Crept In Unawares

Monday AM. (8-mile hike)

A beautiful morning on the Prairie Spirit trail. The sun peeked over the horizon shortly after 7am. The sunrise usually reveals a coyote or two on the trail, but I am fine not seeing any this morning (they still creep me out a little). A certain thought came to me as I hiked along: "It's not what you can see on the trail that you have to worry about, it's what lurks in the darkness."

Every once in a while you hear about a hiker who was all alone out in the wild. As he walked on the straight and narrow path, he was focused on the lit trail ahead, taking caution of any potential danger: the fallen limb of a tree, an inconvenient root, or a pit on the trail that might have caused him to trip. Then all of a sudden, out of the cover of darkness, a predator attacks; be it a mountain lion, a rattlesnake, poisonous spider, a disease infested tick, or any of a thousand other little creeping things.

Boy, does this apply spiritually! As Christians, we need to watch out for the "Creeps." In the Epistle of Jude, we are warned:

"...earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." (Jude 3,4)

Friends, I too exhort you to walk on "the straight and narrow path." Watch out for the "Creeps" in the darkness that would love to devour your faith!