In the devotional book My Heart: Christ’s Home Through the Year, Rick Ezell wrote this: “In his book Fuzzy Memories, Jack Handey writes: ‘There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Because I was smaller, I would give it to him; but then I decided to fight back. I started taking karate lessons, but then the karate lesson guy said I had to start paying him $5 a lesson. So I just went back to paying the bully.’

“Isn’t that most like us? Too many of us feel it is easier to pay the bully than it is to learn how to defeat him. That’s the way many of us are with sin. Sin violates the covenant relationship with God. It is disobedience against a gracious and lovingly heavenly Father. The primary reason we want sin removed from our lives is to restore our relationship with our heavenly Father. However, we have neither the strength nor the moral completeness to accomplish such a monumental task. For that we have to rely on Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

“Why don’t you stop paying the bully, Satan, and start asking God for forgiveness and the strength to move past your sin?”
(from Rick Ezell’s One Minute Uplift weekly email devotional)


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In 1876, a highly touted plant made its American debut at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was a vine that could grow a foot in a day. It was promoted as a plant that could grow anywhere and make the countryside more beautiful. People in the South embraced it as a tool against soil erosion; but not only would the vine cover the ground, it started covering everything such as signs and telephone poles. The vine is called kudzu, and by the 1950s people began regretting they had ever planted it. It now has reached all the way from the Deep South to Maine. Scientists are trying to find a way to stop it. Sin is like that. It starts by promising to fill some kind of need, but then grows wild until it becomes damaging; and it is just as hard to eradicate.


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David Jeremiah writes: “Reuters recently reported about a hunter in Belarus who shot a fox from a distance, but as he approached the wounded animal it sprang on him. As the two scuffled, the fox got its paw on the trigger of the rifle and shot the man in the leg. The hunter was transported to the hospital and the fox escaped.

“In our struggle with sin, we’ve got to make sure Satan doesn’t turn the tables on us. The Bible warns us to beware of the little foxes that can spoil the vines (Song of Solomon 2:15).

“We’re safe if we’re always clad in the breastplate of righteousness. The word breastplate is misleading, as this piece of armor also protected the back, neck and hips. It was like a wrap-around shield that encased the body’s vital organs. It’s the Bible’s symbol for a holy life. Let’s beware of little sins that can put chinks in our armor. Living righteously requires constant commitment and wise decision-making. We must be in constant submission and surrender to the will of God with hearts open to His righteousness, lest we be outfoxed.” (Today’s Turning Point newsletter, 5-18-11)


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