“Ah, my fine little friends,” the Devil exclaimed gleefully as he observed the worms and the other lures in his fishing bucket. “You’re just the bait I need!” While singing his favorite song “I’m Gonna’ Get You,” he stroked his fine, red moustache with pleasure. How proud he was of that curling mass of glory under his nose. “I have more power in one strand of my moustache than all the hair on a man’s head,” he boasted. Chuckling with expectancy, he would think of how he could make that whole bunch of bloggers on the Internet’s domain squirm.

“What a day! What a day for fishing,” he thought. “Why, EVERY day is my day”, he smugly told himself. As he devilishly planned what he was going to do, the sea looked serene with no chaotic ripples of turbulence on it. All the hearts of the Devil’s prey were resting quietly beneath the surface with rays of creativity shining into the depths of the waters. “Dag blast it! Where are all my dark clouds when I need them?” he queried with annoyance, and then added: “I’ll have to make some turmoil of my own.” So the Devil huffed and he puffed and the waters began to swell tumultuously. “Now that’s more like it,” he told himself.

The waves of agitation swirled with great force upon the waters and stirred up a beautiful blue marlin to the surface… The Devil knew just the right “Worry” bait to use for her. He popped it onto his hook, and before you could say “Shazam,” he caught her hook, line and thinker. She screamed. “Help! Help! Get the Internet police!” in a screeching voice while her bright blue color turned an awful pale shade.

The fiendish adversary laughed when he beheld the effect his huge “Worry” worm had on the frightened, pale fish. How successful he felt as he dipped his hand into the pail for the next catcher of his- the perfect bait for the Kingfish. “Now that one is the king pin with all his volunteer work going on disrupting my kingdom! I’ll fix him!” he uttered with slick determination to catch the big fish. An ugly worm called “Codependency” caused the Devil to grin with approval as he attached the bait onto the hook. The Kingfish never intended to swallow the bait, but the Devil put a lying word in it which deceived the great fish into thinking help could come by depending on others instead of depending upon God. When he discovered his belly burning from the bitter worm, he sorrowfully wailed “What am I going to do now? Woe is me!!”

Not satisfied with only two fish in his to-be-for-dinner pot, the Devil intended to get every member of the targeted accomplished writers and speakers on online blogs. The Starfish next on his list was happily singing “Oh So La Mio!” in her strong operatic voice, when before she knew it “Glory for Self” was popped into her mouth. “No, no, no!” she shouted as she realized she was a captive and had just swallowed poison. 

The crab crawled up on shore when he heard the commotion, just in time to be taken in by “righteousness by the law”. Shaking and coughing in disbelief that he swallowed the distasteful bait, he moaned: “I need a lawyer!” and woefully chimed in his “no, no, no’s” with the Starfish’s to make a most pitiful sound.

One after the other, the “Devil’s Chosen” were caught: The red-herring by “Unrighteous anger”, an oyster by “Hiding her talent”, the angelfish by “Deception”, a perch by “Passivity”, a prize-winning ray by “Pride”, a cod by “Luke-warmness”, an up-coming salmon by a “Detour” plug, the quick-witted lantern-eye fish by “Heresy”, a sweet grouper by “Sugar overload”, the fun-loving dolphin by “Pleasure seeking”, a seahorse by “Lust for Power”, the celebrated sole by “Distraction”, the Grand Marquis sunfish by “False light”, a heralded lionfish by “Lust for Fame”, the able sturgeon by “Self-doubt”, the squid by “Unbelief”, a bright goldfish by “Fake gold”, a porpoise by “Self-exaltation“, a guppy by “Jealousy”, a sea turtle by “Self-protection” and the whale by “A Whale of a Tale”! There was not a hagfish in the lot because the Devil loved old hags; They were left untouched by him because they did his bidding.

The only one who wasn’t hooked was the great swordfish, but that was because the Devil forgot that the Word of truth was no match for him. Hope immediately sprang up over all the imprisoned water creatures in the bucket when they heard their champion in a booming voice boldly and confidently proclaim: “I’ve come to write the Devil right out of his script! That’s just what I’m going to do so no one will kick the bucket on MY watch!” And so it came to pass, the power of the Devil’s moustache was no more because of the strength of a swordfish’s word!

So now, you with a writer’s pen on the Internet who are fishers of men: Know that your sword is the most potent weapon on earth! Use it mightily for God’s glory as you write on the hearts of people THIS DAY-… the Day of the Lord!

Yes…. GO FISHING!!