Unhappy with the Government?

I’m going to be out of pocket tomorrow, so I’m doing my G90X update a little early this week… Thought I’d take the Holiday as a good opportunity to remind us of a passage that isn’t always very comfortable. 1 Peter 2:13-17:

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

Of course, in America we have no king… but we do have a Congress and a President and a Supreme Court… Regardless of your political leanings there are probably several men or women in Washington that you are not a big fan of… In posting this passage, I’ve got another confession to make… I need to do a much better job of praying for the men and women in our government… I spend a whole lot of time complaining about them (not always out loud, but often in my heart), and only a fraction of that time praying for them… which I think, is probably the best way to honor and submit to them.

When we are dissatisfied with certain things that our government is doing or not doing how should we respond? Robert touched on this in a previous post after he was very upset over the passing of the Health Care bill. I think 1 Peter 2:15 sheds a lot of light on what we can and should do… It’s easy to complain (believe me I know from 1^st hand experience), but I think that our first obligation is to stop and pray and silence useless/foolish talk…

What do I mean by that? Here’s a question… What can actually (legally) be done to change the government? Vote them out, right? Of course you can write your elected officials and let them know how you feel about certain issues and how you will vote based on those issues… If you are dissatisfied with what they are doing/not doing – go to it… but the opportunity to actually make a change (by voting) only comes around every couple of years, right?! And there’s no guarantees that someone more worthy will be running against them. Our complaints in the meantime are futile and do more to rile us up and make us discontent and take our focus off what’s more important (i.e. the Kingdom of God, lost souls and hurting people around us)…

If our complaints are largely futile could they then be considered “ignorant talk of foolish men” in light of verse 15 and Ephesians 4:29, which says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen”? Not convinced? Check it out in context (Ephesians 4:25-32).

Thanks to the sacrifice of countless men and women throughout America’s history we have the freedom of speech… We have the freedom to complain… But 1 Peter 2:16 reminds us, “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.” Do our complaints build others up… do they mark us as servants of God? Am I saying folks on Fox or MSNBC are evil in being political pundants? Not really… However, as Christians we should think about how WE need to respond to our discontentment on a daily basis.

So what can be done DAILY to change the government? The Answer is Prayer.

God has the ability to change hearts and minds… I truly trust in His power and sovereignty… If He has that power and ability, then let us lean on Him to do so… Let’s pray for our government officials that God would give them supernatural wisdom and that they would make God-honoring choices… Let us “cast all our anxiety upon Him because He cares for [us]” (1 Peter 5:7) – It can make a difference in our nation, in our lives and our attitudes… I certainly want to do the will of God and definitely do not want to be considered by Him to be a fool who’s engaging in “ignorant talk.”

Maybe I should pray more…

Factual statements that are self contradictory…what does that mean!?

Kevin and I have been following the Ergun Caner controversy since it popped up.  We haven’t’ posted anything on it because we wanted to allow Liberty to do its job and make a decision.  The decision has been made and… Even now, we disagree on exactly how we should respond to this news… Kevin would prefer to leave it all alone and silently disassociate with the school, but I believe that we need to take a definitive stand on this issue.  While we applaud Liberty for taking some action and also in trying to do so with a measure of grace and forgiveness, I have to admit I am very disappointed by the statement offered up by Liberty. In fairness, this fiasco played a major role in Kevin and my decisions to not return to LBTS in the fall – The lack of a definitive statement in the official statement cemented the decision. 

Before I continue lets get everyone filled in.  Ergun Caner is the Dean of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary (through June 30, 2010).  He proclaims to have been a converted Muslim, and a staunch Apologist for Christ.  About a year ago someone started putting videos on YouTube claiming that Ergun Caner was lying about his past (Part 1 starts here).  So that we are up front about this… the YouTube videos are presented by a Muslim and, at some points, come off as being condescending, and sarcastic.  I watched all of these videos and there were some clear contradictions in some of the things that Ergun Caner was saying.  Without diving too far into it let’s just say that he had three or four different versions of his childhood, move to America, and his testimony.  Each different story was a contradiction to the other.  If you watch the video (and I suggest you do) you can see the clear contradiction.  As I watched them, I wondered… this either had to be intentional, or he has lost his mind.  I started to look into this because this is a story we have all seen too many times.  I found a press release from Caner.  Caner saw fit to call into question the sincerity of one’s Christian faith for challenging him and asking questions.  I immediately e-mailed Chancellor Falwell to ask for clarification.  I found it hard to believe that that the school would endorse such a thought.  I received a response from Falwell himself saying that they take these matters seriously.  We just found out how seriously they take it.

