Hidden Source of Visible Damage, pt 1

I have been around to see some pretty terrible and tragic events in life.  Earthquakes come to my mind immediately; they can cause damage that I don't ever want to witness first-hand.  Hurricanes push water with so much ease that you can find the evidence of it miles away from the coasts.  Another thing that causes heart breaking damage, but not associated with nature, is when man made objects go bad. The airplane that goes down, the train that jumps the track, an electric box that shorts out and causes a home or business fire. These things cause horrible damage and people suffer tremendously from them.

But, I want to talk about a worse thing, human in its construction, that inflicts great damage. It leaves in its wake horrible visible damage and victims stunned and paralyzed by its occurarance. I am talking about people who have sins so known to themselves, but yet secret to others around them.  Every once in a while we turn over a fair stone in the 'church's' lawn. It's surrounded by beautiful landscaping and lovely mulch, but underneath it, to our dismay, we find all kinds of filthy insects and loathsome critters. Then in disgust of their hypocrisy, we tend to think that 'all men are liars, that 'there isn't anybody that we can trust." It is not fair to say this of everyone; but really, the discoveries which are made of the insincerity of some of our fellow man is enough to make us despise the whole darn race.

It is to any of you who sin secretly and yet make a profession of faith that I am writing. You know, those who break God's covenants in the dark and wear a mask of godliness in the light......to you folks, who shut the doors and commit wickedness in secret, I write the next couple of blogs. Before we go on I pray that God would speak to you and help you pray this prayer, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults." 

I would now ask of all pretenders to renounce, to detest, to hate, to abhor all your secret faults.
Next week in my blog I will talk to all of you about "The Folly of Secret Sins."