Don't Eat the Hot Wings
At work one day we were having a potluck and one of guys had brought his special recipe hot wings. His recipe was to blend the habanero chili peppers into a paste, mix it into a little Tabasco sauce, and bake it into the chicken wings.
So he called one of his buddies over saying, “You’ve got to try my hot wings and tell me what you think!”
His buddy grabbed a wing, stuck the whole thing in his mouth, and got about half way through pulling the bone out when the realization hit him that his mouth was on fire! Finally, after lots of water and stuffing anything other than those chicken wings into his mouth to try and put out the fire, he dried the tears in his eyes and got himself composed. Then you know what he did? He went looking for someone else to try those fiery chicken wings!
After the first couple of guys were fooled into eating those wings, with the same predictable results, enough people had gathered and witnessed their demise that they weren’t going to be able to fool anyone else. But then the strangest thing happened.
Guys who had seen for themselves what the others had gone through decided to try the wings for themselves! They were a little more cautious, not sticking the whole thing in their mouths, but kind of nibbling around the edges, yet the results were still pretty much the same. And it went on until all the chicken wings were gone!
You might think the moral of this story is “guys are stupid,” and given the facts, I would have a hard time arguing with you. But as all this was playing out, I started thinking how the spreading heat from those wings was just like the way sin spreads.
The one who made the sauce, knowing how hot it was and what would probably happen, still called out to his friend, “Hey, come on and try my chicken wings!” – He is like the false prophets spoken of in Matthew 24:11 seeking to mislead. "And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray" (NIV).
There are many people who will mislead you if you let them.
The one who first tried the wings and burned his mouth still called out for others to come and try them too – He is like the one who has fallen, and rather than picking himself up and putting up warning signs to keep others from the same fate, he calls out to see if he can get others to join him in his misery. As Proverbs 4:16 says, "For they [evil people] cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble" (ESV).
There are those who take pleasure in causing others to stumble.
And what about the ones who saw what was going on, but just had to try it for themselves? They are the ones who blindly follow the masses, even when they know they are going to suffer. And the result? Matthew 7:13 says that “… the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it” (NASB).
There are those who beckon to you to follow them on their road to destruction.
On that particular day I was one of the few who didn’t eat the chicken wings. But in my life, in the things that truly matter, that hasn’t always been the case. What about you?
Darkness Will Come To Light
Why didn’t the Germans smell the stench of the chimneys?
There were two types of prison camps in the Nazi regime used for the enemies of the Reich. The first was the work camp. There was no gassing of prisoners at those locations; victims were just worked to death. Dachau was the first. It was the model for all of the others very close to Munich. The Germans knew about the work camps because they were in plain view all over Germany. Propaganda had desensitized the populous. Germans were encouraged to openly hate the Jews and blame them for the countries ills. The Jews were considered filth and got what they deserved. It is important to note that mass extermination did not occur in Germany. It is interesting that Dachau did, however, have a gas chamber but never used it. One might wonder why that was so. I think I have an answer.
The answer is in the locations of the second type of camps. These were the death camps. In these camps were the gas chambers and the crematoria. Auschwitz-Birkenau was constructed in the south of Poland, and Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec were built in the far east of Poland. All of these were remote. One might ask why the Nazis built those camps so far away from the German population. The Nazis were evil, but they were not stupid.
The local Polish population was well aware of what was going on in their midst. Train cars of people were rumbling into these locations, unloading (like cattle) far more bodies than the camps could possibly hold. The air was filled with a very disagreeable odor of burning human flesh. Many locals worked at the camps. Why didn't they object? The simple fact is that Germany occupied the country, and the Reich would have killed objectors if they spoke up. The population had been overrun and was simply in fear. Hitler had no fear of the Polish people. He did not have to deceive them. He did not need their support. On the other hand, Germans needed assurance that all was well in the Fatherland and that their Fuhrer was noble.
The average German was misled by the great propaganda tools of the Reich. Those who opposed the Reich were marginalized and eliminated. First, those critical of Nazism were called names and were declared enemies of the people of Germany. Later, they just disappeared. The issue was not the propaganda itself. In a free society, there will always be propaganda. The problem was the media monopoly. In public, all was "Wunderbar," the great German Reich was the model of the world in culture, engineering, science, breeding, and finance, but behind the scenes, hidden from the eyes of the people, treachery and tyranny were afoot.
What was the purpose of the locations of the camps? The obvious fact is that the Nazis located the death camps far away from the people's eyes because even Nazis feared how much it would disgust the average German. Men love darkness because their deeds are evil.
America would never be guilty of any such horrors... right?
Well, may I remind you of the "Tuskegee Syphilis Study"? Our federal government and the CDC performed this study. In an area of Alabama, there was a large outbreak of Syphilis. About 600 Poor, uneducated black men were lied to and told that they would receive free medical treatment. They were not to receive any treatment at all. The purpose of the study was to observe the effects of the disease on untreated men. The study was to last only about six to eight months, but when it lost much of its funding, the overseers changed the plans. They could have curred many of these trusting men. Instead of stopping the already villainous practice and treating the men, they allowed them to die horrible deaths while they observed. The study went on for 40 years. Yes, it ended in 1972! This travesty was all in the name of public health.
The Germans never smelled the chimneys because the Nazis hid them. We may not smell the camp chimneys' stench yet, but I sure do smell a rat. Before you roll your eyes in disbelief, be honest enough to admit from history how easily masses are manipulated by first pressure then by fear....and by the way, you might also ask the American Indian if our government was trustworthy before you let your guard down.
Even now, there are people busy hiding the chimneys.
"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13).
When Evil Became Good
One day Good and Evil met on the seashore. They said to one another, "Let us bath in the sea." Then they disrobed and swam.
After a while, Evil came out and put on the garment of Good and walked away.
When Good came ashore, she could not find her true garment. To hide her nakedness, she had no choice but to robe herself with the garment of Evil and walk away.
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When Evil steals the garment of Good, Good is left with no choice but to wear the garment of Evil. That's what we see happening in the world today, as evil actions and attitudes are lauded as good. In such a world, those who do good are given no choice but to assume the role of being considered evil.
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah 5:20).
"Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness" (Luke 11:35, NLT).