Ergun Caner’s contract will not be renewed on June 30.  He has been asked to stay on as a professor.  In Liberty’s announcement they make the following statement:  “After a thorough and exhaustive review of Dr. Ergun Caner’s public statements, a committee consisting of four members of Liberty University’s Board of Trustees has concluded that Dr. Caner has made factual statements that are self-contradictory.”  Factual statements that are self contradictory?  What does that mean!?  That is incredible.  How can you make a factual statement that is self contradictory?  Can someone help me out here?  How can anything contradict truth? 

Caner was offered and has accepted a position as a staff professor at the university.  I wonder what he will be teaching? Truthfulness is critical when teaching anything, ESPECIALLY the Bible and even more so, for apologetics (which is what he has historically taught).  Is this what happens when Universities become too big?  Do they all become political in the way they handle their business?  I would have expected Liberty to have been the exception!  But it seems like they have fallen into the same trap as secular schools.  Rather than being completely up front and honest about the situation, we get a tap-dancing type statement… “factual statements that are self contradictory.” Liberty’s statement is reminiscent of political correctness, and an effort to sweep things under the rug.  Once this enters into a school it is hard to stop this type of secular thought.  Rather than facing the truth they have decided that a half truth would protect their image, and protect their pocket book.  Does this honor God?

Again, we are glad that Liberty is attempting to show some grace and mercy – that is to be commended… However, the statement they have released and the current lack of a public statement of contrition by Dr. Caner (this should probably have been required by LBTS for Caner to stay on staff) is  a little weak from a conservative Baptist Seminary.

24 Series Finale

So Kevin was encouraging me to write about the 24 series finale.  I’m not sure exactly what I can say.  24 burst onto the scene in 2000.  The second season followed the September 11 attacks with controversy.  The show pushed the limits, and brought something new to the screen…real time.  I picked up 24 during the 4^th season.  Promptly went back and watched the first three, and was blown away.  There are a number of things you can take away from 24.  All of them are emotions that fans would have experienced while watching the show.

Jack Bauer

Disbelief – I, like many of you, was in utter disbelief as the good guys and the bad guys got wrapped up in some lie.  More specifically I really got frustrated when it was the good guys.  Some are willing to sacrifice things they believed in for a lie.  Or willing to lie for the “greater good”.  While the situations in our own daily lives are not to the extreme as the show…we are all faced with these kinds of decisions.  Everyday.  How do you know you are making the right decision?  Prayer, faith.  I tie this in with a conversation I had with my wife.  As Christians we can’t afford to get caught up in a dogmatic sense of prayer.  What I mean by that is that we need to be in prayer constantly.  As we walk, at work, a quiet moment at home, before a meeting… it doesn’t matter where.  Don’t get caught up in being so traditional in praying on your knee’s only at night before bed that you forget to pray at all.  Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:17… pray continually.  Do you think that President Taylor makes the decisions she made this season if she were in prayer constantly?  I don’t know?  But I do know that if the word of God was on her heart and mind… it would have been more difficult.

Virtue – Jack Bauer was a lot of things… did a lot of things.  No matter all of the bad things Jack did (primarily the murder, death, kills) he was honest, had integrity, cared for his family, and for his country.  Jack protected the things he cared about at all costs.  These values (many would say) are passed down by your parents.  I would agree partially.  God’s word has been planted in every human being’s heart.  It is up to us to follow through. 

