Cream Puffs and Rattlesnakes

Consider this scenario: on the supper table is fried chicken, homemade biscuits, creamed potatoes, and steamed broccoli.  The kids woof down the chicken, biscuits and potatoes, but left all alone on their otherwise clean plates is ... steamed broccoli.  "Dennis, why didn't you eat your broccoli?" "Mom, I'm stuffed!"  "Dustin, you didn't clean your plate."  "Hey, I can't eat another bite!"  Then Mom says, "Who wants apple pie and ice cream?"  A chorus of "I do! I do!"  Ha!

 

Doesn't this scene sound familiar ... from your childhood, from your own kids? Steamed broccoli -- that dog just won't hunt for most kids, but now – apple pie & ice cream ... that's altogether different.  This scene describes how we treat sin.  Billy Sunday said this about sin's success: "One reason sin has flourished ... is that it has been treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake."  Only recently, Mr. Bill killed a copperhead snake that had come in quietly and unnoticed through a small gap underneath the basement door.  This is exactly how sin moves into our lives:  we’re caught completely unaware of its deadly strike unless we are watching for its presence.  Don't believe me?  What about that those television shows or movies we watch oppose Godly principals?  Or the books and magazines we read that defy the purity of Christ? Or perhaps those business acquaintances who coax us into unbecoming Christian behavior?  James 4:7 offers good sound advice to help us be ready for sin's uninvited approach: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."  When our first move each morning is to our knees, we will begin the day submitted to One Who knows all and sees all, and we are less likely to fall victim to Satan's rattlesnakes ... disguised as a cream puffs!  Thanks to Mr. Bill, the snake is dead and the gap underneath the door repaired!  Believer, beware of sin’s deadly nature and Satan’s sinister approach.  Watch out for those deadly cream puffs!