Hot Pockets

     Recently a 43 year old woman and her family took a trip to the beach.  Her children picked up some stones that had aroused their interest.  The lady stuck the stones in the pockets of her shorts, and they continued their outing.  About an hour after they got back home, a very unusual thing happened – the rocks in her shorts caught fire!  There she was, just standing in her kitchen, when her pants suddenly burst into flames.  She tried to “stop, drop, and roll”, but to no avail.  Her husband frantically tried to get the shorts off of her, and he got burned in the process.  Eventually the stones fell from her pockets and began to burn the wood floor.  When firefighters drove up to the home, they found the woman, finally freed from the flaming shorts, in the yard being hosed down by her husband.  Meanwhile, the smoldering rocks were found to contain phosphorous, which is probably to be blamed for the sudden combustion.   

     When I read that story, the first scripture that came to mind was, Proverbs 6:27 (NKJV) “Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?”  Of course, this lady didn’t do anything immoral in this story, but I think there is a valuable lesson that we could learn if we view it as an allegory.  Let’s say that the stones are seemingly harmless, secret sins.  They were picked up and hidden away safely in the lady’s pocket.  She should have cast them from her, but she kept them.  Who would know?  What would it hurt?  But eventually they came back to burn her, causing pain to both her and her husband, and exposing the secret contents of her pockets in the process.  Luke 8:17 cautions, “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.”

     There is no such thing as “getting away with” sin.  The results may not be immediately seen, and suffering may not immediately result, but that doesn’t mean that the sin was safe.  As Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”  If there are any secret sins in your life, then the best thing for you to do is to get rid of them as fast as you can, before you wind up getting burned.