Shock – What can you say about the character Jack Bauer?  The name has entered the lexicon status.  Jack Bauer and Chuck Norris are now in the same league.  While we all would cheer for Jack to stop the bad guys no matter the cost, there was a certain level of shock that came to me every time.  How can a man of such virtue have the appearance of so little morals?  What I mean by that is… here is a guy who hardly lied, stood for good, willing to defend it all costs… including the use of vengeance.  The last 6 or 7 episodes of the series focused on retribution.  Here was a man who, having lost someone he loved sought vengeance.  Every person who has a family would think about the very same thing.  If it were my family… I would want vengeance as well.  In Romans 12:19 Paul tells us to never avenge ourselves, and that vengeance is the Lord’s.  While all of us may have the natural instinct to seek retribution… know that God will have his judgment upon them.  

Here I have to be honest… to what extreme can one go to protect the larger good from evil?  This is the question that 24 ultimately left you with in every episode.  As we watched Jack torture people to get answers (and you know he is going to get them) you have to wonder… should that happen?  Not in the political sense that these things always end up in, but in the Biblical sense.  How far is too far according to God?  We know about the turn the other cheek verse and love your enemy verse (often quoted, or thrown in the face of Christians who support self defense).  This very long and complicated answer deserves its own blog.  But it is important to research and think about it on your own.

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Failure is not an option – it happens!

One of the things I’ve tried to put into place in my life is accountability. This is a painful thing often, because it requires people telling me that I’m not doing things perfectly (I really want to think I’m close to perfect – but the sad truth of the matter is I’m not even close). Things have been going fairly good in our church – there’s a lot of positive that’s happening in the church as a whole and in the youth as well, but when stuff goes well I rejoice with one hand and brace for impact with the other.

You see, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about integrity… Satan’s attacks… persecution… fighting for the Kingdom of God and other things.

I am consistently wary of how my failings may affect my family, my ministry and other people.  A few years back (okay a lot of years back) DC Talk wrote a song that captures my personal feelings on this matter. The 2^nd verse and chorus are particularly appropriate:

Father please forgive me for I cannot compose
The fear that lives within me or the rate at which it grows
If struggle has a purpose on the narrow road you’ve carved
Why do I dread my trespasses will leave a deadly scar

Do they see the fear in my eyes?
Are they so revealing?
This time I cannot disguise
All the doubt I’m feeling

What if I stumble, what if I fall?
What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all?
Will the love continue when my walk becomes a crawl?
What if I stumble, and what if I fall?

 

Here are a few things I know:

• When someone starts making an impact for the Kingdom of God – Satan takes notice and goes after them with everything he’s got (cf. Job; Luke 22:31-32; esp. Luke 4:1-13 ).

 Hey, this is a great strategy! Take out/discredit the leadership and the followers will be easy pickings. To do this he will use lies, deception, evil people, bad circumstances… but like Robert pointed out in a previous blog Satan often focuses most on our particular weaknesses and natural dispositions to specific sins… Usually for Christian leaders the temptations that lead to epic fails are in one or more of these 3 areas (cf. 1 John 2:16): Pride (fame, influence, accolades); Money (Stealing, hording or materialism); Sexual Immorality.

•  Christians carry the name of Christ and their reputation reflects upon His reputation (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:20; Matthew 5:11-12; 1 Peter 3:13-17).

 In fact, this is exactly what “Christian” means. That term started off as a derogatory term basically meaning “little Christs”… This is such a complement when we are being like Him, but the sword is double edged… it cuts both ways… when we carry His name what we do says something to people about Him – it’s not fair to Him, but it is the harsh reality of the matter.

•  If we get things flipped around to where life is about our fame and glory we are in for a world of hurt because we will be fighting God (cf. Prov. 3:34) and Satan.

 There is no doubt that we will be persecuted – scripture is clear about that. However, we are only blessed when we are persecuted for doing right… Otherwise we’re just getting what we deserve.

