A Bad Penny Always Turns Up

Rephrasing the title, “with a two acre yard, the first place I step is in dog poop.” Put it another way, “what goes around comes around.” I use to hear this all the time, “no matter what I do, it always fails, I maight as well not try to do it in the first place.” The mother of invention wouldn’t have gotten very far with that kind of attitude. Or how about, “if it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all.” How does the Bible put it, “What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22). “You can’t put lipstick on a pig.” I think these proverbs can be somewhat disgusting. Yet, that is the nature of sin—disgusting.

Today’s culture doesn’t like anything unless it is sanitized and done just right. Messy is a word they avoid. Not that they aren’t Messy, but they do not like it when other’s messiness invades their space. Then again, who does. 

The Apostle Peter described the messiest of people in his day. “Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed” (2 Peter 2:10-22).

He is talking about people who have once tasted the good things of God and then walked away. They have lost confidence in the Lord and his promises. What does he say to do when the bad penny returns? He tells those who have remained firm to remember that, though He tarries, He will still come back. “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” In the face of doubt, in the face of questions, in the face of trouble and temptation the answer is always the same, Jesus. Jesus always arrives at the right time, Jesus strengthens us at the right time. Jesus provides an escape at the right time. He will return at the right time. 

A bad penny might always turn up, but our savior will always keep his promise. I’m just saying...