When I was young, I was into everything, and one day we found someone that was willing to show us something that has forever stuck in my mind! A couple of my friends were with me and we were playing Army Man─not too unusual for boys that were military brats, around 11-12 years of age.
Our street ran down a small hill and into a huge field. Just on the other side of the field was Interstate Highway 410, and just beyond that was another field. It was in this field that they had begun dumping a lot of excess material like used asphalt, huge piles of gravel and oddly enough, there were about six-huge mountains of sand. The sand of course was used as a stabilizing material when they would repair or build new highways in our area. This was the site that had the materials for disaster.
We loved running up and down the hills, except on the old used asphalt─mostly because it was really hard, stinky and stuck to our clothes if we fell down. The piles of dirt were better but they had piles of red ant beds in them, and if you have never run into red ants, let me just say, they bite you and it stings like the dickens and the skin blisters. For anywhere from a day to almost a week, these bites would itch something terrible, thusly, we moved on to the mountains of sand; no ants, and no stink sticking to our clothes either.
One day we had been digging all our foxholes and firing BBs from one hill to the opposing enemy of the other hill, when an older man showed up and told us we would have to leave. We stated that we weren’t hurting anything and that we were just playing, what had we done wrong? He then asked us to come down and follow him for a second, he had something to show us, so down we came and we followed him.
Directly on the other side of the mountains of sand, there had once been a pond of sorts, also mostly tall brush and whatever got thrown in the pond by the loaders. What we didn’t know and he did know is that it had turned into something akin to quicksand! There were signs around the area that stated such, much to our surprise. In showing us this, he had been worried for us.
The other thing was, we had been digging and making walls (however short they were), and they were dangerous if they fell on us and buried us. In the space of five minutes we had received quite the harrowing lessons on the “bad effects” sand can and does present at times─under the right conditions. The man was nice about it and stated he didn’t want any of us to be killed or hurt, simply because we didn’t know about the conditions that could arise. He didn’t have to say anything to us, but he felt responsible─thus he warned us.
We left the area thanking him and were off to find something a little safer to play around. There is one thing I do remember when I looked at the sand and the quicksand. It didn’t “look dangerous.” What a deception that was! Yet the results could have been catastrophic!
Our lives are much like that situation with the quicksand. Just the sand alone, everything appears all right, safe to traverse, to work in, and yet the end-result is sometimes catastrophic! And the reason is because we never take the time to really investigate what we are dealing with. We simply run headlong, never looking back, never wondering if we are doing the right thing! Maybe the catastrophic event does not center around on you, but it does eventually hit on someone close to you.
1 John 1.5-10: “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Proverbs 16:9: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.”
Ephesians 2.8-10: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
John 15.4: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
If you are willing to read these verses above, slowly and carefully, with the idea of applying them to your life everyday, you will come away with the idea that this world is full of sand pits and quicksand. It then becomes real to you, that you need someone to rescue you when you’re in trouble or to teach you things that would eventually save you not only time, but your life.
We like to spend time thinking about all the things that make us happy, that give us a sense of safety, the assurance that all is well in our little world. The problem is: Too few are willing to understand that Satan and his ilk absolutely HATE YOU and they will do whatever they are allowed to do, to not only harm or kill you, but to destroy any harmony that you may be experiencing. That is the reason the born-again believer knows from the Bible, to call upon the Lord at every turn─before any action, and that our “steps” are to be “guided” by HIM and NOT that other looser, Satan.
As young boys, we could have told the man to mind his own business, yet in those days, we listened to our elders, for our own good. I am positive that you can look around you today and see, few, if any─that would be willing to address a situation like ours. The deception that Satan wants you and me to believe is that everything is just fine and there are no worries at all.
So go ahead have as much fun as possible, do whatever makes you feel good, don’t worry, no one is going to know, no one is going to find out either! And then Satan sits back and laughs his butt-off when the opposite takes place and you’r e standing there all alone. You fell for his lies, hook-line-and-sinker!
Here’s the real question: “If you KNOW Satan is the father of lies, WHY do you listen to him? Stay away from the mountains of sand and the quicksand. If not, the result will be catastrophic at best, and it’s YOUR own fault!
John 3.16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”