238 Sermon Illustrations on Temptation

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to their churches, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day."

"How shall we do this?" shouted the angels.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husband to work 6-7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work. Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.

"Fill the coffee table with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes. Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy!! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotion.

"Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning. But crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!"

It was quite a convention. And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy and to rush here and there.

I guess the question is: Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge!

B-Being

U-Under

S-Satan's

Y-Yoke

I became a Christian when I was 20 years old. A pastor told me about the cross of Christ. I believed then, as I believe now, that what Christ accomplished on the cross meant salvation for me. I have not wavered in my basic belief since that significant moment of conversion.

That belief, however, has not spared me from the difficulty-even the agony-of discerning what it means to apply Christ’s work on the cross to my daily life. I know that the cross of Christ has saved me. I wonder why it has not changed me, at least to the degree I expect and want.

I know that the cross of Christ has delivered me from sin, yet I still struggle with sinful habits every day. I believe that Christ suffered for me on the cross, yet I still wonder what Christ’s suffering on the cross has to say about my own suffering. I realize that the cross has achieved peace among enemies, yet I am aware of many hostile and broken relationships in the Christian community. I want to know how the cross of Christ can change the way we live in ordinary life.

SEEING SIN FROM UNDER THE CROSS

The first way the cross can transform our day-to-day living is to provide us with the power and means to tackle sinful habits. It provides a simple but profound principle: We have died to those habits. We can nail them to the cross. Say no. Stop.

It is, of course, easier said than done. Augustine understood sin’s grip simply by observing his own life, which he then reflected on in his famous Confessions. He argued that though evil has nothing of value to offer us, it gives the appearance of good in order to attract us. But the good it offers is always at the wrong time, in the wrong place, under the wrong circumstances. Still, our perverted nature propels us toward such evil. Before we know it, we are bound to it. "The truth is that disordered lust springs from a perverted will; when lust is pandered to, a habit is formed; when habit is not checked, it hardens into compulsion" is how Augustine described the process.

If these habits are so destructive, why is it so hard to put them to death? Because doing so makes us feel as if we are dying, not just the sin in us. Take food, for instance. As all of us know, good food in large quantities can become habit forming. It can lead to gluttony. Gluttony concerns not merely the quantity of food we eat, which is bad enough; it also concerns our attitude about food, our preoccupation with it, our impatience when we do not get it fast enough, and our resentment when we are deprived of it. Gluttony is a nasty, ugly habit.

Imagine for a moment that you struggle with the sin of gluttony. You are a Christian, and you have confessed your gluttony to God and have received assurance of forgiveness. But you are bothered and perplexed because gluttony still rules your life. Forgiveness, in other words, has not led to change. So what should you do?

One day, while reading your Bible, you stumble across this text from the Apostle Paul:

And so, because [Jesus] died, sin has no power over him; and now

he lives his life in fellowship with God. In the same way you

are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned,

but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:10-11, TEV

Perplexed, you look for other texts to illumine the one you just read. A passage from Hebrews makes it clearer:

Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends

from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross!

On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he

thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is

now seated at the right side of God’s throne.

Hebrews 12:2, TEV

You want to die to your gluttony. You decide to say no to it. You put it to death. Of course, your gluttonous habit makes a big fuss, crying out that if you sacrifice eating as much and often as you want, then you will die of starvation and lose all pleasure in life. But in faith you tell yourself that you will not die; only the vicious habit that is hurting you will die. You choose, instead, to believe Scripture-that there is joy before you, a kind of resurrection of your life. You assume that you will actually experience greater pleasure by living for God rather than for your stomach. You risk giving up the sin because you believe that, though you will suffer immediate loss, in the long run you will gain something far greater. You will experience the wonder and joy of living in and for God, who is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). You remember the words Jesus spoke in the face of temptation: "Man does not live on bread alone" (Luke 4:4). You recall that His true food was to do the will of His Father in heaven (John 4:34). He said of Himself that He is the bread of life, and the bread He feeds us will satisfy us for eternity (John 6:35-59). So you dare to die to the sin of gluttony. That death, you believe, will prepare you to receive a different kind of food that only God can give, the food of obedience, joy, and divine approval.

