The story of Old Testament Israel is a narrative of what happens when God's people became involved in the cultures of the unbelieving nations around them. They paid an awful price. Unless we learn the lesson, we will pay as well. In fact, Christian families of the twenty-first century are already paying a great price. We've opened our homes to the enemy of our souls, and he’s doing great damage.  As darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people (Isaiah 60:2), we must immediately take steps to close the doors of our homes to anything and everything that is incompatible with the holy life God has commanded us to live.  We must be intentional and diligent to allow into our homes only those things that will serve to build up the kingdom of God.  It is a matter of cause and effect.

I invite you right now to do an inventory of your personal and family life.  What are your family goals?  Who are your role models?  Are you allowing influences into your home that will result in heartache?

Some years ago, a dear family who served with us in South America dropped by our house to spend the night. This family enjoys pets, including snakes and lizards. They were on vacation at the time and were excited that along the way they had been able to capture a particular variety of snake they had always wanted. They were keeping the snake in an aquarium with a lid, and they asked if they could bring the aquarium into the house for the night. I told them they could, and we put the aquarium downstairs in the utility room.

The next morning the family gathered their things together, including the aquarium. Nothing was missing . . . except the snake, which somehow had escaped into the house during the night. And so our old friends left us a unique hostess gift—a snake loose in the house. Reading this may make you Iaugh, but to me it wasn't funny.

The snake eluded us for several months. One day I was making repairs and needed to use the electric skill saw. I picked it up and was about to turn it on when I discovered the snake tightly curled up in the metal shield that covers the blade. I put the saw down very quickly. Now, how was I to get him out? The answer came to me. I put the saw in the sunshine, it became hot, and the snake crawled away never to be seen again.

I share this experience because it reminds me that although we wouldn't do it on purpose, some of us have let snakes loose in our homes. Not the harmless, garden variety of snake, but the kind whose bite can cheapen family relationships and even paralyze spiritual growth. The negative things we experience in our homes may be an accident, but they are not accidental. We simply are reaping what we have sown. It is the law of cause and effect.

If our family life isn't turning out as we hoped, then we need to discover how we may be contributing to the results that we don't want. In most cases, if we're honest with ourselves, we don't need to have someone tell us what we are doing that we shouldn't. The truth is, we usually know better, even though, for the time being, the specifics may be lost in the muddle of life. The devil is dishing out a sweet syrup that tastes good. But if we consume what he's giving us, it will prove fatal to our most precious relationships.

The message that prepares us for the coming of Jesus also heals our homes. But it is one we must find in Scripture and not in our culture. We must, by the power of the Holy Spirit, implement this message in our homes while there is still time.  Lord, Save my Family, pp. 20-21.