Religious Woodpeckers
by: Ivie Powell
In his book "Five Minutes With The Master," Foy L. Smith tells of a man who while walking in the cool of the evening saw a drove of hogs turning first one way and then another with their ears pricked up and seeming to be very confused. Soon he came to a farm house and stopped to inquire of an old gentleman on the porch, "Mister, are those your hogs up in the woods pasture?"
"Yes," replied the man.
"Well, there is something wrong with them for they are turning first one way and then another with their heads and ears up."
"Oh, I'll tell you what is the matter; you see it is about feeding time and before I lost my voice I would take a basket of corn up there and give a call or two and they would come running to eat, but since I lost my voice I just take my cane and knock on a tree and when they hear me, they come rushing to eat. But for the last week or two the woodpeckers have been getting out on a dry limb and when the hogs hear them, they think it is my knocking and get confused."Friends, there is a great lesson in that story for the religious world. There are 900 plus religious organizations that differ in name, origin and doctrine. Each one is saying, "This is the way," and the average person looks at such and becomes confused.
Religious division exists in the world either because man has forgotten or refused to hear the voice of Jesus as revealed through Scriptures (John 8:31-32). Instead, man has turned to his (own) wisdom, which will only produce confusion and whose end is destruction (Matthew 15:13-14; Jeremiah 10:23).
Let us take heed to Matthew 17:5, "...This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." In following the Christ, one will turn from denominationalism toward pure, unadulterated New Testament Christianity. To speak only where the Bible speaks (1 Peter 4:11) neither adding to nor subtracting from God's word (Revelation 22:18-19). In so doing he will not be led astray by every "woodpecker" that knocks!