Jesus had to die on the cross in order to usher in new life. Our stubborn sins must also die if we are to fully experience the joy and freedom of the new life He purchased for us. To live under the cross is to keep the nails handy.

SEEING SUFFERING FROM UNDER THE CROSS

The same cross that has the power to free us from stubborn sin also has the power to transform our perspective of and response to suffering.

In the past few years, I have changed my mind about suffering. I spent decades avoiding it because I considered it an unmitigated evil. When at the age of 40 I found myself in circumstances that forced suffering upon me, I still believed that it was evil. Now I am not so sure. Not that I think the opposite, that suffering is an unqualified good. I believe it is ambiguous, an evil that can lead to good, a plague that God can redeem. Suffering reminds us of our desperate need for God and makes us aware of our dependence on grace. It is like a fire that forces an evacuation of a condemned house that had become a familiar and comfortable place to us. Once we get outside and into the open air, we begin to see what we were missing.

The cross inflicted inconceivable suffering on Jesus. Jesus said that we, too, must bear a cross-which reminds us that we should not expect, and do not deserve, an easy life. Not that we should seek suffering. Even Jesus dreaded the cross and asked His Father to spare Him from it (Lk. 22:41-44). We know, however-again through the cross-that suffering does not have the final word. The resurrection does.

In and of itself, the cross was bad. It serves as undeniable evidence of the evil of the human heart, because people just like us ordered Jesus’ execution and mocked Him while He hung there in agony. But the cross was also good. It accomplished the world’s redemption. We can, therefore, rejoice, knowing that God will use our suffering to change our lives. He will form character in us (Romans 5:3-4), awaken hope in us (Romans 5:5), and work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).

Two years ago, I wrote a book about suffering. I have received many letters from people who wanted to tell me their own stories of suffering. I have asked permission from a few to tell their stories to others. One woman, Mary, was in a terrible automobile accident when she was only five years old. Her grandmother, aunt, and only sibling - a younger brother - were killed. She, the only survivor, was trapped in that chamber of death for more than an hour before an emergency crew could get her out. It took her parents, who were touring Europe at the time, three days to get home. By the time they arrived, she had retreated into a cocoon of silence that lasted for nearly two years. Gradually, she emerged from her silence and returned to normal, or so it seemed.

Mary forgot the accident, but the memory of it did not forget her. She was married in her 20s and had a baby. When her little son reached the age of her brother at the time of his death, the memories flooded back. She had a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. That experience set her on a journey of pain, healing, and redemption.

She was well on her way to emotional and spiritual health when she wrote to me. She concluded her letter by admitting the obvious: She would never have chosen what had happened to her. "Let this cup pass from me," she would have said to God. But she did not have a choice. She came to realize over time that her suffering had a good effect. It served God’s redemptive purpose. She understood the tension in which Christians must live - the tension between human weakness and God’s strength, life’s afflictions and God’s redemptive plan, catastrophic suffering (which she surely faced) and spiritual victory. She was living what Paul wrote: "We are often troubled, but not crushed; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair; there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed. At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies" (2 Corinthians 4:8-10, TEV).

Mary embraced suffering so that God’s life could fill her up. It is a perspective she learned by living under the cross.

SEEING PEOPLE FROM UNDER THE CROSS

When we live under the cross of Christ, we will also see transformation in our relationships.

I used to be concerned about my natural limitations and weaknesses, and I wished that I could be rid of them. I wanted to be strong, independent, and competent. Now I am less concerned about my weaknesses and more concerned about my strengths. My weaknesses remind me of my finitude and need, and they drive me to seek help from something or someone outside myself, namely God. My strengths, on the other hand, often deceive me into thinking I am greater than I really am. My strengths make me feel powerful and superior. I use them to assert myself over others.

