THE CHRISTIAN
the most exciting thing in life. He may argue, “After all, did not God put this passion into your veins?" At that point he certainly does not look or sound like Professor Thie- licke's portrayal. In Los Angeles, a seventeen year old girl in trouble sobbed to her doctor, “ I shouldn't have — but really, I didn't think it was consid ered so very 'wrong' any more." A young man sat in my office and blurted out, "Look, just because some old man spent a night on a mountain and said, 'Do not com mit adultery,' why should I let that spoil my fun?" Another girl told her pastor, "I guess I am doing wrong — but I do not want to be square." You will be interested in this case study of another young man who recognized temptation for what it was. He lost his job and went to jail instead of entering into sexual looseness. Let me share Joseph's story recorded in Genesis 39:7-12. Read it for yourself and be amazed at his dedication to that which was right in the sight of God. Joseph was an executive on the way to the
Helmut Thielicke, the noted Ger man theologian, tried an interest ing experiment with some refugee children from East Germany. He was in charge of a Punch and Judy puppet show. He himself was to play the devil. He wielded a hor rible, fiery red puppet in one hand and croaked in a menacing voice as one might picture Satan. Intones brimming with sulphur he urged the boys and girls to indulge in ev ery conceivable kind of naughti ness. They were to talk back to their parents, stick their tongues out at their elders, and drop ba nana peels on the sidewalk so people would slip and fall. A re markable thing happened. The children did exactly the opposite to what they had been told. Actu ally, they shouted down the pro fessor as he sought to hand out his devilish advice. Would not we do the same thing? None of us is so depraved that we want to obey Satan. This is why when the devil approaches us he does so in disguise. Tempting in the area of sex, it is always pre sented as something delightful and
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