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Subject: Fwd: Gems From My Reading - 4809
From: Norman Hiebert <njhiebert@sympatico.ca>
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"Be of good cheer."
"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil."
(Ephesians 6:1"
The Cowbird
There are a goodly number of cowbirds that visit our bird feeder.
They are basically black (the males, that is) with a bronze, rather iridescent head.
They tend to be bullies with the other birds, but here is the most interesting fact about them:
The females don't build nests - they lay their eggs in other bird's nests.
The other bird, then sits on her eggs - plus the impostor egg(s), and,
Eventually they hatch.
The young cowbird is usually larger that the others,
which leads to the demise of some of the other birds.
There is more about that issue that we could add and discuss,
but for our purposes today let's draw a parallel to our reality.
Our verse today mentions the schemes of the devil.
Other ways of translating that would be, "deceit" or "trickery."
We are not ignorant of the devil's trickery, yet, if we're not careful we can fall prey to it.
Like the cowbird egg, Satan will "lay" a thought in our minds, and if we "incubate" it,
it will bring harm when it hatches into an action.
When we recognize a thought that we know will lead us astray,
here's what the Scriptures encourage us to do:
"Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Dear friend, (I speak first and foremost to myself), when those thoughts come,
I must not "sit on them and warm them."
They are enemy thoughts; they are harmful thoughts; they are not Godly thoughts;
They will bring a destructive result to my soul and to my fellowship with my God.
When you or I recognize such thoughts, let's capture them, confess them to Christ as sinful,
and then let Him focus our attention on wholesome, God-honoring things.
We want that bad egg out of our nest!
(H.G - F.P.)
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