Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time."¹

According to a report in the Daily Mail (London, England), a pensioner used a  live artillery shell as a doorstop for 20 years.

For decades the seven-inch-long shell had been a family memento, polished and given pride of place on the mantle piece. The First World War relic also served as a toy and finally, for the past 20 years, as a front doorstop at the home of 68-year-old Thelma Bonnett.

At any time during all those years, however, it could have exploded. The German squat shell was live, packed with its original payload and with its firing mechanism primed, experts have said. It was only when a neighbor saw the shell outside Mrs. Bonnett's door that the danger became clear.

The police were called and they summoned Royal Navy bomb disposal experts to the house in Paignton, Devon. Several neighbors were evacuated from their homes and the device was taken to a local quarry and exploded. It had been in the family for nearly a century after her grandfather Arthur Croxall brought it home in 1918. "I had no idea it was dangerous," Mrs. Bonnett said. "Grandfather picked it up on his travels with the Merchant Navy in 1918. My father used to polish it all the time and kept it on the mantelpiece...."

A Ministry of Defense spokesman said: "The shell was packed full of explosives and it could have gone off at any time."²

It is true, as today's Scripture verse implies, sin can be pleasurable—for a short time. However, if we continue to "toy" with and live a life of sin and wrongdoing, we may not realize it, but we, too, will be sitting on a time bomb that could explode at any time—and eventually will—and destroy one's reputation, character, close relationships and/or one's physical, emotional and spiritual health. Sin always has its consequences, the end of which is eternal death which is not the cessation of our being—but being eternally separated from God, the author of all love and life, in the place the Bible calls hell—wherever and whatever that may be. One thing is certain: It will be hell!

Sin—all sin is a deadly spiritual cancer—and you either get the cancer or the cancer gets you. God has the only cure for this deadly time bomb. For help click on the "Know God" link below or visit: http://tinyurl.com/8glq9.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank You that You have provided the only cure and way of escape from sin's deadly consequences by giving Your Son, Jesus, to die in my place to pay the penalty for all my sins. Help me to be certain that I have accepted Jesus as my Savior and received Your forgiveness and gift of eternal life. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

1. Hebrews 11:24-25 (NIV).
2. Source: Daily Mail, London, England, July 2, 2007.
   To see a picture of the shell and Thelma Bonnett
   visit: http://tinyurl.com/ywtb8p.
   Cited on WITandWISDOM www.witandwisdom.org

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