts that phrased; “I can tell a vision when I see one and I can tell that you’re the vision for me!” We call that a play on words but I think you get the picture.

WE NOW have cell phones; Ipod’s; hand held computers and we can actually see who we are talking to. We can actually take pictures while talking to them. We can use our phones as cameras and even as a daily planner! I use the word we, rather loosely because I don’t do any of those things and personally, I don’t want to. I am not into texting and yet I probably can type faster than most, except for my son!

I AM NOT complaining about today’s technology, instead I applaud it. Today is amazing but many amazements come with evil! Yes, I said evil! When I was a girl my mother saw evil in a lot of things; even a brown paper bag lying in the street. Today, I still am cautious when I see a brown paper bag lying in the street. I told this story to Jim and he too points out the brown paper bag in the street. After all, it could contain a baby that someone was wanting to get rid of!

AT THE TIME of my youth, I thought that was ridiculous, but obviously not to my mother. She probably had seen that, or heard about that and it made an impression upon her as it did me! If you thought about it, you could define evil through something you have seen or heard! If you thought about it, you probably see it on the news everyday!

“AVOID the appearance of evil!” 1 Thessalonians 5:22 How do we avoid the appearance of evil? The way I see, it is; “Don’t make companions of those who are or appear evil. Don’t dress like them; don’t act like them; don’t hang out with them or mimic them. You can witness to the world by not becoming one of them. You could be the only Jesus they will ever see. “Whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” James 4:14

REMEMBER the cradle roll song; “Oh be careful little hands what you do; Oh be careful little tongue what you say; Oh be careful little feet where you go; Oh be careful little eyes what you see!” I imagine you would have to have been a member of the cradle roll or a helper in the cradle roll to know that little song. Children brought up in Sunday School learn how to love Jesus. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

GETTING back to today’s technology, be careful little hands, ears, eyes and feet what you do with it. Holding one of those small gadget’s in your hands seems relatively small and harmless but they are filled with deadly poison. You can’t smell it; nor do you feel it; but how you use it can destroy you or someone close to you. Without your realizing it, it can bite where it will hurt you the most. It can cause you pain, shame and claim your identity.

“FOR GOD knows the secrets of the heart.” Psalms 44:21b No matter how you deny evil intentions “your sins will find you out!” for God knows the secrets of your heart. Don’t play with fire, when it is not easy to put out! Be careful! By Jane Ann Crenshaw 8/17/11