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Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)
Cicada Killers
You may have noticed the many cicadas that have come out this year (2007). Cicadas are fun insects. They are not creepy like some bugs. They make an interesting droning noise that adds a unique and not unpleasant buzzing sound to our summer evenings. If you catch one of these large, funny-looking, and slow-moving insects, they are fun to hold and fascinating to watch.
Cicadas are relatively harmless. They are also fairly defenseless. Since they are so defenseless, they have a deadly enemy--the cicada killer wasp. Cicada killers are among the largest of the wasp family. They usually do not sting humans, but they kill cicadas and feed them to their young. Cicada killer wasps can grow to be over two inches long and are yellow and black striped in color.
Recently I watched a cicada killer wasp sting and paralyze a cicada and carry it off to its borrow where it would lay its eggs. The tenacity and ferocity of these cicada killer wasps makes me wonder if our enemy--the devil--is just as determined to attack and paralyze us.
Unlike the defenseless cicadas, however, God's children are not defenseless. God has given us the means by which we can defend ourselves against the devil. The Bible says: "
be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. . . taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:10, 16)."
1 We can also chase away the devil. The Bible says to "
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7)." Satan may try to trick us into thinking that "resistance is futile", but God tells us that we can and should resist his attacks.
The cicada killer may be able to kill a cicada with ease, but if we stay vigilant, we can avoid Satan's attacks and can be victorious as John writes: "
you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one (1 John 2:14)."
May God help us to stay strong in the Lord, put on the armor of God, abide in the word, and overcome the evil one.
Staying strong in the Lord,
Pastor Steve
September 7, 2007
Footnotes
1 Ephesians 6:10, 16, NASB (New American Standard Bible). Unless otherwise noted all
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.
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(more afterthoughts)
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