In Greg Lauries Book, the great Compromise he tells about a certain tree. This ancient redwood tree had survived 400 years in one of America’s national forests. Having survived 14 separate strikes by lightning, Earthquakes, raging storms, one day without warning, this massive tree with no apparent reason came down with a THUD!!

No ominous bolt of lightning struck it down, no budding lumberjacks were responsible, it just came down with a THUD!! When investigators pried into this mysterious case, they found that tiny beetles had weakened the tree from the inside, eating away at its life giving fibres. What massive natural disasters could not do, these tiny beetles had accomplished, all by eating it away, little by little.

Same with your life!! Do you remember when you first asked Jesus to come into your heart and you started living for him? Do you remember those times when you were CLOSE to him? Remember that first love?

Whenever God is working, the devil is right there to oppose. Perhaps we should identify those beetles, those nuisances, those little things that pull us away from God little by little. If the devil can’t get you to "SIN BIG", he will put those beetles into your life, they may seem like nuisances in your relationship with God, but they will eat away at the core of your personal relationship with God, until the space is big enough to bring you down with an immense THUD!!

Before you know it, your relationship with God will be eroded, weakened and destroyed. You see, the devil knows what button he needs to push to get you under his thumb. The Glamour’s of the world, - perhaps I’ll just go see that movie, it may be full of bad language, gore and sex, just as a once off. Meanwhile the devil is patiently waiting, licking his chops ready for a kill. Or perhaps you think that those smut filled lyrics in that music you’re listening to won’t affect you - might as well go point a gun to your head and pull the trigger, because all these things add up – DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU.

Just as the psalmist said, search me oh God and show me…. We need to ask God to show us where we are not hitting the target, but perhaps inching a tiny bit away in compromise. God ain’t a cut and paste God, he doesn’t have a user friendly interface to suit your compromise and to put blinkers on to sin.

Let me tell you a tale about a bear and a hunter. - This hunter really wanted a fur coat, and so one day he went hunting. Having spotted a bear, he carefully got the hulking furry head of the bear into his sites of his gun. His finger carefully curled around the trigger of is gun, just about to let off this prize-winning shot, when the bear briskly turned around and said, "I am sure we can come to some sort of compromise". The hunter informed the bear that he was going hunting to get himself a warm fur coat. The bear replied that he was famished and was looking out for a good meal and suggested that they go into the thick of trees to decide of a compromise. Needless to say, only the bear walked out. The Bear got his first class meal, and the hunter certainly got his fur coat.

Once you are serving God 100%, there’s no better life. Like the old hymn, I’d rather have Jesus than Porsches and Cash. ("or to be precise" silver and gold) – thanks Tintin !!