The sad, violent, and destructive history of the world tells the story of human strength gone bad. Aryans dominated other races and exterminated millions of Jews (as well as other "undesirable" populations) because they thought Aryans alone embodied pure stock. Whites rule over blacks because they think they are superior to them. One political party mocks or dismisses another because it assumes it has the edge on truth. The worst cruelties done in world history have been done in the name of strength, not weakness.

The cross exposes the danger of human strength, unmasking it for what it is-an attempt to thwart God. It was pharisaical religion and Roman law, both expressions of cultural achievement and strength, that sent Jesus to the cross. Both were the products of enlightened people and sophisticated culture. The best of humanity, as it turned out, did the worst thing imaginable.

The Apostle Paul describes "the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14) that separates one person from another, or one group from another. That dividing wall represents strengths that we use to assert our superiority over others - our wealth, education, gender, ethnicity, party affiliation, culture. The cross tears down those walls. For example, Christ’s death broke down the wall of hostility that separated Jew from Gentile. "He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace. By his death on the cross Christ destroyed their enmity; by means of the cross he united both races into one body and brought them back to God" (Ephesians 2:15-16, TEV). Jewish law made Gentiles outsiders and aliens, an unacceptable group of people. The cross exposed the vanity and emptiness of those laws. Peace resulted from the demolition of the wall between Jews and Gentiles. It does that to all walls.

The cross altered Paul’s attitude toward his former opponents. His pharisaical background no longer made him feel superior to others. Instead, he viewed people through the cross. He saw what the cross did to transform them. "No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards. Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so. When anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:16-17, TEV). Paul celebrated people, no matter what their background or culture, because the only thing that mattered to him was their relationship with Christ. Thus at the end of his letter to the church in Rome, he gives personal greetings to dozens of people, though the majority were Gentiles, women, or slaves. Paul did not consider what they were in the eyes of culture but who they were through the work of Christ. The cross revolutionized the way he looked at people.

I use Cry, the Beloved Country, a novel written by Alan Paton, in one of the classes I teach. It tells the story of a black South African pastor, Stephen Kumalo, who learns that his wayward son has murdered a white man who had devoted his life to racial reconciliation. The victim’s father, James Jarvis, is not sympathetic with his son’s convictions. In bitterness, he not only mourns the death of his son but also views his martyrdom as a waste of his son’s life.

But Jarvis’ heart begins to change when he reads his son’s writings, for they accuse white Christians such as Jarvis of being hypocrites. Their true religion, his son charges, is not the Christianity of the cross but white supremacy. Christianity exposes the evil of racism and brings reconciliation between enemies. When he sees his prejudice from under the cross, Jarvis is transformed.

When the two grieving fathers finally meet, James Jarvis is able to embrace Stephen Kumalo. The sacrificial death of his son liberates Jarvis to love a man he once considered an enemy. Reaching across racial and cultural barriers, he makes a new friend.

The story is fiction. The principle behind it is truth. The cross effected peace between Jew and Gentile. It has that same power today to reconcile feminist and traditionalist, black and white, liberal and conservative, fundamentalist and Pentecostal, Republican and Democrat. But there is a price to be paid. The cross will deprive us of the right to use our strengths to gain power over others. It forces us into a position of humility and vulnerability. It breaks down the dividing walls of hostility we create to have an advantage over opponents and enemies. It transforms relationships.

THE ONLY WAY TO LIFE

The cross, then, is not simply the means of our salvation, although it is that to be sure! It is also the means of our transformation. It is the way of life we must follow if we want to close the gap between who we are in Christ (as His redeemed children) and how we live from day to day (as sinful humans in the world).

The cross brings good news on two levels. It promises to redeem us; it also promises to change us. Such change is bound to produce pain. It is painful to die to self, to embrace suffering, and to reconcile with opponents and enemies.

