Flee from the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. I opened the patio door this morning and walked right into a spider web. I really hate when that happens. It freaks most of us out for one reason. We know that a spider web is made by spiders. If there's a web, there's a spider. Now, I'm not terrified by a spider. A spider is not a bear, for goodness sake. But I I don't want a spider on me any more than I'm sure the spider wants me in its web. We steer clear of spider webs when possible. That can be difficult because most webs are nearly invisible. Often by the time you see it, it's too late. You're already in it. You actually feel it before you see it. You'll then spend the next five minutes doing a little get that thing off me. What if there's a spider on me dance. You all know what that looks like. You've seen other people do it, and you've probably done it yourself. After that little dance, you're likely to spend the next couple hours trying to free your face and hair of what feels like spider web while also feeling like there's a spider crawling on you. The dread of it doesn't go away quickly. It's too bad that we walk into sinful situations without the same feeling of dread that comes over us when we hit a spider web. We should you know, the apostle Paul told Timothy, his young preacher apprentice, to flee the evil desires of youth and to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Just like others who call on the name of the Lord with pure heart, sin is no joke. We are all vulnerable, and the moment we become arrogant and boast that we can be in sinful situations or around sinful people without being adversely affected, we become even more vulnerable. It's when we don't see the danger that we are most at risk. I want to leave you today with this thought. A true hero in God's eyes is not the guy who runs into a situation guns blazing, having no fear that he can fall. The true hero is the guy who avoids danger whenever possible and who fights only if there is no other way out.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to dailythoughtspodcastmail.com. Have a great day and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.