Flee also youthful lusts:………..II Timothy 2:22

……………flee from idolatry.  I Corinthians 10:14

My family lived on a fifty’s type farm early in my childhood.  By fifty’s type farm, I mean a small farm that had a little bit of everything (livestock & crops) and a farm on which most of the family food was grown.

There were milk cows for milk; excess milk was sold locally or mixed with oats and fed to the pigs.  Calves from the milk cows were raised for meat and cash.  There were chickens for meat and eggs; excess eggs could be sold locally.  Brood sows gave us feeder pigs for cash and meat.  

Corn, oats and alfalfa gave us feed for the livestock, oat straw for bedding and corn cobs for the cob stove. We also had some pasture for the cows and on a family farm there is always a garden.

It was a time of wire tied hay bales, two row corn pickers, tractor mounted cultivators, johnny poppers (John Deere tractors) and Nash automobiles.

I was the fourth of six kids.  A younger sister and brother were to follow seven and nine years later after moving to town.  The older children were two sisters, ten and eleven  years older than I and a brother five years older named Dan.  The title of this article is named for him.

There is a story about Dan, as a youngster, which has been repeated in our family over the years.  I do not recall being a witness to this account, but it was a testament to Dan’s future athletic abilities.  

Dan was only about 5’7″ in high school, but he had great leaping ability.  One year in basketball we played against a high school from the city.  They had a very tall center (at least a foot taller) and Dan tied up with him for a jump ball.  

In those days, there was no possession arrow, so you just jumped for it.  The tall man didn’t make much of an effort and much to everyone’s surprise, Dan controlled the tip.  

I watched him in another basketball game chase down a fast break in our gym which had a stage on one end.  When Dan attempted to block the shot, he came down with one leg on the stage and the other against the cushioned backstop at the front of the stage.  He broke the conference record in the long jump his senior year.  

Dan’s athletic abilities were first displayed  in our hog yard when he was a grade schooler and this is the story as it was conveyed to me.  

Dad had a wagon load of corn setting in the hog yard from which he could shovel corn to feed the sows.  On this particular day, Dan was standing on one of the wagon tires watching Dad shovel corn to the sows.  Apparently Dan’s position was in Dad’s way so Dad told Dan to move.  

Dan jumped down from the wagon and began to walk away, turning his back to the feeding sows.  It was then that one of the sows drew a bead on Dan and went for him.  Dad saw what was happening and shouted for Dan to run and run he did.  He escaped by jumping and scrambling over the fence.  

Some accounts say he jumped the fence.  As his little brother, I have to express some skepticism.  He was good, but not that good.

Imagine for a moment what may have happened had Dan turned to look.  What if he had taken the time to ask Dad; what do you want now or why are you always yelling for me to do something?  No, he recognized the urgency in Dad’s voice and he obeyed without question and without hesitation.

There are times in the Christian life that we should stand firm. There are also times when we should run.  Spiritual maturity recognizes the difference.

The verses above say to flee from youthful lusts and idolatry.   The word lust simply means strong desires.  Idolatry means to covet or to desire something or someone in the place of, or more than we do God Himself.

We are no match for our strong desires.  If we tarry at temptation, we will fail.  Strong desires are to indwelling sin, what gasoline vapor is to an open gas can.  It is a flash fuse to destruction.  

• Dating requires some common sense if one is to honor God. Don’t do anything just because someone else is doing it and do not spend time isolated and alone together.  Resist the culture.
• Fidelity in marriage starts with loyalty to one another.  The only opinion of anyone of the opposite sex that should really matter is that of what your mate thinks of you.  The campaign for mate of the year should begin and end at home.
• To test for idolatry, we simply need to measure our priorities.  Do we live for what pleases us or for what pleases God?

So, why are you sitting there?……………RUN!!!!!