But it is worth it. I have followed Christ for many years now, and I am serious about my faith. I am not a perfect man. I still have many problems. But the problems are different now. The foundation upon which I am building my life has become sturdier over time. I have died to some old habits, and it feels very good to be rid of them. I have faced suffering and come through it with a deep sense of the goodness of God and the power of God’s grace. I have made friends with people I would have spurned 20 years ago, yet I have not had to compromise basic convictions to do it. I have lived the Christian faith long enough to understand its incredible power. The cross has provided for me not only a way of salvation but also a way of life. It is the only way to live.

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About the Author GERALD L. SITTSER is an associate professor of religion at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. He is the author of several books, including A Grace Disguised (Zondervan) and Loving across Our Differences (IVP).

©2002 The Navigators All rights reserved.

*

Satan's Beatitudes

If the Devil, whom we don't hear much about today, were to write his Beatitudes, they would possibly go something like this:

"Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour once a week with their fellow Christians in Church --- they are my best workers.

Blessed are those Christians who wait to be asked and expect to be thanked --- I can use them.

Blessed are the touchy, with a bit of luck they may stop going to church --- they are my missionaries.

Blessed are those who are very religious but get on everyone's nerves --- they are mine forever.

Blessed are the troublemakers --- they shall be called my children.

Blessed are those who have no time to pray --- they are easy prey for me.

Blessed are the complainers --- I'm all ears for them.

Blessed are you when you read this and think it is about other people and not yourself --- I've got you."

- Author unknown

A story is told of an American Indian who was discussing his conversion to Jesus with other members of his tribe. He told how shortly after committing himself to Jesus he felt as though he would never sin again. He was very happy in knowing Jesus as his Savior. The Indian went on to describe his recent awareness of an inner conflict or struggle that went on in his mind (Gal 2:20; 5:17). This struggle was described in the following terms:

"It seems, my brothers, that I have two dogs fighting in my heart:

one is a very good dog, a beautiful white dog and he is always

watching out for my best interests. The other is a very bad dog,

a black dog, which is always trying to destroy the things that I

want to build up. These dogs give me a lot of trouble because

they are always quarreling and fighting each other."

One of the hearers of this story looked up and asked, "Which one wins?" The reply was, "Whichever one I give in to."

AD NAUSEUM

What's the most important product TV sells? You.

That's right, you. First and foremost, commercial

television exists to deliver you to the advertisers: the ones

who pay all the bills for all the programming that interrupts

all the ads. And TV does the job better than most of us care

to admit.

If you're tempted to say, "Ads don't affect me -- I don't

even notice them," you've already bought a big part of

advertising's insidious soft sell. Of course you notice them.

You're surrounded by corporate culture, bombarded by 1,500

mass media messages every day, on everything from billboards

to bus shelters.

The power of advertising comes, not from hounding us, but

from surrounding us. Everywhere we look, somebody's trying to

sell us something, and the barrage is so fierce, few other

messages find their way through the din and clutter,

especially spiritual messages that would undermine the

culture's status and status quo. Like our debts,

advertising's influence on us accumulates a little at a time,

over a long time, without us noticing. In today's sea of

consumerism, most of us are in 'way over our heads.

We're awash in commercials that shape our society. They

mould our dreams and ideals, our values, vision and viewpoint.

And the central message? What matters is really things:

don't worry about the things that really matter.

'Course the marketers know we're not quite that naive, so

they combine their products with the right priorities. They

tell us that, once we've got the right stuff, we'll have more

confidence, more friends, more freedom and more time for our

families, not to mention the envy of one and all.

But stop for a moment and consider how advertising works.

For starters, it plays upon our doubts and anxieties by

creating a climate of insecurity. A commercial never says,

"You're okay. You don't need anything." Instead, the ads add

to our agitation by making us feel incompetent or incomplete

until we've made the proper purchase. By creating an image

and aura around each product, the marketers tell us happiness

can be bought, solutions are instant, and more is always

better. Our passion for consuming becomes our consuming

passion. It eats us up and spits us out.

