When Satan doesn’t want us to Hear
The other night, I watched God’s Not Dead for the third time. But it was actually the first time.
The previous times we had watched the movie, I would fall asleep without fail. In minutes I would be as if I had been drugged. Tonight though was different. Cindy had been watching it, and I came into the room near the end. I sat down and witnessed ‘Grace’ being acted out on the screen. Yes, it was human, yes, it was staged. But I have now seen it played out in real life in several different ways since I came to Highland Park Baptist Church. I have written about it in these letters that I write for you. But tonight, the message was clear and I was enthralled. The devil would not make me sleep this time.
I asked Cindy if we could start it over from the beginning. And you know what? This time I did not sleep.
And as soon as it was over, I told Cindy I have to go make notes. I had to get this written down. So up I got and came to this computer. I prayed for God to keep it fresh in my mind long enough to get at least a rough sketch out and onto the screen. And I began to type. Have you ever worked up a sweat while typing? I have now.
A lot of what follows are my ‘takeaways from the movie’. I know that I’m not smart enough to come up with a lot of this on my own, but I am not afraid to parrot the truth when I hear it.
There is no proof of God’s existence. Either you believe or you don’t. I choose to believe.
And if you have to believe in God, you have to believe in Satan too. Why not? There’s up and down, plus and minus, good and bad. It only stands to reason that there would also be an opposite to a God who loves us. Satan stands for everything that God does not.
The devil keeps some of us asleep. He keeps some of us in very comfortable jail cells. Some people fall into money. They live lives of depravity, they use people and toss them away as meaningless chaff. Why do these people seem to succeed and a lot of us don’t? Why is there such injustice if there is a loving God? Because providing some people with entertainment and all the trappings of the rich, successful and comfortable life style to Satan is cheap for the price that you are paying. I will carry it a step farther though with the idea that some of those same people could have a pretty big voice with which they could proclaim the glory of God. But the devil keeps them comfortable so that realization will not be made and that voice will remain silent.
Those of us that believe in Christ have our salvation. It cannot not be taken away from us. Ever. You see us battling life’s problems and wonder why we continue to believe in God when we suffer so much. Because Satan still attacks us, he undermines our plans, he lies and deceives us whenever he can and whenever we let him. Why? To steal the joy that we have in this life knowing that this world is but temporary. We will one day go to a better place. Try as he wants he (Satan) cannot take this away from us.
We’ve all seen those kinds of people, and you’ve probably scoffed at them because after all the ‘hell on earth’ they have faced they still have the audacity to praise, worship and love God. Those are the strongest in faith.
They have not and will not let Satan steal their joy.
I have always loved two oft quoted passages from Philippians (Once I learned that my good friend Jeff Dehoogh didn’t write them himself – Boy the things I didn’t know!) Those verses are Philippians 4:8-9 and Philippians 4:13. I’m sure everyone knows that second one, Tim Tebow taught it along with John 3:16 to the world a few years ago. But until tonight, I never placed them fully into context and without that you can miss the whole point.
The context comes in verses 10 and 11. Paul wrote Philippians while he was a prisoner in Rome awaiting his execution. At the end of his rope, at the end of his life he had remained faithful to God. He had also learned to trust in Christ and no matter what happened or what state he was in at any time he was content. He stated in words almost as beautiful as Christ himself that the goodness of God is what we must always seek. And that by keeping his faith in God in all circumstances he never lost his joy.
As Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” These words of Christ to his disciples lay the groundwork for an abundant life.
Philippians 4:8-13
| KJV | NKJV |
| 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. 10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. | 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. 10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last; your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. |
You need to ask yourself. Are you asleep? Are you comfortable? Do you have a hope after this world? What we see, what we live through and look forward to in this world is nothing but a passing fragrance on the wind. It will be gone in but a season. Our life on this earth will end and we will move on to the next.
