We're so glad you joined us for today's encouragement from our daily bread.

I'm James Banks, and I'm calling our reading Destruction Destroyed.

The baby birds will fly tomorrow.

My wife, Carrie, was elated about the progress of family of Wrens was making in a hanging basket on our front porch.

She watched them daily taking pictures as the mother brought food to the nest.

Carrie got up early the next morning to look in on them. She moved some of the

greenery aside covering the nest, but instead of seeing baby birds, the narrow eyes of a serpent

met hers. The snake had scaled a vertical wall, slithered into the nest, and devoured them all.

Carrie was heartbroken and angry.

I was out of town, so she called a friend to remove the snake.

But the damage was done.

Scripture tells of another serpent who left destruction in his path.

The serpent in the Garden of Eden deceived Eve about the tree God had warned her against eating from.

You will not certainly die, he lied.

For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Sin and death entered the world as a result of Eve and Adam's disobedience to God,

and the deception wrought by that ancient serpent, who is the devil, continues.

But Jesus came to destroy the devil's work, and through him were restored to relationship with God.

One day, he'll make everything new.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is a passage that started at all from

Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 10.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

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