GOD’S ESCAPE ROUTES
(How to overcome temptation.–1 Corinthians 10:31)
[uses three boy puppets or change names to change to girls, and a sign with 1 Cor. 10:31]
(Bo enters first from one side and skates back and forth. Zach and Arnie enter from the other side.)
Zach: Hey, Bo. You’re out skateboarding so you must have gotten your history paper done.
Bo: No. I haven’t finished it. I do my best work with a little last minute pressure. When is it due?
Arnie: Tomorrow.
Bo: (stops skating) Tomorrow? I’ll never get it done by then.
Zach: How much have you got done so far?
Bo: Well, if you include the reading, taking notes, organizing, and the actual writing I’d say I’ve done about…nothing.
Arnie: Nothing? But Miss Kelly gave us that assignment a couple of weeks ago!
Bo: I know, but when she gave it to us I figured I had plenty of time to work on it. I’ve been busy trying to work out how to do a triple back flip on my skateboard. I’ve been practicing so hard I forgot about the paper.
Arnie: Then you’d better go get busy now.
Bo: Are you kidding? It’s too late now. I’d never finish it in time. And my mom said if I didn’t bring my grades up this year, I would be in big trouble. I’m a dead man. (hangs head and covers it with his arm)
Arnie: Maybe your teacher will give you extra time to work on it.
Zach: Not Miss Kelly. She says a deadline is a deadline. You get your assignments in by the deadline or you’re dead. At least your paper is.
Bo: If my mom finds out about this assignment I’ll be grounded for the rest of my life.
Arnie: So what are you going to do?
Bo: I don’t know. Let me think….Hey, I know. I’ll try a few more triple back flips. Maybe I’ll break my arm. Then even Miss Kelly won’t expect me to have my assignment done and my mom will be too busy feeling sorry for me to get mad.
Arnie: I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Bo.
Bo: Why not?
Arnie: Think about it.
Bo: Hmmm. I suppose you’re right. If I break my leg instead, Miss Kelly will still expect the paper and Mom won’t let me skateboard for weeks. She’s real strict about things like that. No skateboarding with broken legs. Which makes no sense at all. If you break a leg you need something to help you get around.
Zach: I know what you can do! Sam’s big brother, Peter did that same history paper last year for a different teacher. Maybe you can copy his report.
Arnie: He can’t do that!
Zach: Why not?
Arnie: That would be cheating! Christians aren’t supposed to cheat. Cheating is a big, black, ugly sin.
Bo: I guess you’re right. But it sure would solve a lot of problems if I could just copy Peter’s paper.
Zach: Yeah. What choice does he have? He doesn’t have time to finish the paper. So he’s either got to copy Peter’s paper or break his arm. (shakes arm) And it’s not easy to break something when you’re trying to. I tried to break my leg once and only got a big bruise. Plus I tore my pants and Mom yelled at me for that.
Bo: See? What choice do I have?
Arnie: You have a choice between right and wrong, and even though it’s tempting to sin, you don’t have to. God will help you. (sign pops up) The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that every thing you are tempted to do is something other people are tempted to do, too. It says, (reads from sign) “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make the way to escape.”
Bo: Escape! That’s what I need! (runs offstage and peeks around the edge) I need a way to escape Miss Kelly’s history paper.
Arnie: You can’t escape the history paper, silly. But you can escape the temptation to cheat.
Bo: Oh, yeah. Well, I guess I need that, too. (comes back) It sure would have been nice, though. If I could have gotten Peter’s history paper, I could have copied it and been done in about an hour. Mom would have been happy. Miss Kelly would have been happy. And I could have gotten a good grade. It would have been so easy.
Zach: No one would ever need to know. Peter’s not a tattle tale. He let Sam copy one of his papers and never told anyone. I wonder what grade he got on that paper. Maybe you should go ask him.
Bo: I am a bit curious. I’d never cheat, you know, but I wonder what grade I would get if I did copy his paper.
Zach: If you can’t copy, maybe you could just sort of look at it and get some ideas.
Bo: Yeah. That’s a good idea.
Arnie: Bo! You know that’s not right. You don’t have to copy his paper word-for-word to be cheating. You’re supposed to do ALL of the work for your paper.
Bo: Maybe I’ll ask Peter about it. He’s older than us and he knows about these things.
Arnie: He knows about cheating, but it doesn’t sound like he knows how not to cheat when he’s tempted to cheat.
Bo: I never said I was going to cheat. I just said I was going to ask about it. What can it hurt? Didn’t you say that God would help me not to cheat?
Arnie: God helps you by giving you “a way of escape.” God doesn’t stop you from sinning. He gives you ways to ESCAPE sinning. You’re ignoring some of His escape routes right now.
Bo: (Looks around.) What escape routes? I don’t see any escape routes.
Zach: (also looking around) Me, neither.
Arnie: When Satan tempts us to sin he wants us to keep thinking about it, and how easy it would be, and how much we want to do it. But the Bible says we need to run away from the devil.
Zach: How can I run away from the devil? He runs faster than I do.
Arnie: Well, when the devil tempts us to sin, we shouldn’t even begin to think about doing it. We should make ourselves think good thoughts, things that will make us not want to sin.
Zach: Like Bible thoughts?
Arnie: Yeah. That’s one reason we memorize Bible verses. We need to think about things that will make us want to do right. And we need to hang around friends that make us want to do right.
Bo: I suppose that means I shouldn’t even go over to Peter’s house.
Arnie: Not if you want to run away from Satan. Why don’t you decide right now that you’re not going to cheat–not today and not ever.
Bo: Not ever? Even once?
Arnie: Well, do you want to please the Lord Jesus or not?
Bo: You’re right. I never want to be a cheater.
Zach: Hey, Bo. Want to work on the triple back flip with me?
Bo: Nope. I think I better go start on my history paper. I won’t be able to get it all done, but having part of it done is better than nothing. And Arnie’s right. Anything is better than cheating. See ya later.
(Bo exits one side. Zach and Arnie exit the other side.)