A parable by Matt Leach - shared in September 2018
There once was a man who built a beautiful home. It was everything he had ever wanted his home to be. It had cost him everything. His mortgage payments and the upkeep of the house left him with little extra. But it was worth it.
Being a prudent man, he knew he needed to protect his house. He bought fire insurance and insurance against every possible calamity that might strike. That is, all except for one minor little inconsequential nuisance: termites. But that was okay because he had bought and stored in his garage enough termite poison to protect his home several times over.
To right and left, and in front and in back of his home, can be seen home after home like his. Well, not exactly like his as every home owner had his own tastes and preferences, which made all the houses distinct and different. But one thing was always the same. Every home was fully insured, and every home had lots and lots of termite poison stored in their garages.
Now it so happened that one morning, when the man stepped outside and turned to admire his beautiful home, he noticed that it had started to lean just slightly. “It’s just settling,” he told himself, and added, “I’ll probably have to fix a few cracks in the walls one of these days.”
“One of these days” came a bit sooner than he had expected. A few days later he left home in a hurry and unintentionally slammed the door behind him. As he did his beautiful home gave an enormous shriek and shudder and came crashing to the ground in a gigantic heap of sawdust! Before he could react to his calamity he heard the same kind of shrieking and shuddering come from every other home as far as his eyes could see.
The man and his neighbors were stunned by the devastation. No one had seen it coming. There had been no warning signs. They sat on the curbs and wondered. It was then that a little boy, playing in the rubble, held up a piece of wood that was riddled with holes going this way and that, and shouted out, “Look at the funny squiggle holes!” It was then that the man realized three things:
First, termites do not announce their arrival.
Second, termites work in secret, creating their destruction unnoticed.
Third, termite poison does no good if you do not use it before the termites arrive.
The beautiful homes are the churches we have erected with a myriad of names and a variety of denominational positions, practices and emphases. Each has been strong and served a noble purpose. Common to each is the existence of a vicious and diabolical enemy whose will is set on evil and whose goal is to destroy. Common to each church is the power of prayer and the authority of the believer. This latter for too long we have treated like the termite poison and it sets unused. Evil works hidden, doing its damage unseen. When attacked before it does its damage evil flees from us in terror, as termites flee from the poison.
God is calling us to warfare before evil destroys our nations, our churches, and our freedoms. Already we see evil flaunting God’s laws and getting legislation passed that ultimately will make being a Christian and practicing our faith unlawful. It is already happening. We need to marshal our authority as believers and march into battle.
Daniel 9:3-11; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
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