Last summer our family spent a week in a little cabin that was close to a beautiful lake. My brothers, sisters and I had a great time swimming in the lake. Unknown to us, however, a fishhook was caught in the rope of the raft that we swam from.
There are attractive places to have fun, just like that raft. Satan likes to lure us there and catch us on one of his hidden hooks of sin. “As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time” (Ecclesiastes 9:1212For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. (Ecclesiastes 9:12)).
We swam in the lake for several days, climbing on and off the raft, before someone got caught on the fishhook, and that someone was me! At first I tried to shake it off, but all I did was make the barb dig deeper into my ankle. Ouch! Now I was really stuck, and since my leg was underwater, I couldn’t get the fishhook out by myself.
Since I couldn’t help myself, I called to my older sister. She was happy to help out.
When you and I realize that Satan has “caught” us in the trap of sin, we also need to understand that it is a deadly trap and that we cannot help ourselves. But there is always help nearby; the Lord Jesus is waiting to hear our call for help. “Surely [the Lord] shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler” (Psalm 91:33Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. (Psalm 91:3)).
It was no problem for my sister to get the fishhook out of my ankle and then throw it away. But when the Lord Jesus came to save us, He had to die on the cross to set us free from our sins. He bore the punishment there for the sins of every person who calls to Him with their need, and then He removes those sins out of His sight forever. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:1212As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)).
Would you like to have your “fishhook” of sins removed forever? “Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world” (Galatians 1:34). “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:5757But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)).
Mike overheard his mother tell Patty, his older sister, that there was money on the table to buy some hot dogs. “Will you please run to the store for me?” she asked. “Daddy will be home in an hour, and I haven’t started dinner yet.”
Mike, who was just four years old, thought to himself, I know where the store is. I can do it. So he took the money off the table and ran off all alone. He really thought that he was doing the right thing and was happy that he could be Mother’s helper.
It had been warm when Mike had played outside earlier in the day. But now the wind picked up, and as he walked and skipped to the store he was getting cold.
Mike was only gone a few minutes when Mother wondered where he was. She went all through the house calling and looking for him. “Mike, Mike!” she called out the door several times. Then she asked Patty to look around for him before she went to the store. She called him too, but there was no answer. No one had seen Mike leave, so no one knew where he was. Mother was worried. Where could he have gone? She decided to call the police.
“Are you lost, little boy?” a gentle voice asked Mike.
He looked up into the face of a kind lady and started to cry. “I can’t find my mommy,” he sobbed, “and I’m cold.”
The lady picked up little Mike and held him close as she walked down the street to the nearest phone. She called the police and told them about Mike. They thought he was probably the same little boy that they were looking for. Soon a police car came to take Mike home, and it was not long until he was safe with his parents again.
The first thing Mike said when he got home was, “Look, Mommy, I got the hot dogs!” Sure enough, he had brought a bag home with him, and in it was a package of hot dogs and the change from the money.
Now Mother figured out what he had done. “Couldn’t you find your way home?” Mother asked, holding him tightly.
“No, I couldn’t find our street, and I walked and walked,” explained Mike.
Poor Mike. He had turned the wrong direction after coming out of the store. He had been going the wrong way!
Mike was really lost. He had walked and walked, trying to find his own way home, but couldn’t. He needed someone to help him, to show him the way. The lady who found him knew just what to do to get Mike back home.
The Bible tells us that “the Son of Man [the Lord Jesus Christ] is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)). It also tells us that we have all turned our own way. Each of us is a sinner and going away from God. We are lost and cannot find our own way back to Him. It is sin that keeps us away. We are lost -lost in sin.
But God sent His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to save the lost. God says you need a Saviour. Little Mike admitted that he was lost. We know he was glad to accept the kind lady’s help. He did not tell her to go away, that he would find his own way home. Will you admit that you are lost and accept the Lord Jesus as your Saviour? God cannot accept you with your sins, but the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood to wash away sins. Accept Him as your Saviour, so that when this life is over He will take you to His home in heaven forever.
ML-07/27/1997