In This Issue:
Catching Monkeys
It Cannot be Tamed
A Wormhole
A Snow Story
Volume: 1024 October 27, 2025
Theme: Sin
Catching Monkeys
Bill Brinkworth
Many hunters use their skills with bows and arrows, blowguns, and spears to kill monkeys. Missionary Arnold Skelton told of an interesting way that natives capture the primates.
Some clever hunters have figured out a way that monkeys can trap themselves. The hunter would scour the jungles looking for the right-sized, wild gourd. It would have to be large and big around the middle.
After the gourd had dried for several weeks, he would cut a two-inch hole in the side and a smaller one in the top, through which a rope could be passed and the gourd hung from a tree. He would then take the insides out of the gourd, leaving an empty, hard-shelled trap that he would use to catch a monkey dinner.
After finding the right place in the jungle where there were plenty of monkeys, he would hang his trap from a tree. In the center of the gourd-trap, he would place several handfuls of peanuts and then leave his monkey-catcher.
In a short time, the curious creatures would scamper over to see what the man had left behind. A glance and a long sniff would reveal to the monkeys that one of their favorite foods was conveniently close by — and easy to get!
One monkey would venture first. He would look the gourd over well. The gourd was a common sight to the creature and would not rouse many questions, and inside, he would discover wonderful, plump peanuts. What more could a monkey ask for?
Into the gourd would venture one monkey’s hand, grasp one or two peanuts, and then slowly, he would ease out his hand. Easy pickings! He got a handful and they were so good!
Perhaps another monkey saw how easily it was done. He, too, wanted his share. In would go his little hand, and not wanting to miss out on this free deal (“Why, some of the other monkeys may go next and not leave any more for me!”), he would grab as many as he could get. His hand was now too big to get back out of the hole. When he tried to pull back his hand, it would not come out through the gourd’s hole. His hand was stuck.
He would pull and pull, but to no avail. The creature was caught. There seemed to be no way out. His own selfishness had bound him to the trap. It would never dawn on him to let go of the peanuts. There, he would be captured until the hunter returned and easily killed the monkey.
So many people are in a similar trap. It may not be a lust for peanuts that has them bound, but it may be bondage to cigarettes, drinking, drugs, lying, adultery, stealing, or some other sin that has them caught.
At first, the sin looked harmless to them. “Everyone was doing it, and it seemed to be okay.” Finally, sin’s noose tightened, and there was no longer any fun or enjoyment in the iniquity.
It has them caught. There seems to be no escape from the terrible wage (and there always is at least one) of the sin. There is. Let go, before it’s too late!
“Oh, it’s easy to say, but harder to do,” many claim the excuse. There is only one way to escape the consequences of sin, and that is to leave it. No person can do it for you. No pill will take sin’s grip away. No good work will erase it. You have to break the bind. The sin has to be stopped. The longer it continues, the stronger its grip.
“Well, I can’t stop this sin.” Well, maybe YOU can’t. There is, however, another way to get the victory. This way is to call upon the Lord to help you. He can help you get the win over this world, its traps, and snares. You must trust in Him to show you the way out.
Here are some Bible verses about letting go and letting God help you get the victory over the devices of this world:
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13
“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:29-31
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10
“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” II Corinthians 12:10
The only way you will know His will and way is if you read His book. His Word is exactly that, His words. The Bible is a book with the preserved plans of God to help you through life. You will never know His way if you do not read it and you will never get the victory unless you obey it.
Yes, little monkey, there is a way out of your predicament. Let go and let your Heavenly Father help release you from sin’s bondage.
“In diving to the bottom for pleasures, we bring up more gravel than pearls.”
—Author Unknown
It Cannot be Tamed
C. H. Spurgeon
I have heard of a man who kept a tame leopard in his house. It had been nursed from the time it was a cub, and it wandered about the house like a cat.
One day, while the master was asleep, the leopard licked his hand. As it licked a place where the skin was thin and broken, blood began to flow. Soon,s all the wild instincts of the beast flashed from its furious eyes.
The man suddenly woke and saw the situation. His end was near unless he should be quick and skillful enough to destroy the animal.
Do you think he paused or hesitated? No, a loaded pistol was within his reach, so he stretched out his hand quietly, grasped it firmly, aimed it steadily, fired it instantly, and the creature lay dead at his feet. It had come to this: either he must kill it, or it would kill him.
Is it so with you? Your sins may have begun to draw “blood” from you already. Those stings of conscience, that empty purse, that lack of peace, those red eyes all are starting to tell what sin can do.
Not yet do you know all sin’s horror. Before the leopard of iniquity springs upon you and speedily tears you to pieces, God help you to give it up!
“Secret sin down here is open scandal in Heaven.” — Dr. Chafer
You have seen an apple with a wormhole in it. Do you know whether the worm began to bore the hole in the apple from the inside or from the outside? Many would say from the outside, but a scientist will agree with the observer who declares that the worm began on the inside. In fact, they tell us that the egg was laid in the blossom and that the worm was hatched in the heart of the apple, whence he bored his way out.
That is precisely the way the worm of sin starts work in the human life. It begins in the heart and bores its way out. We know it is true that out of the heart are the issues of life. We must never forget that the heart must be sound, or the life will be mutilated.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Prov. 4:23
A Snow Story
Author Unknown
It was wintertime, and the freshly fallen snow had clothed the whole face of the country in a beautiful white robe. Crossing a field with her milk can in hand was a little girl. She was on her way to the farmhouse to buy some milk. In the middle of the field, she stopped and took three looks.
She looked around. All was pure and white: the hedges, the trees, the ground, and the house. All were covered with snow.
She looked within. The little girl thought of her sins, of how many wrong words she had spoken, and of how many bad things she had done. She felt she was dirty with her sins and not at all like the snow around her.
She looked up. She turned to the Saviour of sinners, and from the field rose her cry, “Lord, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Would the Lord hear that cry? Indeed, He would. He answered it at once and gave that little girl knowledge and confidence that His precious blood cleansed her from all sin, and that she was whiter than snow in His sight.
“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7