Shadow of Turning

      It is one of the greatest things about the Wonderful God we serve; He has no Shadow of Turning. They've even written songs about it. But, although we were created in His Image, we humans have a tendency to veer off course in our trek to Righteousness. Not God, He never even thinks of turning.
      It has been a couple of weeks since I have written, but this morning the words Shadow of Turning came to mind.

James 1:17-18 (ASV) ¹⁷  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. ¹⁸  Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 

      Turning toward Sin makes a Dark, Ugly Shadow; one we may think no one sees, but one that is usually all too visible to those around us. Sin leaves three types of trails: Paper trails, in these days digital trails, and Spiritual Trails. Those trails are something no sinner likes to revisit, but the thing about trails; there is always some hungry hound dog sniffing around.
      As I think about Sin in the Church, nothing comes to mind more destructive to the Church than Gossip. Nothing can tear a Congregation apart any quicker, nor deeply. Even murder does not compare to the evil of Gossip. Yet, most of us are not only willing but eager to share it, usually with the one most likely to further spread it.
      Say we had someone sneaking out to bars and drinking within our Congregation; it is not the person doing the drinking that causes division, though a brother or sister would do well to bring it to the sinners personal attention, no, it is the Gossip that spreads the nasty rumor through the Church to injure the confidence of the weaker vessels in the Body that does the damage. Whispers turn to even worse exaggerations of the situation. Soon a sinner who could have repented and been reconciled is shamed out of the same Church that should have Loved him or her and brought them back to a closer Walk with the Lord.
      It seems we humans have too good of peripheral Vision where lust and sin are involved. When Manna was falling from the sky for the Israelites, out of their peripheral vision, they saw visions of leeks and garlic, and imagined how good it would taste, just for a little added seasoning. The same in today's Church; a member of the Congregation who is in a perfectly happy Marriage, looks down the pew for a little extra seasoning. Then the gossips get involved, and you know the rest of the story. The shadow cast leads to a split Church and broken lives.
      We have to remember we are in a Spiritual Battle. We are on a daily Battlefield for the Lord or we are not doing our job. There is a line from a song that says: "Yes, I'm on the Battlefield for my Lord". We all need to sing that line every time our peripheral vision starts to get the best of us. We need to remember the Tactics of our foe.
      An old farmer once said, "Satan sure knows what I like in my soup". We have to remember that Demonic Forces have checked us out and researched our weak points. Satan knows just the trick to get your mind off your morning devotional and off track in lustful thinking. That is how fortune tellers know so much about you, Demons have done their research on you and how to trip you up.
      So, eyes front, Christian. Set your course straight ahead. No variation, no shadow of turning. The Bible is your charted course, read it, believe it, trust it, share it daily.