Peas or the High Priest

Charles Spurgeon told the story of a preacher who was strolling through a village. As he walked along, he saw a man going down the road with a herd of pigs following in line behind him like sheep following behind a shepherd.  This was a very unusual sight, because pigs, ordinarily, are very self-centered, independent creatures that never follow anyone. So, the preacher asked, "Sir, how do you get those pigs to follow you like that?" 
 

"Oh, it's easy," the farmer said. "I have a sack full of peas in my pocket; and I just keep walking, occasionally dropping a pea on the road behind me. The pigs follow along wherever I drop a pea and gobble it up, never caring where I'm leading them." 

 

"That's very clever!" said the pastor. "By the way; where are you leading them?"

 

And the man said, "To the butcher's shop, of course." 

 

The devil often follows the same strategy. The Bible warns us, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). But he rarely carries a big sign that says, "Follow me, so I can devour you." He knows we wouldn't follow him if he was that obvious. Instead, he works subtly to draw us away from God's good will for our lives. 

 

Just like the farmer in that story, the devil drops little, fleshly temptations in front of us through the elements of our culture: a suggestive movie or television show here; an off-color story or inappropriate joke there; a seductive advertisement or pop song here; a pornographic magazine or web page there. Satan knows our earthly, sinful human nature. He knows what tempts us, regardless of gender or age. He’s got centuries of experience over all of us.

 

And if we aren't alert, we follow along behind, picking such things up and thinking, "I can handle this. This isn't so bad. It's just a little pea, after all. It tastes good. Who's it going to hurt? Who's going to care? Who's going to know?" We gobble these tempting little "peas" up, one after another; never realizing that they're forming a straight line that is leading us down a slippery slope to destruction and loss. 

 

The answer that the Bible gives to such things is summed up in one word: "Flee" (1 Corinthians 6:18). 

 

It’s not that simple though, is it? We can’t do it on our own strength. It helps to know that we have Someone that can, and will, give us the strength to fight the power of Satan. Jesus is our High Priest that knows how tempted we are by Satan and life here on earth.

 

“Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death…For this reason He had to be made like His brother in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is ABLE TO HELP THOSE WHO ARE BEING TEMPTED.” Hebrews 2:14-18

 

Find yourself tempted, stumbling and feeling guilty? Don’t let such things get you down and cause you to give up. Our precious Savior, Jesus Christ, knows exactly what you’re going through. He was tempted but did not yield thus He will give us the strength we need to fight temptation. But He can only help by how connected we are with Him. Get connected. Pray, read, and meditate on His word.

 

Peace.

Packing Your Parachute

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.

"I packed your parachute," the man replied. 

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. 

The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"

Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor." 

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time, the fate of someone he didn't know.







Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory -- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through your day, week, this month, and this year, recognize people who “pack your parachutes”.