“Can you get the prize out for me?” Greta eagerly asked her father. She pointed to

a picture on the back of her cereal box. It showed a huge pile of colorful candy

pouring out of a package.

“Well, let’s see if we can find it,” said Dad. He shook the box, tipped it this way

and that, then reached in and pulled out the prize–a small, sample-size package of

candy. He tossed it to Greta. “Save it till after breakfast,” he said.

When Greta tore open the package a little later, a few small pieces of candy fell

out. She counted them–only three. She counted the pieces in the picture on the

cereal box. There were 20. “I thought I’d get as much candy as the picture shows,” she

complained to her dad.

“The cereal company wanted you to think you’d get a lot so you’d persuade

someone to buy the cereal for you,” explained Dad. “They deceived you.”

Greta frowned. “What does deceive’ mean?”

“It means to get someone to believe something that isn’t true,” explained Dad.

That afternoon, Greta’s friend Molly came to play. Greta had recently begun taking

piano lessons, and she showed Molly what she had been learning. “That looks like

fun! Let’s pretend you’re the teacher and I’m your student,” suggested Molly.

“Greta! Telephone!” called Dad.

The caller was Kaylie, who lived a few doors away. “Play? At my house?” asked

Greta after listening a moment. “Well . . . uh . . .” Greta chose her words carefully.

“I’m in the middle of a piano lesson,” she said. “Uh . . . sure. Some other time.”

Dad frowned as Greta hung up. “Did you tell Kaylie the truth?”

Greta shrugged. “I didn’t lie.”

“What did Kaylie understand about the piano lesson?” persisted Dad. “Do you

think you deceived her?”

Greta blushed. She knew the picture she’d given was just as deceiving as the picture

on the cereal box. She’d gotten Kaylie to think her piano teacher was there. “I’m sorry,”

said Greta. “I’ll call her back and see if she wants to come and play piano lessons,’ too.”
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Have you ever been deceived—been given the wrong idea—by someone? Do you ever deceive other people? Deception is allowing someone to believe something that isn’t true. There are other ways to lie besides just saying something that isn’t true, and all of them are wrong. Speak honest words, but live an honest life, too.

TODAY’S KEY VERSE: Leviticus 19:11 (KJV)
You shall not . . . lie to one another.

“Why not sell me the tires from your old bike?” asked Travis. “I told you I wanted to buy them, and my dad said it was okay.”

“Oh, that’s right! I forgot,” said Brett. “My dad okayed it, too, so it’s a deal!”

Travis paid Brett for the tires, and Brett bought his video game. For a while, the boys played the game almost every day.

As the weather turned warmer, Brett and Travis played less indoors. They began

to take bike rides around the neighborhood. One day, Brett ran over a broken bottle and slashed his front tire. “Oh, no!” he exclaimed. “This whole tire is ruined! Now what am I going to do?” He frowned. “I guess I should have kept those bike tires I sold to you.”

“Well, I only used one, so I’ll sell the other back to you,” offered Travis. “I don’t need it.”

“Really?” asked Brett. “Cool!” So the boys got the tire and went to Brett’s house

to put it on the bike.

“What happened?” asked Brett’s dad when he came home and saw the boys at work.

“My tire got ruined, so I bought this one back from Travis,” explained Brett.

Dad smiled. “You redeemed it,” he said. “That word is used often in the Bible. What you did with the bike tire is a good example of the meaning of the word. Redeemed’ simply means bought back.'”

“But . . . why is that word used in the Bible?” asked Travis.

“God created people, so they belonged to Him,” began Dad. “But Satan came and tempted them to sin–and they did. So all people became sinners, enslaved to Satan and sin. But when Jesus died on the cross for us, He paid the price to buy us back. When we trust in Him, we no longer belong to Satan, but to God.”

Travis grinned as he looked at the tire on Brett’s bike. “I never thought I’d have something in common with an old bike tire–I’ve been redeemed!”

HOW ABOUT YOU?
Have you been redeemed? Jesus said that anyone who has sinned—that’s you—is a slave to sin (John 8:34). He paid a great price to buy you back out of that slavery and free you from the curse of sin and the power of Satan. Will you trust Him as your Savior today? (See the ABCs of Salvation at the end of this book.)

TODAY’S KEY VERSE: 1 Peter 1:18-19 (KJV)
You were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ.