Our Home Office has a security alarm. It has a certain code and password that you need to use if the alarm goes off by mistake or you enter the building when it’s on. I know that code, and I’ve had to use it a number of times, but I’ve also set the alarm off twice, and we get charged now for each time that the alarm is accidentally set off, so I certainly don’t want to do that.

As I walked in this weekend, the alarm went off, and I panicked. You have sixty seconds to enter the code to shut down the system, sixty seconds to remember the code, no mistakes. You don’t have a second chance. If you miss, you have a warm conversation with the Radnor Police Department.

Thirty seconds went by, and I thought of a few code words, and I knew they weren’t the ones. I could not remember the code, and finally, just before the alarm would have sounded, I entered the right code. Pressure – I don’t want to do that again!

It reminds me of what Peter says, that we need to be on the lookout and watch out, for the devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (I Peter 5:8). We need to have an alarm system that that when we get close to sin and close to acting unChristlike, an alarm goes off, and we know the code word, which is the grace and forgiveness that comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the alarm system, without meaning to be too cavalier with this metaphor, is the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit alerts our consciences, and we need to respond before the alarm goes off.

Fortunately, I got there in time and the police did not come, but now every time I’m in that situation, I will think that we need to have a built-in alarm system that keeps us focused on Christ.