Listen to what Jesus told His best friend to tell us.

"Stop loving this world and all it offers, for when you love

the world, you show you don't have the love of the Father in

you. For the world offers only the lust for physical

pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our

possessions. These aren't from the Father. They're from this

evil world. And this world is fading away, along with

everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you'll

live forever (1 John 2:15-17).

It's a limited time offer, no purchase required. Your

bill's already paid. To you who are holding out, accept what

God's holding out to you. You can't close your eyes to what

the world has to offer. But you can close your heart. You

can fill it up with the truly valuable things in life until

there's no room left for the crass and craven.

The choice is yours. You can be bought and delivered by

the media -- or the Messiah.

-- By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, Brantford, ON,

Canada. Publish at will.

President Reagan said that middle age is when you're faced with two temptations and you choose the one that gets you home by nine o'clock.

An eagle, overwhelmed with sorrow, sat upon the branches of a tree in company with a Kite. “Why,” said the Kite, “do I see you with such a rueful look?’ “I seek,” she replied, “a mate suitable for me, and am not able to find one.” “Take me,” returned the Kite, “I am much stronger than you are.” “Why, are you able to secure the means of living by your plunder?’ “Well, I have often caught and carried away an ostrich in my talons.” The Eagle, persuaded by these words, accepted him as her mate. Shortly after the nuptials, the Eagle said, “Fly off and bring me back the ostrich you promised me.” The Kite, soaring aloft into the air, brought back the shabbiest possible mouse, stinking from the length of time it had lain about the fields. “Is this,” said the Eagle, “the faithful fulfillment of your promise to me?’ The Kite replied, “That I might attain your royal hand, there is nothing that I would not have promised, however much I knew that I must fail in the performance.”

Satan will go as far as to promise you the world so that you give him your allegiance. However, once you do, don’t be surprise if he or sin fails in delivering what was promised!

A HOUND, who in the days of his youth and strength had never yielded

to any beast of the forest, encountered in his old age a boar in the

chase. He seized him boldly by the ear, but could not retain his hold

because of the decay of his teeth, so that the boar escaped. His

master, quickly coming up, was very much disappointed, and fiercely

abused the dog. The Hound looked up and said, "It was not my fault.

master: my spirit was as good as ever, but I could not help my

infirmities."

"The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." For this reason,

Christians must continually rely upon the Holy Spirit to help them

overcome the evil one.

A BOY was stung by a nettle. He ran home and told his Mother, saying,

"Although it hurts me very much, I only touched it gently." "That was

just why it stung you," said his Mother. "The next time you touch a

Nettle, grasp it boldly, and it will be soft as silk to your hand, and

not in the least hurt you."

A nettle is a plant that has leaves which secrete a stinging fluid if

touched lightly.

In the same manner, if we are timid in rebuking Satan, he will easily

sting us! Instead, we must be bold in rebuking the evil one in the

name of Christ our Savior!

A CERTAIN HOUSE was overrun with Mice. A Cat, discovering this, made

her way into it and began to catch and eat them one by one. Fearing

for their lives, the Mice kept themselves close in their holes. The

Cat was no longer able to get at them and perceived that she must

tempt them forth by some device. For this purpose she jumped upon a

peg, and suspending herself from it, pretended to be dead. One of the

Mice, peeping stealthily out, saw her and said, "Ah, Mister Cat, even

though you should turn into a big cheese, we will not come near you."

In the same manner, Satan will stop at nothing to tempt Christians.

However, Christians should take the same attitude and caution as the

mice: we must not come near Satan nor his temptations.

A WOLF saw a Goat feeding at the summit of a steep precipice, where

he had no chance of reaching her. He called to her and earnestly

begged her to come lower down, lest she fall by some mishap; and he

added that the meadows lay where he was standing, and that the herbage

was most tender. She replied, "No, my friend, it is not for the

pasture that you invite me, but for yourself, who are in want of

food."

