One of my VERY favorite subjects is mind games; yes, the games that the devil leads us into playing with ourselves. The mind IS the ground where strongholds are constructed, right ??
..........
The Holy Bible does only one thing ........ it shows God's Presence. No other religion, philosophy or piece of literature does this as well as the Bible does. It shows to us the appearance of God in a visible and an invisible Form. And what the Bible also shows is the presence of evil and the prince of lies. The devil was created as an angel of light, but this angel became inflated with pride and subsequently chose rebellion as his relationship with God. Thusly, he was thrown out of Heaven and is now totally bent upon destroying God's Work and recruiting human help to do his bidding. And that's where WE come into the picture.
I am sure most folk who visit this Christian web site have at least a pretty good idea of just who and what satan is. Yet I feel that ALL of us humans need to always have in mind our DIRE need to constantly be developing new strategies, to help us keep a very strong defense against satan's psychological, and very often subconscious, onslaught. And it is common sense to approach this on-going situation by having an active plan of our own, so that we stay constantly aware of just what satan's schemes entail. I am sure you see what I mean here.
..........
It is easy to see in Genesis 3:1, how satan will try to confuse us, as he did with Eve in the Garden. He'll tempt us, through our thought process, to ask ourselves, "Did God really say this or that ?" For when we do this kind of questioning, we challenge God's demands, and thusly lower our threshold of resistance to our own rebellion against God. Yes, satan leads us to question our own identity, as to whether we are more-worldly or more-Godly. We might even ask ourselves during our weak times, within our doubts, "Am I REALLY God's child?" That's why it's so VERY important for us humans to be very, VERY careful about listening to certain speakers or reading certain books which twist God's Word and we're not even aware of it. We have to be VERY careful so that we don't begin to think that possibly there IS a little "wiggle room" for us, in relationship to certain sins which we habituate.
And in Genesis 3:4, we are shown how satan will entice us to make presumptions about God's Commands. He'll get us to ask ourselves, "Is this particular sin of mine really THAT bad?" Or we ask ourselves, "Do I always have to presume that my doubtful actions are contrary to Scripture?" Or maybe, even worse, the Liar might get us to think, "Hey, Jesus saved me on the Cross! I'm good to go, right?" What I'm trying to say is, we just HAVE to be VERY careful where our thoughts take us, with regards to our relationship with our Savior.
Let's remember to remember quite often what 1 Peter 2:15 16 tells us about THAT kind of thought process, OK??
For this is the Will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; live as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King.
And in this same vein, Genesis 3:5 tells us IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS how satan played these very games with Eve in the Garden: He told Eve directly: "For God knows that when you eat of it (the fruit of the tree) your eyes will be opened , AND YOU WILL BE LIKE GOD, knowing good and evil." Yes, how we all might so easily start to fall back on our own human ambition, not knowing that we are walking STRAIGHT into rebellion. Haven't maybe we all, at least once, said to ourselves, "Hey, God knows that I am weak! Heck, I'm only human!" Oh, how easily we can rationalize with ourselves, right?? Yes, our own instinct for self-preservation becomes the very loophole that satan dwells in, when we start thinking, "Hey, I gotta take care of myself in this life, man. There isn't any silver platter or free lunch that I'VE heard of." Yes, our need for pride and control overpowers our need for obedience.
We tell ourselves every day, within our actions and motives, that WE'RE in charge. And now you're surely thinking, "Hey, Tommy, what human being ISN'T concerned with maintaining the status quo in their lives? We ALL have to get ahead!! What do we do, roll over and play dead!?? No way!!" My friends, satan is a master at making us think that it's A.O.K. for us to look for a way around something in the Bible. You know, "Hey, my sins are NOTHING compared to the nuts in the papers and T.V. news! I'm not robbing or raping or terrorizing people! I'm not shooting innocent people in a shopping center parking lot!!!! I'm not the bad guy!" But how many of us unconsciously look over our "little" sins, or even think, "I'll do this and just repent later. Everybody else does it." We speed just a little. We fudge on our time cards or tax returns just A LITTLE, right? "Hey, exaggerations aren't really lies, are they?" Or, "I kept my hands and mouth to myself! I was only LOOKING at that nice-looking person FOR JUST A SECOND! I'm married, sure, but I didn't flirt or anything!" We all do it, so let's not kid ourselves. Who said, "As a man thinketh, so is he." ??