• We are all going to sin! The point is to get accountability in our lives and be daily in God’s word and controlled by the Spirit as much as possible in order to minimize the impact and depth and breadth of our inevitable failures! (cf. Ephesians 5:15-21; Galatians 5:15-26)
• Forgiveness is available to any who seek it – but this requires humility to repent and confess when we have failed! (cf. 1 John 1:9, James 5:16)

1 Peter 5:1-11 really speaks to all of this. Let me encourage you to read it and meditate upon it, especially if you are in any sort of Christian leadership and most especially if that leadership is in any way in the public eye. Jesus took quite enough of a beating for us 2000 years ago… He certainly does not need another black eye.

One of the guys that regularly hold me accountable sent me a good reminder yesterday from Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest): “Unguarded strength is double weakness because that is where the retired sphere of the leasts saps. The Bible characters fell on their strong points, never on their weak ones.” Now that’s some old English speak that basically says, be careful about what you are strong in because it can become an area of pride and pride comes before a fall.

My friend’s take on this was:

If our strength is UNITY… be careful.

If our strength is COMMUNITY… be careful.

If our strength is TRUTH… be careful… Etc..

 Each of these (and numerous others) is a double edged sword.. since each can probably derail us too..  I must know who I am in light of HIM.

Another thing… It is important to note that the failings of humans do not really invalidate the truth of the Gospel (the claims of the Bible should be evaluated on their own merit) – however, Christians’ failings can damage the perception of the Gospel in the court of public opinion and make it more difficult sometimes for people to come to Christ.

Is accountability fun?!?! NO WAY – actually it quite often stinks, stings and smarts. But at the same time it keeps us from MUCH MUCH more serious damage to ourselves, our families, our friends, and the reputation of our God.

Why Apologize?!?! No Apologizing on… Apologizing!

Have you ever heard that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission? That may be true in some circumstances, but that doesn’t mean that asking for forgiveness is an easy thing to do. It can be very hard to apologize sometimes – especially when you don’t think you’re the one who’s most in the wrong!

 Surprisingly, the Bible doesn’t seem to say a whole lot about apologizing, at least not on the surface! You won’t be very successful in trying to do a word search for apologize in the Bible, but that doesn’t mean that the concept is missing in God’s word… Let’s look at a couple of places where the Bible addresses this from a different angle.

 Jesus spoke about asking for forgiveness in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:21-26 Jesus talks about what we are to do when someone is angry with us… He says to “reconcile” with them right away. Notice in the passage that Jesus didn’t say who was at fault… He just started off saying that it was bad to be angry at someone and call them a fool… Then He said that if you remember that someone may be angry at you, go make it right! In context this tells us that we need to do what it takes to make things right with this person (including asking for forgiveness) not for our sake, but really for their sake!

 I can imagine some of you scratching your heads on that. Let me explain. Jesus said that it was dangerous for Christians to hold on to anger at someone.  He then told us to go reconcile with people who are angry at us. So, what He’s saying is to love others enough to do what you need to do in order to help remove that bad blood between you.

 One way to diffuse a situation is to admit your portion of the wrong and ask for forgiveness… Not just say “I’m sorry if I offended you”, but instead say, “I was wrong when I _______________. Will you please forgive me?” 

I know that it seems like splitting hairs, but saying “I’m sorry” usually doesn’t move the heart of the one we’ve offended, but taking responsibility by saying “I was wrong” often does.

I am convinced that this is at least partially what James 5:16 is telling us to do when it says, “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Taking responsibility for where we were wrong in a situation (even when the other person may have been MORE in the wrong) brings healing to a relationship… This is for the betterment of everyone involved.

What else is difficult about apologizing? It requires a HUGE amount of humility. What do we naturally want to do when someone is angry with us? Defend ourselves, of course. Especially if and when we think the other person is more in the wrong than we are… Really though, in the greater scheme of things, that doesn’t matter – The fact of the matter is that it always takes two or more people to make an argument and almost always the fault for the argument is at least partially shared. You may not have the greatest majority of the blame, but was there anything you did that contributed to the argument? Probably… So ask for forgiveness for your part without pointing out the obvious (the other person’s part) – take responsibility for taking the first step toward healing in the relationship. I think this is what God was getting at when He inspired Peter to write:

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:8-12, ESV)

