Due to the huge number of college football games seen in my home lately, that commercial in which cows turn on lights, parachute onto a football field, and stand on top of a car pestering the little boy in the back seat has evidently made an impression on me. A survey company called the other day. A long time ago I made a few dollars doing phone surveys and appreciated anyone who did not slam the phone down, so I answered their questions. “Which fast food chain comes to mind first?” I answered immediately, not with any of the hamburger, pizza, sandwich, or taco joints; but the chicken place with the name I never knew how to pronounce until I was grown.
Those commercials stand out to me for a reason—those are dairy cows! They don’t need to worry about becoming someone’s hamburger.
Does it make a difference? Only to purists, I suppose. The commercials certainly do what they are designed to do as evidenced by my quick answer to the survey question.
But for some things it does make a difference. Jesus warned that blind leaders will cause others to fall into the ditch too; God wasn’t going to save them because someone led them the wrong way. John tells us in the fourth chapter of his first epistle that God expects us to “prove the spirits” because many false ones have gone out into the world. Paul marveled in chapter one that the Galatians had been fooled so soon after their conversion. None of them told us not to worry, that God would save us if we were tricked into believing something that wasn’t so.
A long time ago, a prophet was sent to warn King Jeroboam about his sinful ways. God told that prophet not to stop anywhere on his way home. An older prophet sent word for him to come by for dinner. When the younger prophet told him he could not, the older prophet lied, saying, “God said it was all right for you to eat with me.” Instead of checking with God first, the younger prophet stopped by the older prophet’s home. Before they had finished their meal God came to him and told him he would be punished for his disobedience, and, sure enough, on the way home he was killed by a lion (1 Kings 13).
Not knowing the difference between what God said and what this man had said, even a prophet of God, cut his life short. God expected that young man to check with Him when he heard a command other than the original. God expects the same of you and me. And even though this young prophet probably thought he could rely on one of his own, one older and supposedly wiser as well, that didn’t mean the message was correct.
One cow is not the same as the other, no matter what it looks like, or what we think about it. Believe me, you could tell the difference between steaks cut from dairy cattle and those cut from beef cattle. And the first time you tried to milk a steer would definitely be the last. Believing a false message, no matter who tells you and no matter what you want to believe, will not make that message true, and the results will be much more serious than a tough steak or even a kick in the head. .
But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you abide in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them, 2 Tim 3:13,14.
Dene Ward
Those commercials stand out to me for a reason—those are dairy cows! They don’t need to worry about becoming someone’s hamburger.
Does it make a difference? Only to purists, I suppose. The commercials certainly do what they are designed to do as evidenced by my quick answer to the survey question.
But for some things it does make a difference. Jesus warned that blind leaders will cause others to fall into the ditch too; God wasn’t going to save them because someone led them the wrong way. John tells us in the fourth chapter of his first epistle that God expects us to “prove the spirits” because many false ones have gone out into the world. Paul marveled in chapter one that the Galatians had been fooled so soon after their conversion. None of them told us not to worry, that God would save us if we were tricked into believing something that wasn’t so.
A long time ago, a prophet was sent to warn King Jeroboam about his sinful ways. God told that prophet not to stop anywhere on his way home. An older prophet sent word for him to come by for dinner. When the younger prophet told him he could not, the older prophet lied, saying, “God said it was all right for you to eat with me.” Instead of checking with God first, the younger prophet stopped by the older prophet’s home. Before they had finished their meal God came to him and told him he would be punished for his disobedience, and, sure enough, on the way home he was killed by a lion (1 Kings 13).
Not knowing the difference between what God said and what this man had said, even a prophet of God, cut his life short. God expected that young man to check with Him when he heard a command other than the original. God expects the same of you and me. And even though this young prophet probably thought he could rely on one of his own, one older and supposedly wiser as well, that didn’t mean the message was correct.
One cow is not the same as the other, no matter what it looks like, or what we think about it. Believe me, you could tell the difference between steaks cut from dairy cattle and those cut from beef cattle. And the first time you tried to milk a steer would definitely be the last. Believing a false message, no matter who tells you and no matter what you want to believe, will not make that message true, and the results will be much more serious than a tough steak or even a kick in the head. .
But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you abide in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them, 2 Tim 3:13,14.
Dene Ward
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