Dreamstime photos

I’m probably oversimplifying and stereotyping but from all the old Hollywood Westerns I’ve seen, a big part of being an Indian was collecting scalps and keeping your scalp from being collected.

If you collected a lot of scalps you were considered a big man, a powerful warrior, at least according to the John Wayne version of history. And if your scalp got collected you were, well, you were dead. I’ve heard of a few people surviving a scalping but I doubt they were pretty afterwards.

Actually, I ‘ve survived a few scalpings myself after trips to the barbershop but that’s another story I’ve already told you about.
Anyway, I wondered how it would be if we Christians were Indians and we scalped or got scalped.

Christian Indians

What if every time you were patient you got a little scalp to hang in your tee-pee? What if when you were tempted, you called on the Lord and you stayed faithful without falling, you got a little scalp for your wigwam–a scalp with a Tintin hairdo maybe?

I think you already know what it feels like to get scalped. The enemy tricks you or your desires overpower you and “swoosh, swipe,” no more scalp. You’ll be pretty embarrassed if you have to appear before the Lord hairless.

Let me tell you about a scalp growing solution that works every time. It’s free but Someone else paid a staggering cost for it. (Note: this doesn’t work for physical hair so those of you who are getting shiny on top, relax. You’ll have to stick with Rogain).

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 1:8-2:1, NIV)

Confess and repent and that hair just pops back out.

Careful. Don’t presume on this. God forgives the second you sincerely ask him but He sometimes leaves the consequences of our sin so that we will remember how dangerous it is to get scalped.

David was forgiven the second he confessed his sin but he dealt with the consequence of his sin in the lives of his children for the rest of his life. He suffered a ton of misery because of his rebellion, though he was forgiven the moment he asked forgiveness.

Use the weapons that the Lord gives you to keep from getting scalped by the enemy: His power, His promises, His mercy. And use that same power so that the proofs of His life within you grow and grow.

It’s a lot better than a haircut below the skin line–spiritually or physically.

Hmmm …

“Truth be told there was one thing that kept Andrew and Peter from being really successful—fishing wasn’t their passion, God was. They had spent a lot of time off work following John around and their heart thumped with the desire to see spiritual revival and national restoration for Israel.”