The Spider

Okay, I was up at 4:00am watching the financial reports, reading a book a buddy named Ron gave me called Half Time and pouring my first cup of addiction from San Luis Obispo’s fine coffee company. As I was pouring my coffee, I noticed a small spider hanging out in the sink, next to my coffee pot. After watching this little critter try & get out of his predicament, I turned the water on and drained him down, if you will. Oh, about 20 minutes later, I proceeded to the kitchen to grab my second cup and low-in-behold, there that spider was, resolved to not only get out of the sink, but to live. As you might imagine, I washed him down again. Well, this went on three, four times - over the span of a few hours. On my last cup of coffee, my fourth, I poured him down again and left the house to walk along the beach, to spend some time praying for my wife, kids, the ministry, etc. When I came home to rinse out my last cup of coffee, you guessed it, the spider was back out of the drain staring me in the face with a resolve, “…I’m going to beat you!” Well, since I’m not a real fan of spiders, I put him out of his misery and mine (you see, I would have dreams tonight that the little spider that I didn’t take out was going to make it to our bedroom and get the last laugh with a bite on my nose - you know what I mean…)!

As I thought about this crafty critter, I began to see the parallel of how sin continues to rear its ugly head to not only control us, but to also destroy us. In all reality, my spider this morning wasn’t poisonous; however, you never know what he had in mind. Now, Satan is referred to, among many things, as a roaring lion seeking to and fro for whom he may devour. If you’ll allow me a different metaphor for a moment (thanks…): sin is like a spider (forgive me if you like spiders…) - poisonous, with a propensity, destroy the believer every time unless it is put to death. Paul wrote to the church at Rome that as believers we are to put to death sin and put on Jesus (paraphrased). You see, if we don’t put to death sin, it will come back, just like my little spider this morning, and rear its ugly head with one goal in mind: your death!

So, what does all this mean? Go and take out as many spiders as you can…no, not really! Rather, as believers, may we have David’s heart for the Lord to search our heart to determine if any wicked way (…spider…) is present, have Him remove that and give us the propensity to depend upon that Holy Spirit of promise within us that He might create that special people, His holy nation…to proclaim His amazing wonders!

Pastor Randy