Do not let the old life entangle you

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV)

There was once a story told of man who was created in God's image. He dwelt in a beautiful garden and was splendid and pure. One day the devil persuaded the man to deny God and so the man fell from God's glory. Slowly a vine of deceit and evil grew up around this man. The vine was so intense that it sucked the very life out of him. But one day the Gardener, in his grace and love, sent his only Son to sever the stem of that vine and free the man from its life sapping grip. The vine perished and the devil lost his hold on the man. Though its creepers still clung to him, the man was no longer under its bondage. Slowly, as he grew closer the Lord his God, one by one, the branches and creepers of the vine that had entangled and threatened the man's life, fell away. The man was free to once again enjoy the splendour of his created purpose: to freely walk with Father in the cool of the day.

Wise Quote: “We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure”  ~Samuel Johnson