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Hello my friends

The title of today’s episode is: “IT IS ALL IN THE PACKAGING”

Psalm 27:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

 Think of the extravagance of Las Vegas; everywhere you look is bling and flashing lights. It is called Sin City, and it lives up to its name. Often, things have to be painted up, glitzed up, and made fancy to be more appealing to people. They never share the ugly side of sin.

 The advertising industry is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry that paints up and glamorizes everything from dishwashing liquid to toothpaste. The better the packaging, the more they sell. 

God’s way may not be packaged with glitz and glamor but it is truth. Truth doesn’t change with the trends. Often the truth is not what we want to hear because sometimes the truth hurts. But the plain path will lead to a place where the Lamb is the Light. A place where sin is no more. The plain path leads to truth and righteousness.

The enemy will always try to paint sin as something we can’t live without. Like all the “for a limited time” gadgets that make our lives better.  After all, everyone needs all these things to make our lives better. But most of the time they are just more clutter.

The enemy comes at us with something that he knows is our weakness. He will try to get us tied up in knots. He custom-designs temptations for each of us. We have the power to walk away. We have, with God’s help, the strength to say, “Satan get behind me.”

The battle always starts in our minds. The thought will come to us to do something we know is a sin. If we reject and say get behind me, satan. We take authority over that sin. We will be strong enough to walk away.  If we entertain the thought for a moment. The next thing we know, we are caught in satan’s trap. It is always easier to get into the trap than to get out of it. One example is the story of King David and Bathsheba.

A lack of integrity in one area of our life always carries over to another area of life.

2 Sam. 11:2-4 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

(3) And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

(4) And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.

Look at David, he saw Bathsheba, he could have turned away, resisting temptation. That would have been the end of his grief. No, he stood and allowed lust to take hold of him.

Still, he could have resisted temptation. When he found out that she was someone’s wife. He should have maintained his integrity and walked away.  But he decided he didn’t care, he wanted her and that was all that mattered. He allowed his lust to draw him into an adulterous relationship with the woman he saw.

That sin led him to try to pass his child off as her husband’s child. But Uriah, her husband, refused to go home and see her.  He did not think it would be fair to his soldiers since they could not go home. David sent him to the front lines, hoping and knowing he would be killed.

One step led to something worse: to hide the first thing. This is how the enemy lures us in, one step at a time. He went from an accidental glance at a naked woman to practically committing murder.

That is why we need to be vigilant and avoid the first sign of temptation. The enemy will paint pretty pictures of the things we want, but it is all an illusion.

All that glitters is not gold.  Many fish have been caught on shiny lures that are not real.  The instinct of the fish is to look for food. It allows the shiny lure to fool it into thinking it is a smaller fish or minnow. Then, the hook is set, and it ends up in a frying pan. 

Many things have been suffered by people because they allowed Satan to make sin look shiny and pretty. No doubt Bathsheba was the most beautiful woman David had ever laid his eyes on; he should have walked away. Every step he took dug him in deeper and deeper.

We cannot leave the tiniest crack in the door to our thoughts, or the enemy will take advantage. He will stick a toe in, then a foot, and before we know it, he will use our thoughts to create a stronghold.

Not only will he have a place of constant intrusion at this point, but he will attack our conscience for ever sinning in the first place. Doubling our misery and pain.

Never think you cannot get out of the trap. All it takes is to turn from evil and ask God for his help and forgiveness. He will break the chains that have us bound and will set us free. But we have to want to escape. We cannot be like Sampson and play with the enemy.  We have to walk away.

Think about what the enemy is trying to sell you? Think about how he is packaging it, I can guarantee it will only bring pain.

UNTIL NEXT TIME,

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS