The Battle Rages

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” 1 Peter 5:8

This past Fall has reminded me again that the Devil is lurking to destroy us.

My Editors son committed suicide in November.

Once again I experienced some of the most amazing spiritual attacks on my life ever.

It has always seemed that the devil was lapping at my heels.

Always trying to destroy me.

Jokingly, and maybe not so much, it seems as though there was a grandma way off

on my fathers side that put a curse over the family to never live in God's victory or experience it ever.

I have fought with this presence my whole, entire life.

I know the devil.  I have sat in his presence many times.

He slept in just a room over while I was growing up.

I was always keenly aware of his presence.

It seemed every time that we would pray for Dad things would get worse.

His anger would flare, things all around would be worse.

When we didn't pray, things would be calm.

Many times we thought Dad was possessed.

Maybe he was but most likely not.

I remember jokingly telling a friend that my Dad was like the devil

and my Mother was like Jesus.

For that is what the world seemed like,

the world that I lived in.

My dad constantly choosing to live like the heathen,

and my mother constantly trying to portray good.

Although the devil is sneaky and he portrays himself in many different ways.

I could see the outward works.

The lying, the drunkenness, the adultery, the delighting in evil,

and the just plain evil but I was unware of the religious side.

From my mom I saw someone who protrayed themselves as "loving God", 

wanting to please God.  I saw my mother as someone who was "more holy" because 

she turned up her nose at "evil".

As a Christian, I, too, desired to please God. 

I, too, wanted to do want God would have me to do.

I knew something was off with things my mother would say to me

but I didn't know exactly what.

One, I too, had be blinded by the religious devil and

I was trying hard to seek truth. 

Sure, it is easy to look at "other religions" and say they have it wrong.

They don't have the understanding of who Jesus Christ is.

Sadly, this is true of the "Christian" church as a whole as well.

Simple Bible truths are twisted just enough that people see them as truth

but than they find themselves in a world of being used, controlled, and manipulated 

to bend to another persons will.

This is one of Satan's greatest tactics he uses on the Christian,

for if he can twist scripture and confuse us,

he wins.

Leaving us utterly unusable in God's Kingdom.

Ever church and organization that claims to be Christian is prey to this lie of the devil.

Ever Christian really who does not know and understand

what Jesus Christ did for them on the cross will fall into this trap.

Even than, as Christians we will always be tempted to walk off the path 

and into religiousness.

Why??

Because we are mere mortals.  Humans. Sinners.

We desire power, knowledge, and glory.

Proverbs tells us that "knowledge puffs up".

We have all seen "those Christians" or maybe we have been "one of those Christians".

They raise up, the world sees them.

They seem right and have great understanding and than...

they fall.

Some fall quite hard.

Why??

Because they are sinners.

Knowledge puffs up, glory is enticing and one can look and seem that

"they have arrived" at being the "best Christian"

but one will never arrive, it is impossible.

As Christians though we never arrive and we must always be on guard.

When you understand this. 

When you understand that you are nothing without the blood of Jesus Christ, 

that you fail everyday, that you will sin everyday

there is no "puffing up".

We are sinners.  Horrible, wretched sinners.

Everyday our sin screams in our face of who we are,

what we deserve.

We deserve hell. 

To be eternally separated from God forever.

But God had grace on us.

He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us and 

wash us clean of our sin, forever.

We now have the privilege to be called sons and daughters of the King of this universe,

the God who created this world.

Still our sin screams in our face though.

Everyday that we live on this earth we will be reminded that 

we are just sinners, saved by God's grace.

We now have two different types of religious beliefs in the Christian realm.

If we are still sinning and God doesn't want us to sin,

than "I" must work to make "myself" more holy.

This happens in a number of different ways.

Really I do not have to list them all.

One can simply look around and see the different religious forms out there.

Some wear skirts only, some put on head coverings, some pray unceasingly, 

some indulge in prophesying, speaking words of knowledge, speaking in tongues.

They sing in the choir, they make a list of what is "unclean" to them and therefore 

they don't indulge.

Some don't eat pork, some insist that Saturday is the Sabbath, 

some insist that they must keep the Law.

Some try hard at being missionaries, pastors, elders, and the best yet,

a director of a big ministry.

They put on a covering of false humbleness and make themselves self martyrs.

They stay poor to create a look of meekness and humbleness.

They pray and fast and never seem holy enough.

Their sin still entangles them.

 We have all seen them. 

Sometimes we stand in awe of such Christians.

 We will stop and wonder, “should I be doing that. 

Will that make me more “holy”, more “christian”.  

The Heathen simply laughs and shakes his head because ultimately in his heart,

he knows who Jesus Christ is and he knows these people don't get 

what Jesus Christ did for them.

I can say what I want about my dad but he knew who was a Christian and

he knew who was just an actor.

If we go back to the Cross. 

If we go back to Jesus Christ, we will once again see

"It is not by OUR WORKS that we are saved but by the blood of Jesus Christ."

Only by the blood of Jesus are we saved.  

Only by the blood are our sins wiped cleaned.

ONLY BY THE BLOOD!!

Let the words resound off the rocks and the cliffs

and let every heart know that their works are dead to them.

It is only by the blood that we are cleansed from our sins.

Only by the blood of Jesus Christ.

As Believer's we can rest in the fact that "God's mercy's are new every morning."

That everyday is a new day.  That our sins of yesterday are washed in the blood and

we have a new day to try again.

Will we fail again?

Yes, we will because we are sinners.

Because we are mere mortals, humans, unable to cleanse ourselves of our sin

and nothing we have is acceptable to God.

Nothing.

And so, we trust that Jesus Christ is our salvation.

That His holiness and His blood covers our sins 

and God no longer sees us as sinners but holy and righteous.

The other religious lie people believe is that since we still sin,

just sin.

God's grace covers it.  

We are sinners, nothing we can do about it so,

just sin.

They, too, have a system of works to make them feel good about their sin.

They justify their sin through singing in the choir on Sunday, 

making sure they are church and home group,

they give to the poor, support ministries,

and the list goes on.

None of which is bad but when we do it to justify our sin than we are 

doing it for the wrong reasons.

Instead, when we accept that we are sinners,

we allow Jesus Christ blood to wash over us,

the Holy Spirit starts growing in us and 

starts changing us,

growing us in love.

Where God's love resides, sin can not abide.

When a Christian can rest in the blood of Jesus Christ.

When a Christian can just sit in this truth.

Knowing that they are weak but Christ is strong.

They will be used mightily for the Kingdom of God.

It is in this lowly state,

the state of recognizing you are a mere sinner,

that God is Glorified.

As crazy as that is.

 When I left Silver Lake, I encountered the devil in a different way.

Masked in the cloak of “Christianity”.

I was completely unaware of the religiousness that would engulf me and try to choke me out.