God’s saying that if we want to have a good life here on earth we need to do our best to live in harmony with others. We are to bless others – one way to do that is to diffuse their anger. But that’s not our natural reaction… Normally, when someone is upset with us we want to defend ourselves and fight back. But I Peter is saying that is absolutely the wrong course of action! Defending ourselves and our pride is counterproductive to what ought to be our primary concern: the greater good of all involved (including ourselves) – and that only comes through restoration! Consider the following related verses:

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. (2 Corinthians 13:11, ESV)

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21, ESV)

Scripture may not speak specifically and directly about apologizing or how to apologize, but it does have a great deal to say about humility and forgiveness. Perhaps this is because forgiving is even harder!  Regardless, I think that the passages above speak to all of this.

Because there is so much to say about forgiveness, we will deal with it more extensively in another post – too much to cover here without short changing apologies. What does need to be said about forgiveness here is: “when someone asks for forgiveness, give it – period.”

What else needs to be said about forgiveness is that as difficult as it is to give, it is super hard for true forgiveness to happen without something initiating the process – 99.99999% of the time that something is a sincere apology.

So, let me challenge you today… give asking for forgiveness a shot, it may save a relationship or two.

Strategery against Satan

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:10-18, NIV)

So what are the strategies against Satan?

1.     Understand who you are in your relationship with Christ.  One of the hardest realizations of my growth had to be realizing the truth about who I am in Him (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17).  For me this was the step immediately before repentance.   Ultimately, only God knows you as well as you do.  But until you are open about your own weaknesses you cannot hope to address them.  This would include identifying your sin and then repenting for it. This is demonstrated in a 3 step process described in Romans 6… We need to know who we are in Christ (Romans 6:1-10)… We need to consider ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11)… We need to submit ourselves completely to God (Romans 6:12-14).

2.     Know that you cannot defeat him on your own (James 4:4-10).  Here is a solid piece of humble pie for many of us.  You have to come to the conclusion that you are not in control.  Even those who do not have a type “A” personality will try to control a situation when it starts to spin out of control.  One of the hardest things for me to do is to realize that God…is in complete control.  Even when “bad” things happen.  You have to learn to let go of that control and walk in faith and trust God. This faith in God, is essential.  Another bad cliché?  No, the absolute truth.  The only true way to defeat Satan is to accept Christ and to trust Him (Ephesians 6:16-18).

3.     Know that God loves you.  The most powerful moment in my life was truly understanding the depths of God’s love for me.  I am His child.  He loves me, defends me, protects me, and most importantly He forgives me.  Realize this, Gods love for you is so complete, that even when you do stupid things… He will forgive you.  God has never abandoned you.  Despite your choices, which have put you at odds sometimes with God, God will always be by your side.  This is an extremely important strategy to defeat Satan because for one simple reason, forgiveness.  Satan wants to convince you that the sin you just committed is the one that will break the camel’s back so to speak.  He wants you to think that THIS TIME God will not forgive you – The Bible calls this condemnation.  This is an absolute lie, and I can say that with downright confidence because God has promised this (see Romans 8:1). Knowing that God loves you requires faith.  God’s love can cover you with protection that you cannot imagine.  You MUST accept this very simple truth.  This can provide an armor so to speak that you have to put on (Ephesians 6:13-14).

4.      Understand that Satan is as real as Christ.  Everyone has heard the over used phrase “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”.  Sound like a cliché?  It isn’t.  Satan shows intelligence (2 Corinthians 11:3), emotions (Revelation 12:17), and that he has a will (Isaiah 14:12-14, 2 Timothy 2:26).  The Bible also shows that he is a created being (Ezekiel 28:11-19), and that he is a spirit being (Ezekiel 28:14).  Satan manifests himself in this world through rulers, authorities, powerful people, EVIL PEOPLE (Ephesians 6:12).  Do not fall prey to the thinking that the devil isn’t real.  Do not believe the lies that Satan is some story.  Do not cringe when you mention Satan or when others mention him.