Satan operates much in the same way. He'll invite us to partake of

the pleasures of the world when, in fact, his sole goal is to destroy

our souls. Indeed, like the goat, Christians need to fend off the

enticements of Satan.

A COBBLER unable to make a living by his trade and made desperate by poverty, began to practice medicine in a town in which he was not known. He sold a drug, pretending that it was an antidote to all poisons, and obtained a great name for himself by long-winded puffs and advertisements. When the Cobbler happened to fall sick himself of a serious illness, the Governor of the town determined to test his skill. For this purpose he called for a cup, and while filling it with water, pretended to mix poison with the Cobbler's antidote, commanding him to drink it on the promise of a reward. The Cobbler, under the fear of death, confessed that he had no knowledge of medicine, and was only made famous by the stupid clamors of the crowd. The Governor then called a public assembly and addressed the citizens: “Of what folly have you been guilty? You have not hesitated to entrust your heads to a man, whom no one could employ to make even the shoes for their feet.”

It is rather amazing how many souls tend to follow Satan and his “medicine,” when Satan's medicine is nothing but empty promises and empty dreams.

A MAN came into a forest and asked the Trees to provide him a handle

for his axe. The Trees consented to his request and gave him a young

ash-tree. No sooner had the man fitted a new handle to his axe from

it, than he began to use it and quickly felled with his strokes the

noblest giants of the forest. An old oak, lamenting when too late the

destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar, "The first

step has lost us all. If we had not given up the rights of the ash,

we might yet have retained our own privileges and have stood for

ages."

If we give Satan and sin even one inch of our lives, they will come

and take it all and ultimately destroy us.

ONE WINTER a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had

compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The Snake

was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts,

bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. "Oh," cried the

Farmer with his last breath, "I am rightly served for pitying a

scoundrel."

If Christians give in to any slight temptation or evil thought, it

will eventually come back and bite them!

We can supplement our accountability to others by reading slowly

through literature designed to challenge our Christian maturity.

Consider, as an example, these questions related to sexual purity that

I had to read carefully as I read Kent Hughes' Liberating Ministry

from the Success Syndrome:

1. Are we being desensitized by the present evil world? Do things that

once shocked us now pass us by with little notice? Have our sexual

ethics slackened?

2. Where do our minds wander when we have no duties to perform?

3. What are we reading? Are there books or magazines or files in our

libraries that we want no one else to see?

4. What are we renting at the local video stores? How many hours do we

spend watching TV? How many adulteries did we watch last week? How

many murders? How many did we watch with our children?

5. How many chapters of the Bible did we read last week?

Leading the Way by Paul Borthwick, Navpress, 1989, Page 120-121

Historian Shelby Foote tells of a soldier who was wounded at the

battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War and was ordered to go

to the rear. The fighting was fierce and within minutes he returned to

his commanding officer. "Captain, give me a gun!" he shouted. "This

fight ain't got any rear!" Daily Walk, July 10, 1993

In the Australian bush country grows a little plant called the “sundew.” It has a slender stem and tiny, round leaves fringed with hairs that glisten with bright drops of liquid as delicate as fine dew. Woe to the insect, however, that dares to dance on it. Although its attractive clusters of red, white, and pink blossoms are harmless, the leaves are deadly. The shiny moisture on each leaf is sticky and will imprison any bug that touches it. As an insect struggles to free itself, the vibration causes the leaves to close tightly around it. This innocent-looking plant then feeds on its victim.

Our Daily Bread, December 11, 1992

While my wife and I were shopping at a mall kiosk, a shapely young

woman in a short, form-fitting dress strolled by. My eyes followed

her. Without looking up from the item she was examining, my wife

asked, "Was it worth the trouble you're in?"

- Drew Anderson (Tucson, AZ), Reader's Digest

Temptation often comes not at our )trongest, but our weakest moments.

When we are at the limit of our patience, love. etc. we are tempted to

be unChristian, beware. Jesus' temptation began after 40 days of

fasting.