...........
What I trying to say in this post, is that what we have to remember is that God's Commandments are actually His expressions of His Love. He WANTS us to know just where we need to draw the line in what we WILL or WILL NOT do! Yes, my friends in Jesus Christ, God is reminding us that evil exists and that He doesn't want us to experience it. All the devil is trying to do in his temptations, is telling us that we are really limiting our experience of life on Earth when we are trying to jump through all of God's hoops! He tells us that it ISN'T rebellion at all to remember that we really ARE trying to believe in an invisible God, and that we all know that we have doubts now and then. So he asks us within our doubts, "Hey, shouldn't we now and then have as least A LITTLE wiggle room here, folks? I AM trying to live an obedient life, right, God?"
That IS a natural thought to have, right? Well, the Apostle Paul had the same problem, OK? I am sure you know the quandry he had in Romans 7, v. 15; "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate." Wow !! Do you see what's happening here with us? Evil is in us, IN our very thoughts, in our very responses to what we see and hear EACH AND EVERY DAY !! Yes, THIS is the knowledge of evil that Adam and Eve chose to have in their lives. Yes, the VERY knowledge that will exclude us all from Heaven, if we continually keep our guard down! And, as you surely know, this applies to pastors and priests and Sunday School teachers, and even the greatest leaders on Earth .......... we're all alike in this: We all fall short, but we ALL have a safety net. His Name is Jesus, and we HAVE to remind ourselves DAILY of the WAR that is being waged, even as I type this, as you read this. We MUST remind each other of these things.
..........
Dear God, help me with my words for people, about how the devil is so sly in his work. And keep us ALL safe from the onslaught in our heads, which satan daily downloads upon us. Show us Father, through Your Holy Spirit, how important that it is for us to stay on guard each day, by staying in Your Word, and STAYING in prayer and worship. And thank You for giving us the freedom to choose Your Son Jesus as our Savior and King! For You ARE such a good God. Amen.
..........
The Holy Bible does only one thing ........ it shows God's Presence. No other religion, philosophy or piece of literature does this as well as the Bible does. It shows to us the appearance of God in a visible and an invisible Form. And what the Bible also shows is the presence of evil and the prince of lies. The devil was created as an angel of light, but this angel became inflated with pride and subsequently chose rebellion as his relationship with God. Thusly, he was thrown out of Heaven and is now totally bent upon destroying God's Work and recruiting human help to do his bidding. And that's where WE come into the picture.
I am sure most folk who visit this Christian web site have at least a pretty good idea of just who and what satan is. Yet I feel that ALL of us humans need to always have in mind our DIRE need to constantly be developing new strategies, to help us keep a very strong defense against satan's psychological, and very often subconscious, onslaught. And it is common sense to approach this on-going situation by having an active plan of our own, so that we stay constantly aware of just what satan's schemes entail. I am sure you see what I mean here.
..........
It is easy to see in Genesis 3:1, how satan will try to confuse us, as he did with Eve in the Garden. He'll tempt us, through our thought process, to ask ourselves, "Did God really say this or that ?" For when we do this kind of questioning, we challenge God's demands, and thusly lower our threshold of resistance to our own rebellion against God. Yes, satan leads us to question our own identity, as to whether we are more-worldly or more-Godly. We might even ask ourselves during our weak times, within our doubts, "Am I REALLY God's child?" That's why it's so VERY important for us humans to be very, VERY careful about listening to certain speakers or reading certain books which twist God's Word and we're not even aware of it. We have to be VERY careful so that we don't begin to think that possibly there IS a little "wiggle room" for us, in relationship to certain sins which we habituate.
And in Genesis 3:4, we are shown how satan will entice us to make presumptions about God's Commands. He'll get us to ask ourselves, "Is this particular sin of mine really THAT bad?" Or we ask ourselves, "Do I always have to presume that my doubtful actions are contrary to Scripture?" Or maybe, even worse, the Liar might get us to think, "Hey, Jesus saved me on the Cross! I'm good to go, right?" What I'm trying to say is, we just HAVE to be VERY careful where our thoughts take us, with regards to our relationship with our Savior.
