Fox in the Henhouse

PK’s Corner                                                  Fox in the Hen House

August 2014

II Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.”

Foxes are clever creatures.  They find ingenious ways to secure food for themselves and their litters.  Sometimes they have been known to hide in the hen house of an unsuspecting farmer, only to kill a chicken or take off with eggs.  Having a fox in the hen house is a formula for disaster.

So it is with the church.  Today most of our leaders are truly sincere in their faith.  They preach the Gospel and show us the way to live in Christ.  They encourage dialogue and gathering in Christian settings.  They acknowledge the Cross and realize that we are all sinners, without one plea.  They teach and preach a God of love and hope.  They show how to change in Christ and how to have a deeper relationship with Christ.  They teach dependence on Christ and love for one another.  These are the ones who focus on becoming more like Christ,   but… 

There are a few foxes that have taken or have been given leadership roles.  They are in it, not for the glory of God, but to justify their own sins and wants.  These are the ones who try to tell us that what is said in the Bible doesn't really apply to us, it was for another time.  They try to convince us that the Bible is an archaic collection of stories and myths.  They ignore or even deny the cross and what was done there. They try to teach a “new” understanding that turns out to be the same old rhetoric used to justify their particular cause.  These are the ones who focus on making Christ more like them.

This is nothing new.  In fact in Paul’s day he felt he needed to encourage Timothy to stick to what he knew, even when others wanted something else.  There is hope.  We as a church can say “Enough”.  As a congregation, we can demand the Gospel be preached in the pulpits.  We can say we want Orthodoxy (right teaching) not Pop Psychology.  We can say no to the world and yes to the Risen Christ.

Only by focusing on God in all things, joining together in worship and study, can we even hope to keep the fox out of the hen house.  But although the fox is in the henhouse, Christ is at work redeeming the world.  And that is GOOD NEWS.

Amen