The Devil You Say!

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.

"One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me," said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.

Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."

He thought he knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.

"Come here quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls."

The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk." When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled to the cemetery. Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me..."

The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been tellin' the truth. Let's see if we can see them." Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything.

The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of them.

At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. That's all. Now let's go get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done."

They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the boy on the bike."

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People seem to either joke about the devil or blame him for all kinds of stuff, but the truth is he primarily comes to tempt us away from the safe boundaries God has set for us (His commandments, His Word and His specific area of calling for us). He tempts us to make a mess in the house of God instead of being watchful and caring for our Master's house (the Church). The devil will come time after time to tempt us and tell us we're not really free. However, true freedom only comes in being a servant of the Lord!

We should recognise Satan's tactics and resist him to his face and he will flee - Martin Luther, the famous reformer, did this. One night he woke up and the devil was the the end of his bed. Martin Luther said,"Oh! It's only you!", and he went back to sleep.