5.     Prayer, Prayer and MORE PRAYER (Ephesians 6:18)

6.     Read, Study and Memorize God’s word… (Ephesians 6:17). This is our only offensive weapon in the Armor of God… Don’t believe it? Check out how Jesus Himself used His knowledge of the Bible to defeat Satan in Matthew 4:1-11.

Even knowing these will not guarantee that you will have success all of the time.  Satan will score, but the outcome of the game has already been determined.  Christ is victorious in a blow out.  You have to be vigorous in your defense, and be prepared.  Because the cool thing is that if you have totally placed your faith in God, you don’t even have worry about the outcome.  Your fate has been decided.

If you have learned anything over this year it is that life is fleeting (Think of Chile, Haiti, the Olympic accident, etc).  The search for truth that you may be agonizing over may end in an instant.  At that point you will know the truth, and will find out that Satan, and God are both real.  As each of us have seen or read about tragic and unexpected deaths of some nature or the other… The point is we all know that this life can end in a split second.  No warning or lead up.  Just over.  In that moment Christ will reveal himself to you as your judge.  You may think that you have years to take a journey to determine the truth.  In reality, you may only have a fleeting moment before the truth will be revealed.

What about this Satan Character?

God created everything.  This would include Satan.  Looking at the timeline presented in the Bible we know that Satan and his bunch of rebels were kicked out of Heaven before the creation of Adam and Eve.  Satan was the best and brightest of the angels.  But he had a flaw.  He wanted to be like God – Really, he wanted to BE God.  This naturally caused a rift between God and Satan, and of course God wins.  With Satan, 1/3 of the angels departed from heaven (we know them now as demons).  If we know that Satan fought against God because he wanted to be like God, we can draw some conclusions.

1.  Satan is not God thus,

2. Satan is not Omnipotent (All Powerful) and,

3. Omniscient (All Knowing) and,

4. Satan is not Omnipresent (Everywhere at once). 

These four simple points cover a lot of area.  Because Satan is not God, he cannot know everything that is or will be, and he cannot be with us all of the time and He can (and will be) defeated!

All of these points are critical to gain understanding of our common opponent.  Satan is an aggressive opponent, and knows how to attack people.  This statement implies a level of omniscience.  However, we have already established that he is not omniscient. So how does he know?  I believe Satan is an excellent observer of human behavior.  Let’s be honest – he has had thousands of years of observations to draw from. 

Observation is a highly effective strategy that is often used in business, sports and war.  People are taught to watch for cues that indicate what people are thinking, how they might respond, when to press, and when to lay back and let it ride.  Anyone’s personal experience is limited to maybe 20 to 30 years of active observation.  Satan, though, has all the years going back to Adam and Eve to draw from.  This gives me reason to believe that while Satan is not omniscient he certainly can provide a very educated guess as to how you will respond to temptation. 

While we are all created uniquely, we all are prone to various kinds of temptations which are not unique.   Our mistakes are not the first of their kind in human history.  This is Satan’s tactical advantage over us.  He knows that while we are unique in our creation, our response to temptation is not.  After thousands of years of observation of personality types, and responses, he knows how to trip a trigger and crawl into your life.  There is hope, though… See 1 Corinthians 10:13 While Satan has millennia of experience tripping people up, God, though the Holy Spirit, has been equally practiced at helping God’s people deal with sin… More on this later.

Everyone has their pressure points.  Do you believe that it is a coincidence that the same issues appear over and over in your own life? I never thought about it until recently.  Then it finally dawned on me:  Satan is real, Satan is clever and Satan is a very astute observer. 

The attacks can be sudden, and from out of nowhere.  There can be long pauses between attacks (demonstrating Satan’s lack of omnipresence).  Rest assured, if you are making an impact for God, if you are beginning to grow in your faith, or beginning in your path towards the truth, you will attract his attention and his ire.  This is where understanding your opponent’s tactics will really help you. 

