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Tag: satan

Things Aren’t Always As They Seem

April 11, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Growing up in the church world I was taught about good and bad, God and Satan, heaven and hell. We even had some of those not so greatly illustrated kids books about these topics. One image that always stuck out at me was the one of the devil, Satan. I don’t know about you but growing up I always thought of the devil as being red with horns and a pitchfork. I remember thinking why would anyone want to follow after something that told you it was going to hurt you? Why would anyone want that?

But over time I dug into the Bible for myself and started to realize that the kid’s version of these images wasn’t exactly correct. You see if they were, then very few people who really follow something like that. As a matter of fact, I started to realize that the devil’s goal might not be what I always thought it was either.

If you’re anything like me, you probably have had this notion that Satan wants us to worship him. Like he’s building a fan club or something. But what if that wasn’t his goal? What if his goal was much simpler than that? What if he didn’t care about our allegiance to him at all? What if I told you that we all have a little Satan worship in us?

Now for those of you died in the wool, church going types, you’re likely shaking your head thinking I’m off my rocker. And while I might be a little nutty, if you stick with me for a few minutes I’ll explain my thought process here. You see I don’t really think Satan cares who we follow or to whom we pledge our allegiance as long as it’s not Jesus. In other words, Satan is just trying to distract us from the only way to salvation. He hates all things Jesus so much that he’ll be glad if we follow anyone, anything as long as it’s not Jesus.

Still not convinced? Ok so think about the last time you sat down to read your bible or do a little quiet time in prayer. What happened? Did you get distracted? Did you think about the plans for the day? Or maybe where you want to go on vacation this summer? What about that noise you don’t remember hearing before that you just can’t seem to ignore? What about that funny feeling in your stomach? Are you hungry? Why are you so tired?

Am I onto something here? We sit down to do anything that draws our heart closer to Jesus and all hell breaks loose in our minds. We can’t stay focus for anything. And that’s just what Satan wants. He’s no idiot. Actually, he’s pretty darn smart. He knows that Jesus is the only way. He knows there’s no plan B when it comes to salvation. So all he has to do is to get us to look the other way. Anything else is fine as long as it’s not Jesus.

The goal then is to make us sit idly by and do nothing. He wants us to just let the world spin around us and keep us so focused on the pace of life, the hurry in our schedules, our wants, our desires, our passions, our…anything. As long as we’re not focused on Jesus. As long as we’re just sitting in neutral in life, Satan wins. Neutral is no good. Neutral means we’re not committed. Neutral makes us just as easily moved away from Jesus as toward him. The Bible even tells us to be hot for him or cold against him but none of this lukewarm, neutral, stuff. Neutral gets us in a really bad way in Christian life.

So the long and short is to make a decision right here, right now. Whom will you follow? Will it be Jesus? Or will it be anything else? There’s only one way and his name is Jesus. Nothing else will work. Nothing else will do. Nothing else will even come close.

I love the verse from Joshua 24 that says choose this day whom you will serve. How about it? Whom are you going to serve? God chose you in Jesus before the foundations of the world. Today he asks you to follow his lead and choose him.

Good vs. Evil

November 3, 2020 / / 0 Comments

What a battle it is out there! Things seem to be getting crazy in our world and things are spiraling faster and faster out of control. We’re in the midst of some of the most challenging times in our lives. What’s going on in life right now is the most foundational battle ever known to man. It’s the battle of good against evil.

But hold on! This battle may not be exactly what you think. The battle of good vs evil isn’t about one man against another or one party against another. It’s truly the battle of ultimate good facing off against ultimate evil.

I recently heard author, Jon Gordon, speak about one of his books. He was talking about this battle of good and evil referring to it through the lenses of what he called the 5 D’s. These five D’s are foundational to understanding who the real enemy is in life.

Doubt

At the outset, most conflict is brought on because some level of doubt is brought into view. We doubt if we’re loved. We doubt if we’re good enough. We doubt if they have our best intentions at heart. We doubt if what we have is good enough. Doubt is looking at what we don’t have instead of seeing everything we do have.

Distortion

When we start to doubt that what we have is enough it begins to distort the truth. We begin to believe the lies that these doubts bring up in our mind. They act like fog, preventing us from seeing what’s right in front of us with any clarity at all. We’re so overcome by the doubt factor that truth is distorted. But it doesn’t end there.

Discouragement

Beyond distortion sits the enemy of discouragement. When doubt settles in and prevents us from seeing reality as it stands in front of us, then we easily get discouraged. When we can’t see the clear path ahead of us we get disheartened and discouraged. You see none of this has to do with the people around us or the events happening to us. It’s really about vision and how we see things.

Distraction

When discouragement takes root in our lives, we lose focus altogether. Our attention moves to other things that are mundane at best and destructive at worst. We tend to major in the minors so to speak as discouragement gives birth to distraction. As we continue to battle against the enemy of doubt, we quickly lose all footing and slide off course into an unhealthy spiral distracting us from what’s important.

Division

Finally, when we’ve run the course of doubt, distortion, discouragement and distraction the final step is division. The ultimate goal of any war is division. The enemy wants to break down the unified front we have to problems. We’re living in a world that has become so fragmented that unity has all but left.

You see the problem isn’t the people around us. The problem is doubt. The enemy has brought doubt into our lives over so many things. But your friend with a different viewpoint on life is not your enemy. The president for whom you did not vote is not the enemy. The party with which you’re not affiliated is not the enemy. The enemy is the darkness of doubt that spirals all of this out of control causing so much chaos and fear and division.

Stay strong my friends. Hold each other close. Value friendship. Cherish differences. Be civil in disagreement. Most of all speak truth and focus on the things you do have instead of the things you lack.

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