People usually are more impressed ~hen they see us act under pressure.

One weak act may spoil a whole lifetime of witness.Tan B513

Once the great French preacher Bourdabue was probing the conscience of

Louis XIV, applying to him the words of St. Paul and intending to

paraphrase them: "For the good which I would, I do not. but the evil

which I would not, that I do." He began: "I find two men in me... The

King then interrupted the great preacher with the memorable

exclamation: "Ah, these two men, I know them well!" (\reference{Rom.

7:19}{Romans 7:19}) Tan 8515

Letter to Dear Abby: "Since I am pastor with 43 years' experience, I'd

like to offer this suggestion to the inexperienced young minister who

didn't know how to handle a very bold woman in his congregation who

had designs on him.

"Whenever I noticed a romantic twinkle in the eye of a woman in my

congregation, I always checked to make sure it wasn't caused by a

reflection from the gleam in my own. The Rev. Walter Cowen." 6517

Some time after the conversion of Augustine, he came face to face with

the woman who had been his evil genius for many months, having dragged

him deeper and deeper into the slavishness of sin until he had been

freed from its bonds by the regenerating power of the cross. When he

would have passed her with only a formal nod. she stopped him and

said, "Augustine, do you not know me any more? See, it is I." Looking

at her a moment. and knowing that she no longer held him in her evil

spell, Augustine replied, "But it is not I."

-Evangelistic Illustration Tan 6519

The sea lion is probably the clumsiest animal in the world. He likes

to bask in the sun all day, and when he moves he is exceedingly

sluggish and awkward. It has often been wondered how this animal

manages to secure his favorite food, wild sea fowl. Sea gulls are so

wild that it is difficult even for man to get within gunshot of one.

The seal seems to realize that it would be a waste of time to attempt

to crawl upon the gulls as they rest upon the water and catch them

unawares. So he watches until the gulls are soaring slowly through the

air close to the waves. Then the seal dives into the sea and swims

underneath the water for some distance from the point at which he

dived, and allows merely the tip of his great nose to appear above the

water.

Remaining in this position, he gives his enormous body a rotary motion

so that his nose describes a circle on the surface of the ocean. He

does this so skillfully that to the gull his nose looks like a water

bug at play. This catches the gull's eye and it at once darts down

with the speed of an arrow, aiming straight for the little dot. The

seal sees it coming and sinks a few inches, and as the gull strikes

the water with tremendous force the seal's jaws close upward and the

gull disappears.

-Cut Gems Tan 6529

Legend has it that Sirens were sea-nymphs who could charm listening

sailors with song. The listener is seized with an irresistible desire

to cast himself into the sea to his destruction.

Ulysees. once passing their coast, ordered the ears of his seamen

sealed with wax, and caused himself to be bound to the post, and under

no pleading or threatening to loosen him. As they approached the

enchanting coast, ravishing music came over so that Ulysees struggled

and begged to be free, but they bound him more tightly. When they had

passed, Ulysees' wisdom returned. He was unbound and the sailors' ears

unsealed. Tan 6522

There is a laboratory experiment often carried out, in which a frog is

placed in water heated at the rate of .0036 of a degree F per second

and in which, although it never moves, at the end of two and half

hours the frog is found to be dead. The explanation for this is that

the water is heated so gradually that the frog never becomes aware of

the rising temperature and is boiled to death without a struggle. If

you were to drop him suddenly into hot water he would splash it all

over the place and probably be able to jump out.

-Moody Monthly Tan 6524

In South America there is a strange vine known as the matador.

Beginning at the foot of a tree, it slowly makes its way to the top.

As it grows, it kills the tree, and when at last the top is reached,

it sends forth a flower to crown itself. Matador, means KILLER .. ..

jealousy . .. It appears harmless when it is small, but if it is

allowed to grow, its tendrils of malice and hatred soon clasp

themselves around the heart and eventually kill the soul.

-J. A. Clark Tan 6526