The Jungle

Last week I spoke in Seattle at a Youth Conference on the topic
t e m p t a t i o n.

I arrived with a couple of 24 foot snakes my mom whipped up from me.
It went something like this . . .

The snake kills it preys in three ways. . .
One . . .

It lurks and watches until it finds the right
moment to strike and bites its victims.
Venom slowly paralyzes the prey.
Two . . .

The snake wraps itself around its victim slowly cutting
off it's oxygen supply until it can no longer breathe.
Three . . .

It gobbles up the unassuming creature all in one bite.

A Little Lesson:
How snakes manage to attack their prey is very similar to how we can be paralyzed and even consumed by sin. Addiction, ignoring commandments, poor choices, breaking covenants and all the things we do that move us away from God cut off our spiritual oxygen and leave us weak and powerless. Of course there are snake charmers and night goggles, and anti venom and guns and traps that we can use to make it easier but there is really only one take home message that I drilled into the kids after wrapping them in snakes. . .

S t a y o u t o f t h e j u n g l e!