Danger Zone - Backsliding (Joshua 25:15)

A foolish old farmer, so the story goes, concluded one day that the oats he had fed his mule for years were simply costing him too much.  So he hatched a plan:  he mixed a little sawdust in with the feed, and then a little more the next day, and even more the next, each time reducing the amount of oats in the mix.

The mule didn’t seem to notice the gradual change, so the farmer thought things were fine and kept decreasing the proportion of oats.  But weeks later, on the day he finally fed the poor beast nothing but sawdust; the mule finished the meal and fell over dead.

A silly tale, perhaps, but it serves as a parable of the backslider - the Christian who slips further and further away from God through unrepented sin or neglect.  Though we know our souls cannot survive on spiritual sawdust, we may well convince ourselves that a little won’t hurt too much, and a little less real spiritual food won’t be missed.  Then, over time, the proportion of sawdust increases while the oats gradually disappear.  Before long, the change is complete, and our starved, sawdust-stuffed spiritual life has collapsed.

A sobering quote to ponder:

With deep repentance and sincere faith, find your way back from your backsliding.  It is your duty, for you have turned away from Him whom you professed to serve.  It is your wisdom, for you cannot strive against Him and prosper.  It is your immediate necessity, for what He has done is nothing compared to what He may do in the way of chastisement, since He is Almighty to punish. - Charles H. Spurgeon