My husband and I happened to be looking out of our living room window when we saw a stray German shepherd dog coming down the sidewalk. He was looking from side to side and seemed bewildered and lost. We held our breath as he approached a big husky dog that lives across the street from us and was tied outside. We wondered if the German shepherd would notice the husky. Sure enough, he saw the dog and wagged his tail vigorously. He found his way around a snowbank and trotted right up to the place where the husky sat tied!
We were concerned because that husky doesn’t seem to like other dogs. When they pass by on leashes with their owners, he barks furiously at them and pulls hard on his rope as if to break it. We often wondered what he would do if the rope did break.
There was quite a wild meeting when the two dogs faced each other, but it didn’t last long. The owner of the husky came outside and separated them, and then he took his dog inside the house.
The stray German shepherd wandered off and seemed even more bewildered than before. We did not expect to see that dog again.
Sometimes you and I, who are saved from our sins and belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, behave like that stray German shepherd. We are not satisfied to walk in the safety of what we know is pleasing to the Lord. Instead, we wander from one attraction to another, not realizing the danger in being friendly with the world and its pleasures. God gives us a solemn warning in Proverbs 4:1414Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. (Proverbs 4:14)
15: “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.”
But the German shepherd had not learned his lesson. Two days later I could hardly believe my eyes — he was back! He was over in the yard where the husky lives and smelling all around where the husky is usually tied up. He even looked inside the husky’s doghouse! We couldn’t understand why he came back when he had already had a nasty fight with the husky. Thankfully, this time the husky must have been inside the owner’s house.
Dogs are not the only ones who sometimes don’t learn a lesson the first time and go back for more. Sometimes you and I have tried a little of the world’s pleasures and enjoyed them. We don’t see the danger, so we’ll give it another try and go just a step further. Our enemy Satan has all kinds of temptations to draw us into his “doghouse.” His aim is to lead us on until we have dishonored the Lord Jesus’ name and made ourselves miserable.
Boys and girls, men and women, let’s be on our guard and pay attention to another of the warnings from God’s Word: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:1515And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; (John 2:15)). Obeying God’s Word is truly the way of happiness.
ML-10/19/2003