Memory Verse: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart.” Jeremiah 17:9, 10
The day was hot and still. Jeff, age 9, and Don, age 7, were two brothers who knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. However, today they were not acting like boys who should be “happy in the Lord.”
Flopping down on his soggy towel (for they had been playing in the sprinklers), Jeff complained, “It doesn’t seem fair! We can both swim now, and here we are like babies playing in the sprinklers! Suzie would have to get sick so that we all have to stay home.”
“Enough of that, boys!” called Mother from the kitchen window. “You ought to be thanking the Lord that you’re not sick. Poor Suzie has quite a fever. She’s asleep now, so try to be cheerful like the good soldiers of the Lord that you both say you want to be. I’ll be on the front porch watching Beth play with Bobby next door.”
After Mother left, and ignoring her advice, a very black, naughty thought began gathering in Jeff’s mind. Instead of countering the thought with a ray of light from God’s Word, he said to Don, “Hey, Don, I just heard the Sims in back of us drive out. They’re so mean they won’t let us swim in their pool.
They’re afraid we’ll drown, and they don’t want to be responsible for kids! Know somethin'? We could climb over the fence and have a quick swim. One of us will watch at the fence and...but then,” he sighed gloomily, “I s’pose you’re too chicken for any fun like that.”
“Me, chicken? Not me...but Mom and Dad....”
“There! See? I knew you were, precious Mamma’s boy!” sneered Jeff.
Don jumped as if pricked with a pin. “I’ll show you, smarty! Just for that you can guard first!”
Soon Don’s “stolen fun” was interrupted by a hiss from Jeff. “Quick! The Sims car just turned in their driveway!”
In a flash the two were “innocently” running through the sprinkler at home again. Mother entered the kitchen just in time to hear an angry voice say, “I thought I told you boys never to swim in my pool!”
Don wilted, speechless. But as often happens one sin calls for a few more. Jeff countered, “But, Mr. Sims, anybody can see we’re just playing in the sprinklers...uh, (glancing at Mother’s face again in the kitchen window) aren’t we—er—weren’t we, Mom?”
“Yeah? Well, anyone can see wet footprints headed over to your fence. Care to try ’em for size?” he sneered.
They were caught! They had to be punished for the things they had done wrong. They also had to apologize to Mr. Sims for breaking his rules. Both boys realized they had ruined any Christian witness to Mr. Sims. What poor soldiers they had proved to be!
Later as Mother spoke further with them, she said, “Boys, had I not been shown the evidence I would have been tempted to say, ‘My boys wouldn’t do a thing like that!’ But I was just thinking that that isn’t what the Bible tells us. God tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 that ‘the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?’ Now you boys have learned the sad lesson that even saved boys can be very naughty. Paul, the Apostle, says to Christians in Romans 6:13, ‘Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness.’ Today you let four of your members (your feet) carry you over that fence into sin. A good prayer each morning would be, ‘Lord, help me to keep my heart, my eyes, my hands and my feet from taking me into evil.’ By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.’ Psalms 17:4.”
“Yes, but Mom, do you think the Lord could forgive us—even today?” asked troubled Don.
“Don, you know the verse. Say it.”
"'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ 1 John 1:9.”
“Right. Of course it’s hard to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul calls it warfare even. But who is our Captain?”
“Jesus—the Lord Jesus.”
“All right now...to your rooms. Remember the Captain’s order—confession, forgiveness and back in the ranks with armor on. Read Ephesians 6 while you wait for Dad.”
ML-12/12/1982