Covenant Church

Laila and I both have a little night owl in us. It has always been so. When we wake up, we usually get up. No use in beating a mattress to death thinking a different location will bring sleep.

We have always been courteous to each other. We leave the bedroom without turning on a light, quietly closing the door,and tip-toeing out of the room.

Last night was out of character. At 3 AM Laila left the door open, lights were on, and she was in another part of the house calling: "Honey, come here quickly!"

Laila is not given to making emergencies or emotional outbursts. Such behavior on her part naturally startled me. Trying to shake off the residues of a good rest I was desperately trying to get up---or at least thinking about it---as she returned to the room.

"Something is wrong. It smells like something is burning. I have been all over the house, but cannot find it," she said, and there was anxiety in her voice.

My olfactory sense is not as good as Laila's. And I was laboring under the burden of wanting to be asleep. But with the situation at hand and her plea for urgency, I lifted my nose, took a good whiff, and said: "Skunk!"

My friend, that skunk deserves to be named and go down in history. If what he put off could have been turned into perfume I would be a millionaire twice over. To beat it all the skunk was outside. His expression of anger at some unknown enemy had penetrated inside the house to saturate every room of our home.

We wondered would we have to go riding to get away. The scent was so strong that Laila said she could not sleep. We lay awake for a while talking. I offered to get up and work on taxes. She rejected the tax idea. After a while she said: "Tell me, is the smell going away or am I getting used to it?

"It is still here," I said.

This morning I went outside. Our trashcan lids were closed tightly. However, we had picked up a load of trash for a pastor friend who lives in another city. He married one of our young ladies. They are selling her home. He had asked a favor that we haul off some items. In those items were some food scraps. Thus, the skunk!

Wait til he gets my invoice!

For a truth, Laila observed: "Wonder if sometimes in our life mess happens. At first it stinks. But after a while we get used to it and learn to live with the stink? In fact, don’t even notice it anymore?”

Way I figure it is if we do not stay close to Jesus we just naturally let skunks move in. We stay "spiritual," but the stink is not removed. We get used to the stink. Sin becomes natural. Can't tell the difference between skunk and stink. Can’t tell the difference between right and wrong.

Hope you read the Word, pray, and stay in fellowship/worship with other believers to get the skunks out and keep them out!

Pastor Bare

1 Thessalonians 4:3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;