Welcome to Friday, July 23rd!

Today’s episode of The Cross Talk Daily Devotional is titled:

Clever Tales!

Thanks for listening!

If you desire further information, you may request it from [email protected].

Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995}

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This is Pastor Warren Swanson - creator and host of the Serving Jesus Christ podcast site with your Friday, July 23rd Cross Talk Daily Devotional.

May these words and thoughts bless you and provide you with ideas to think about as you live out this day!

Today's episode is titled:

Clever Tales

I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but my wife and I were blessed to have seven children - made up of five girls and two boys.

When the older ones were small, I told them stories about Albert, who lived in the loft of the garage.

I described him as an old dwarf. I would hold my hand about 3 feet off the ground to define his height. Then, I would point to my nose while telling them that he had a wart on the end of his nose and then to my head and tell them he had red hair.

Part of the tale was that he always snuck into the house at night and ate up the leftovers in the refrigerator. We told the kids that it was a good idea to stay upstairs after going to bed. They wouldn’t want to run into Albert in the dark.

When the kids asked why he only ate leftovers, I told them that he considered them a treasure to steal from us since we had saved them.

So, every couple of days, I would say something like, "What happened to that leftover chicken leg from last night?"

Several kids would answer in unison, "Albert took it."

Then one of them had the bright idea one day that we should go out into the garage and see if we could discover him.

Several of the kids and I trudged out to the garage. Something moved up in the loft as we stood there, which caused a little dirt cloud to sift through the slats in the floor.

My oldest daughter at the time started hollering, "I saw him! I saw him!" and went running into the house to tell her mother.

After the kids left, I got a ladder and looked up in the loft, expecting to see a cat, a bird or something. Nothing was up there. Afterward, I wondered if God doesn't have a sense of humor sometimes.

These days they laugh when I bring up the Clever Tale about Albert.

There are many Clever Tales told today, the most clever of which are the tales told by Satan.

His tale begins with the words:

Don't worry; you are just fine the way you are!

Satan seeks to quash any idea of God. He proposes instead that all the stories told of God are, in fact, the clever tales.

And yet, men and women feel a vacuum within their souls.  There is a nagging hunger for that "something" in every human being. Most people don't know what it is, but they still seek to find that which will fill their inner emptiness. They try to fill it with entertainment, work, sex, religion, and many other things. But nothing works.

The Apostle Paul counsels believers in:

Colossians 2:8 NAS95

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

These empty philosophies and deceptions have captured the unbelieving world around us. Your lost friends, family members, and neighbors are those who are in this web of Satan’s clever tales.

As much as they seek answers within this world, the finite can not provide the eternal answers needed in life.

Take a moment to pray for these people in your life. Ask the Lord to provide you with opportunities to minister to them.

Let’s Pray,

Gracious Heavenly Father,

Satan’s clever tales seem to be everywhere today blinding the hearts of men and women.

Help us to be ready to counteract these tales.

Help us to see the need to be students of Your Word and prayer so that we are equipped to come against Satan’s Clever Tales.

In the Name of Jesus,

Amen!