Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
How He Reels in the Catch Theme of the Week: The Lure of Lust Friday, July 12, 2002
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July/August 200254How He Reels in the CatchTheme of the Week: The Lure of Lust How He Reels in the Catch Theme of the Week: The Lure of Lust Friday, July 12
Key Bible Verse: When the Lord comes, he will bring our deepest secrets to light (1 Corinthians 4:5). Bonus Reading:Proverbs 6:24–35
Satan doesn't practice catch and release. His goal is to keep a fish on the line until that fish is plopped into his bucket—and then mounted.
Once a bass feels the pain of that embedded hook, it begins to fight. It splashes and thrashes.
Do we splash and thrash when our sexual sin is discovered? No question about it. Our splashing and thrashing often takes the form of justification. "It was only one time." (We must never kid ourselves. There's no such thing as "just a little sex.") Or "It was only sex—it wasn't love." (Sexual intercourse involves not only body parts, but all of a person's identity, emotions, and soul.) Splash, splash. Thrash, thrash.
Once a person commits a sexual sin, it's much easier to commit yet another act. The thinking is, Well, I've already messed up and destroyed my purity (or dented my fidelity), so why stop now?
Anytime you find yourself on the line, hooked into yielding to temptation, the only way to snap the line is to ask the Lord to forgive you of your sin, to cleanse you of it, and to free you from its grip. And then, swim free! Refuse to yield to the temptation of that lure again.
—Ed Young in Fatal Distractions
My Response: I'll swim free from Satan's lure by committing to …
Thought to Apply: Many … attractive temptations are like some television commercials: frequently deceptive and frightfully costly. —William A. Ward (writer, 20th century)
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