"How did you get caught?"

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I heard a question.

An ex-felon was being interviewed by some students. One student asked him, "How did you get caught?"


The ex-felon's answer? "A momentary lapse in concentration."


"It wasn't the feds?"


"Well," the ex-offender said, "the feds would like to take credit for it. But in reality, for a moment I was concentrated on something else."


Wow!

So us!

How do we get caught?

We have a 'momentary lax of concentration'! A momentary lax of focus!

The enemy tries to take credit for it, but he only sets the bait, while we're the ones that turns our heads. We loose our looks! We loose our concentration. We take our faces off of our Savior's. Our attention's stolen! And then, before we meant for it to happen, sin catches us in its trap and we find ourselves imprisoned by it! Caught... by the very thing that we turned to!

Scary how quickly it can happen.


Hebrews 12:2 says, "Let us FIX our eyes on Jesus..." And then for the rest of our lives in our try to.... sin tempts, the enemy fights and will try to use anything to turn our heads..... and trap us!


Let me give you an example... 


I was talking to a girl in prison the other day. She's fired up for Jesus! She consumes her time in studying about Him. And if you're around her very long, she can preach it, girlfriend! Her animosity for her Savior is powerful and contagious! I've not known her long, but I'm impressed with her passion.


She came to class on Wednesday. We went about our lesson with enthusiasm until some question was asked. I don't remember what it was, so I can't remember what prompted her answer, but then she told us of the new fury at hand. Her mom had recently died and she's not liking what her brother is doing with her affairs while she's stuck inside a prison with absolutely no say-so. She's so mad that you can feel the heat from just sitting by her. After she finished, I asked, "But is it worth it? The things that you're now mad at him for because of the things that you want that you can't get?" In her eyes, at the moment, they daggered: It is! I didn't get very far in my attempt to convince, so we continued on with the lesson.


It was right after then that this sentence came up from the book in our study, "Verse 11 [in 2 Cor 2:10-11] says that if we refuse to forgive, Satan finds an open door to outwit us or take advantage of us.... The enemy specializes in taking advantage over someone's refusal to forgive."


Needless to say, her eyes opened wide at the timely perfectness of the statement! This is the perfect example of the enemy trying to make us "momentarily loose our concentration" and focus so that we'd be caught! If she focuses too long on her anger toward her brother, rage wins.. and soon bitterness takes over. In her freedom, she's lost her look and become imprisoned again!


"Fix your eyes on Jesus..."! Yes! A simple fix....... A real FIX on the true Face will stop any trap from happening!


We need a true FIX!.. despite all of the things that tries to steal it!


:)
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