Let's remember to remember quite often what 1 Peter 2:15 16 tells us about THAT kind of thought process, OK??
For this is the Will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; live as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King.
And in this same vein, Genesis 3:5 tells us IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS how satan played these very games with Eve in the Garden: He told Eve directly: "For God knows that when you eat of it (the fruit of the tree) your eyes will be opened , AND YOU WILL BE LIKE GOD, knowing good and evil." Yes, how we all might so easily start to fall back on our own human ambition, not knowing that we are walking STRAIGHT into rebellion. Haven't maybe we all, at least once, said to ourselves, "Hey, God knows that I am weak! Heck, I'm only human!" Oh, how easily we can rationalize with ourselves, right?? Yes, our own instinct for self-preservation becomes the very loophole that satan dwells in, when we start thinking, "Hey, I gotta take care of myself in this life, man. There isn't any silver platter or free lunch that I'VE heard of." Yes, our need for pride and control overpowers our need for obedience.
We tell ourselves every day, within our actions and motives, that WE'RE in charge. And now you're surely thinking, "Hey, Tommy, what human being ISN'T concerned with maintaining the status quo in their lives? We ALL have to get ahead!! What do we do, roll over and play dead!?? No way!!" My friends, satan is a master at making us think that it's A.O.K. for us to look for a way around something in the Bible. You know, "Hey, my sins are NOTHING compared to the nuts in the papers and T.V. news! I'm not robbing or raping or terrorizing people! I'm not shooting innocent people in a shopping center parking lot!!!! I'm not the bad guy!" But how many of us unconsciously look over our "little" sins, or even think, "I'll do this and just repent later. Everybody else does it." We speed just a little. We fudge on our time cards or tax returns just A LITTLE, right? "Hey, exaggerations aren't really lies, are they?" Or, "I kept my hands and mouth to myself! I was only LOOKING at that nice-looking person FOR JUST A SECOND! I'm married, sure, but I didn't flirt or anything!" We all do it, so let's not kid ourselves. Who said, "As a man thinketh, so is he." ??
...........
What I trying to say in this post, is that what we have to remember is that God's Commandments are actually His expressions of His Love. He WANTS us to know just where we need to draw the line in what we WILL or WILL NOT do! Yes, my friends in Jesus Christ, God is reminding us that evil exists and that He doesn't want us to experience it. All the devil is trying to do in his temptations, is telling us that we are really limiting our experience of life on Earth when we are trying to jump through all of God's hoops! He tells us that it ISN'T rebellion at all to remember that we really ARE trying to believe in an invisible God, and that we all know that we have doubts now and then. So he asks us within our doubts, "Hey, shouldn't we now and then have as least A LITTLE wiggle room here, folks? I AM trying to live an obedient life, right, God?"
That IS a natural thought to have, right? Well, the Apostle Paul had the same problem, OK? I am sure you know the quandry he had in Romans 7, v. 15; "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate." Wow !! Do you see what's happening here with us? Evil is in us, IN our very thoughts, in our very responses to what we see and hear EACH AND EVERY DAY !! Yes, THIS is the knowledge of evil that Adam and Eve chose to have in their lives. Yes, the VERY knowledge that will exclude us all from Heaven, if we continually keep our guard down! And, as you surely know, this applies to pastors and priests and Sunday School teachers, and even the greatest leaders on Earth .......... we're all alike in this: We all fall short, but we ALL have a safety net. His Name is Jesus, and we HAVE to remind ourselves DAILY of the WAR that is being waged, even as I type this, as you read this. We MUST remind each other of these things.
..........
Dear God, help me with my words for people, about how the devil is so sly in his work. And keep us ALL safe from the onslaught in our heads, which satan daily downloads upon us. Show us Father, through Your Holy Spirit, how important that it is for us to stay on guard each day, by staying in Your Word, and STAYING in prayer and worship. And thank You for giving us the freedom to choose Your Son Jesus as our Savior and King! For You ARE such a good God. Amen.
