Sample of Daily Encounter by Dick Innes

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom” (Song of Solomon 2:15, NIV).

“Many of us are prone to chuckle at the idea of sin today. It is an old joke, but it still gets a laugh: A man visiting a strange town stopped at a telephone booth to call his motel. In the booth he saw a sticker that said, ‘If you are tired of sin, read John 3: 16.’ Some wayward scribe had written in below the sticker, ‘If you are not tired of sin call Klondike 3-3344.’

“We chuckle but the truth of the matter is that the more we know about life and people the more aware we are of how great a price is paid because of moral weakness. As Elbert Hubbard once noted, ‘People are not punished for their sins, but by them.’ Many years ago a large fishing boat sprung a leak. Bringing it in for repairs, the owners discovered a hammer that had been left in the bottom of the boat years before by the builders. The constant motion of the ship had caused the hammer to beat against the insides of the boat until it had worn away the wood and the metal and caused the leak that nearly sank the ship. Unresolved sin and guilt can do that to a person. Sin has a tendency to destroy from within.”1

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please confront me with every sin, weakness and unresolved character issue in my life, help me to submit myself to you and resist the devil, because I know he will flee from me. And give me the help I need to overcome these things so they won’t hurt or destroy my life, or hurt any of my loved ones. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

1. From King Duncan http://www.sermons.com