Without God, there is no moral compass. There is no right, no wrong. Isn’t that what we see playing out in our society right now? That is why President Trump is hated so badly! Because as flawed as he is as a human being he still has a moral compass! Those in power (in those comfortable cells) are threatened by him. Everything that they value is at risk not because of Trump’s moral compass but because of ours. If ‘our’ voice is awakened Trump will be propelled forward on the shoulders of those of us who still believe in GOD and the triumph of good over evil. If Trump should lose and the corrupt should remain in power, what will we, our children and our children’s children face in their lives? I am not making this a political discussion, but a moral compass (a belief in God and what is right and wrong) is one thing that is being abandoned in our world and without it there is no accountability. You see it all the time, someone wrongs another person, there is no regret, even the stale apology is just a checkbox to mark off so that the next act can occur. A moral compass, the Word of God restores that accountability. That is why the world hates it. That is why the world hates Christ. It forces a person to look at their lives from God’s point of view and they don’t like what they see.
Is it any wonder that there is so much depression, violence, hatred and division in this world and so little hope?
When I started writing these Letters from Roscoe it was to tell my story about returning to God but it was also an attempt to persuade my sister to change her beliefs.
Salvation is available only when you ask and accept Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior. If someone else arranged for you to be baptized as a child does it count? Don’t you have to be the one to submit yourself to God? I remember hearing that small still voice when I was a child. A voice telling me that I should step out into the aisle and go to the preacher. I followed that voice and I went down there and spoke to the Preacher, was it necessary for me to speak to him? No. I just needed to speak those words to God personally. The preacher was just witnessing the conversation.
Cindy has always told me that the only prayer a sinner utters and that God hears and answers is a prayer of repentance. No matter what you have done in your life, no matter how evil you may have been, a sincere prayer of repentance and statement of your belief in Christ Jesus will always result in your being forgiven. Unconditionally. Forever.
From that moment on you will have hope! You will have established a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ and you will have become a new creation.
As Christ was preparing his disciples for his upcoming crucifixion he told them in John 14, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
In my mind, Christ wasn’t talking about going and preparing a physical room or mansion. He was saying to them that I am going to go and be nailed to a tree so that my spilled blood will restore the relationship between you and the Father. It is through Christ’s blood that we are cleansed of all the evil in this world. It is through the purity and innocence of his blood that God sees us.
I wrote a letter a few years ago titled “The Two Sides of the Coin” in it I described the process of growing closer to Christ. To do that you must win the battle of pride and humility.
For Christ to grow, we must become smaller. John the Baptist said it in so many words as he foretold that he was but a witness announcing that the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is at Hand. He was telling us that by becoming smaller we become honest with ourselves and our overinflated egos. We begin to learn a hard lesson. One being where perhaps not all that we have in our lives was gained by us alone. I know, you are thinking back to what I said about Satan a bit ago. Really, do you think that God doesn’t want you to be happy? He is always working for our good he provides things for us to help us along our path. We just have to understand that we are only a few feet tall and that the horizon is a long way off. We aren’t tall enough to see that big picture that everyone seems to be telling us about. But God can and we need to trust in him for that vision.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
But I digress. We have to look for and find that little chink in our armor. That little ‘weakness’ that we have all prayed that no one else could see and pick at it. It’s not easy, and as Doug Reynolds has said more than once, “Humility. Just when you think you’ve got it, you don’t.” With this we also begin to feel love and compassion for our fellow man. We begin to change. Visible change, desired change, desired by ourselves and by our Creator.
We continue to pick at this ‘weakness’ through prayer, introspection and reading the word of God. But we do continue to pick at it and as that chink gets larger and larger, we grow smaller and the part of us that is seeking to know Christ becomes larger and larger as our humility grows.
Once you are small enough, once you have become just a little bit humble, once you begin to feel your heart start to love like Jesus’ then I hope you will step out into the aisle or just stop wherever you are and have that one incredibly important conversation with God.