Satan deals in half truths.  He wants to present you an option that appears to be in the nature of the Bible and God’s word.  This is the trick of Satan. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. Here is an example.  If you are beginning to grow in your faith, then it is fair to say that you are trying to rid yourself of some bad habits.  Stress is a fantastic way to push people back to a default habit or personality trait.  Apply a little stress, and the normal person will revert.   Let me use examples out of my own life. Things like success are a difficult temptation for me because, while I have my moments, I am not a humble guy.  Another example for me is fear of betrayal.  Satan knows my weaknesses, and knows what I need to see in order to feed my arrogance and paranoia.  But this is not limited just to me!   Satan’s desire is for you to revert.  God’s desire is for you to succeed by becoming more like His Son – See Ephesians 5:1-2. 

Look at these startling statistics.  The Bible mentions Satan over 180 times, Jesus mentions him 100+ times.  Despite that, 60% of believers believe that Satan isn’t a real living being, but rather a symbol of evil.  The greatest achievement of Satan is to have convinced the world that he doesn’t exist.  Not only has he convinced the world but also believers. 

If you are a believer let me boil it down a little more strongly…You are willing to have faith that Christ was born of a virgin, Christ is the son of God, Christ lived without sin, Christ died on the cross for your sin’s, Christ was resurrected, and God created angels, …Do you really think it is so farfetched to believe that Satan is real?! 

Next time, we will look at specific strategies for defeating this very real and active enemy, but as a preview you may want to take a look at the following passages: James 4:4-7; Ephesians 6:10-18 & Romans 6:6-13.

Getting to know your Adversary

I am a firm believer of understanding an opponent.  In a competitive situation, it helps you to win.  One of the best strategies is to know how you will be attacked so that you can effectively defend yourself and/or pull of a counter attack.  But what do you do when you’re in a situation where your weakness gets continually exploited, and there is no appearance of a sound counter attack available? 

I don’t handle failure well because I hate to lose.  If I fail at something or do it wrong I over analyze, over criticize, and then come down hard on myself.   While all of us have very different lives, different challenges, and different successes we all have one common opponent.  Our opponent is relentless, ruthless, and cunning- the kind of opponent who is a win at all costs kind of guy.   He will outright lie to you, exploit your weakness, push you to the brink and tell you half truths.  The opponent I speak of, Satan.

I probably lost some of you with the very use of the word Satan.  Bear with me on this.  Up until a few weeks ago I had never given Satan much thought.  I understood what he represented at a conceptual level, but had never really pursued it beyond that.  To me, Satan was something in the Bible that had caused Adam and Eve to sin, and tempted Jesus.  I guess you could say that I thought of him in more of a historical context rather than something that was operating in the here in now.  Even from a social context, the look you get on most people’s faces is bewilderment when you mention the word Satan, or Devil… I’ve even gotten this “you’re weird” look a spiritual conversations!  

The Set Up…

For the last few years God has been really working on my life.  During this time my understanding of Christ has grown immeasurably! I guess that I first grew in my knowledge of Him from a business perspective (Many thanks to Liberty University’s MBA program). 

Since graduating, however, I have had time to get to know this God that I serve on an even deeper and more personal level.  I wanted to get to the heart of the matter and not have a vague understanding of Christianity… I wanted to know Him.  Kevin recommended that I dive into a personal study of theology.  So, I got a theology book by Charles Ryrie for Christmas, and away I went.  To say that I have been blown away by the amount of material that is in this book is an understatement.  While a number of things have changed, as far as my theological approach and general understanding, one of the biggest impressions left on me has been the chapters on Satan.

For those of you who believe Satan is some sort of metaphor for bad things, the Bible tells us you are wrong.  If, like I did, you think that Satan is an entity that only acted in ancient history but is no longer present and active, I care about you too much to not tell you that you are mistaken.  Satan is real, he hates us, and he is very much alive and active – that little booger is running around wreaking havoc on everything!  Here’s how the Bible describes him: Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Your doubt and misunderstandings plays right into Satan’s strategy for ruining your life. In John 10:10 Jesus told us the bad news about Satan… “The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” But Jesus didn’t stop there, he went on to tell us the good news: “[but] I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” What Jesus is saying here is that He wants us to know the strategies of Satan so that He can help us fight back and have a GREAT life, in Him!