The largest grocery chain in the United States, Kroger, is covering up Cosmopolitan magazine at its checkout stands. The cover up comes because of the lurid headlines, which have received even more complaints than the lurid photos on the covers. The new magazine racks being installed will cover up everything but the magazine's name. We can only wonder why it took so long. There seems to be a number of other publications sold at the checkout counter, which could use some covering up as well. If our Internet filters were used on grocery stores we would have a hard time finding one to enter.

Cosmopolitan and other checkout stand publications appeal to our fleshly lusts. Cosmopolitan has the highest newsstand sales of any publication with half of those two million sales coming at checkout counters. It is a war. It is a war against our souls! But it is not just publications at checkout stands it is everywhere. The world and the devil are doing a fantastic job of appealing to the fleshly lusts and they have a lot of help.

How can we defend ourselves against this onslaught of evil? Obviously we cannot always avert our eyes in time and unless we completely isolate ourselves we will be confronted at times with worldliness. Peter gives us the key to our defense in 1 Peter 4:1-3, "Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles - when we walked in lewdness, lusts...." We must arm ourselves with the mind of Christ. Saturate our lives with Him.

It is a war and if you are not armed you will be destroyed. Arm yourself by saturating your life with the things of God. Read His Word, study His Word, memorize His Word, meditate on His Word, and talk with Him, walk with Him and His mind will become your mind. When you are armed the world will have lost its appeal and the devil will flee from you. Are you armed?