Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in
the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly
people do in secret. -- Ephesians 5: 10-12 (NLT)
We also need to carefully consider
what pleases the Lord because there is an enemy to our souls. The second factor
working against us is the devil and he is very real beloved. He has done a
masterful job in convincing those in the world that he either does not exist or
is just a cartoon caricature with a red suit and pitchfork. When you see
stories like the one out of
Satan, who is the god of this world, has
blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the
glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the
glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. -- 2Corinthians 4: 4 (NLT)
The things of God are foolishness
to them because the devil has blinded them. He rules the earth and he knows his
time is short according to Revelation. There are not rational reasons why the
theater shooting happened. The media and experts will try to fit the shooter
into a box so he can be labeled and we can go on feeling better about ourselves
but at the end of the day the only reason these keep happening is we are in the
end days and the devil is stepping up the offensive war he is waging against
God's creation. But the Lord has given us instructions on dealing with the
devil:
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him,
standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the
world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. -- 1Peter 5: 8-9 (NIV)
But look at the first two
imperatives -- be self-controlled and alert. Most of us even in Christian
circles do not live life alert to the schemes of the enemy. We are largely
reactive believers. When something happens to us we seek God. When something
happens to us we think about how to fight the enemy. We are not proactive
Christians. There is not enough preaching on the enemy and how to win the
spiritual wars we are in every single day. That is the true damage from the
candy coated gospels that are out there. They omit the crucial things we need
to know and learn as Christians so that we can be successful in our spiritual wars.
Instead we have generations of believers - ill equipped for battle - who do not
understand why they keep circling the same mountain year after year. Why so
many Christians are spiritually bound and crawling into heaven. The enemy is
having a field day with believers today because we do not understand the power
which Christ appropriated for us on
The final thing working against us
is our flesh. The least talked about part of this unholy trinity because it
hits too close to home for many of us. Our flesh is in complete rebellion to
God. It has been since the fall of man. We were born into it. It does not go
away and only gets worse as we grow up in the world system. Our flesh is
constantly at odds with the Spirit of God within us: