Traps - Your Present Doesn't Have To Be Your Future

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. I Corinthians 6:11

This week I didn’t get to make soap as I had intended, but I did come across the biggest writing spider I have ever seen. There she hung beside the downspout. She made squiggles down the middle of her web as she positioned herself look like another flower. Surrounding the downspout were purple coneflowers, day lilies, black-eyed Susans, and butterfly bushes planted in mounds along a split rail fence. Bluebird houses and birdfeeders lined the fence. Hardwood trees of every description brought shade just on the other side. The spider paused to attract her morning meal of bees or butterflies or a juicy grasshopper. Patiently she waited. She had put the handwriting on the wall for some unsuspecting bug.

When I was a kid our parents and grandparents told us if a writing spider wrote a name in a web that person would die! Nearly scared us to death. Every time we saw a writing spider we checked close to make sure she hadn’t written our name. Writing spiders were nearly as good as ghost stories for a good scare or tea cup fortunes to tell us the future. Somehow  adults aren't as interested in their futures as children. We adults tend to live for the present.  

The world puts forth its attractions, spinning a web to catch the unsuspecting; giving us the line that “It doesn’t get any better than this”. The unsuspecting cannot see the handwriting on the wall that says “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” Daniel 5:27.

However there is a way to escape the web weaved to deceive. Jesus says “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). When we repent of our sins and turn from the world to Jesus Christ, He writes our names in His book. Now, there is the place to see your name written. Revelations 21:27 says, “And there shall in no wise enter into it (heaven) any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they (the saved) which are written in the Lamb’s book of life."

So how about you? Has Jesus written your name in His book? Maybe you think you are beyond hope. That’s another trap of the world. I Corinthians 6:9,10 names some of the traps the world lays for us, but it doesn’t end there. Read on to verse 11. “And such WERE some of you:” Your present doesn’t have to be your future.

Hey Kids

Have you watched a spider spin a web?
Maybe you’ve read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.

Have you noticed the animal that kept hanging around the web when the other animals left? What happened?

Look around your yard this week for spider webs. Stop and observe for a little while.

What can the spider teach you about hanging out in the wrong place or with the wrong friends?

 

Father, help us to be aware of the traps the world offers and may each of us turn to your Son to find our secure future.  In Jesus name. Amen.