*This life is beautiful! I give it all to You, all for You!*
I've been thinking about what I'm going to do with my future and stuff, and an interesting thought occured to me.
Our physical life is sort. To quote the band Reilly, "We're living on limited time."
We are called to give ourselves wholly to God.
We have an eternity with Him.
So, should we put aside what we want for the future so that we can do what we are called to? Should I give up my passions and skills, all my plans for my life, and instead live as a missionary? As a teacher? A pastor?
We're living on limited time, but soon we'll have an eternity with the Lord Himself. During this eternity, we will be praising Him constantly. In this life, we praise God through the gifts he gives us.
In the movie Chariots of Fire, Eric Little says to his sister:
"Yes, God did call me to be a missionary. And I'm going to. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure."
So, what if we decided to live our mortal lives doing everything we could to spread the Gospel? To be a force for good? What if, instead of pursuing our passions on our career path, we threw ourselves into the work for God wholeheartedly?
We can enjoy the gifts He's given us in Eternity.
But really- don't we have work to do now? Our calling?
Just something to think on.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTION:
Can our gifts become an idol of ours?
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Knowing Is Half The Battle
Obviously, you've heard the expression, "Knowing is half the battle". It's used in ads ranging from various diseases and STDs to game show slogans.
Why am I using it today?
Because we completely misunderstand demons.
We paint horns on them, and draw them as hideous monsters. They love causing death and destruction, blood and war. And this is the wrong way to understand demons.
What are demons? As us humans understand through Scripture, demons are angels fallen from heaven who have chosen to follow the first fallen angel, Satan. They are spiritual beings, whereas humans are physical/spiritual beings. Of two natures.
It says in the Scriptures that Satan comes in the form of an angel of light. He doesn't come for you in fire and brimstone, with a pitchfork and fangs. He instead chooses to imitate the beauty of God's angels.
I think the most common misconception on the devil and demons is the way they work. We think they kill people close to us, or cause immediate pain. What we think of as physical evil acts.
But CS Lewis, in his wonderful book "The Screwtape Letters", puts it another way through the view of Screwtape, the demon mentoring the younger one Wormwood. Screwtape chides Wormwood for being so excited when Wormwood observes the beginnings of WWII. Screwtape tells Wormwood that although it might be slightly entertaining, war is bad for their cause. Death and near-death experiences cause humans to reconsider life and God. An athiest will often pray on his death bed.
There's a great quote that was in one of my teacher's classroom. It said:
"Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand."
That's the way demons and the devil work. They deceive by lulling us to sleep, numbing us to things like God. They don't attack directly. No, they use a means of distraction.
Often, we don't even catch that they've diverted us from the right path until much later in life. They can deceive a Christian into believing things about the Bible that aren't actually there. They can deceive a Christian to walk around threatening people with Hell unless they convert.
Demons are behind the scenes bad guys who are like the puppet masters. They don't really DO anything. They place thoughts. Like how Satan simply asked Eve, "Did he really say you can't eat from any tree in the Garden?" and other questons. Simply pushing her in that direction without actually doing anything.
Demons are, for lack of a better term, psychologists. But there is some REALLY good news.
Ted Dekker, in his novel "The Slumber of Christianity", describes Satan as a beast in death throws. Wounded, already deafeated, and yet insistent on continuing trying to win. The war is over.
It's nearly Easter by our calendars, which is a day we take to commemorate the winning of a war. Jesus crushed the Serpent's head under his foot.
In Revelation, there are a lot of scary things. They talk about Christians becoming horribly persecuted, and people being killed unless the bow to demons. But here's the great part: it's just a battle! Already, God and Jesus have won the war! Those massive events that they say will stretch on for years and years- in the eyes of a completely immortal, indestructable King, that's only a few moments! It's one battle!
It's Satan's last stand, his last desperate attempt to win. And I think he already knows he is going to lose.
Lot's of people are scared of demons and such. When we are in Christ, we don't need to be! Sure, we need to acknowledge them, but we are also so protected by Him that the demons can't hurt us unless He allows it! So you know what we can do to Satan?
We can stand there and laugh at him. Because he can't stand being mocked. Demons can't stand it when we are aware of their presence but feel no fear. And we feel no fear because the war is already won- our Lord rose from the grave and conquered death! He won the war!
It's Easter! God bless.
Why am I using it today?
Because we completely misunderstand demons.
We paint horns on them, and draw them as hideous monsters. They love causing death and destruction, blood and war. And this is the wrong way to understand demons.
What are demons? As us humans understand through Scripture, demons are angels fallen from heaven who have chosen to follow the first fallen angel, Satan. They are spiritual beings, whereas humans are physical/spiritual beings. Of two natures.
It says in the Scriptures that Satan comes in the form of an angel of light. He doesn't come for you in fire and brimstone, with a pitchfork and fangs. He instead chooses to imitate the beauty of God's angels.
I think the most common misconception on the devil and demons is the way they work. We think they kill people close to us, or cause immediate pain. What we think of as physical evil acts.
But CS Lewis, in his wonderful book "The Screwtape Letters", puts it another way through the view of Screwtape, the demon mentoring the younger one Wormwood. Screwtape chides Wormwood for being so excited when Wormwood observes the beginnings of WWII. Screwtape tells Wormwood that although it might be slightly entertaining, war is bad for their cause. Death and near-death experiences cause humans to reconsider life and God. An athiest will often pray on his death bed.
There's a great quote that was in one of my teacher's classroom. It said:
"Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand."
That's the way demons and the devil work. They deceive by lulling us to sleep, numbing us to things like God. They don't attack directly. No, they use a means of distraction.
Often, we don't even catch that they've diverted us from the right path until much later in life. They can deceive a Christian into believing things about the Bible that aren't actually there. They can deceive a Christian to walk around threatening people with Hell unless they convert.
Demons are behind the scenes bad guys who are like the puppet masters. They don't really DO anything. They place thoughts. Like how Satan simply asked Eve, "Did he really say you can't eat from any tree in the Garden?" and other questons. Simply pushing her in that direction without actually doing anything.
Demons are, for lack of a better term, psychologists. But there is some REALLY good news.
Ted Dekker, in his novel "The Slumber of Christianity", describes Satan as a beast in death throws. Wounded, already deafeated, and yet insistent on continuing trying to win. The war is over.
It's nearly Easter by our calendars, which is a day we take to commemorate the winning of a war. Jesus crushed the Serpent's head under his foot.
In Revelation, there are a lot of scary things. They talk about Christians becoming horribly persecuted, and people being killed unless the bow to demons. But here's the great part: it's just a battle! Already, God and Jesus have won the war! Those massive events that they say will stretch on for years and years- in the eyes of a completely immortal, indestructable King, that's only a few moments! It's one battle!
It's Satan's last stand, his last desperate attempt to win. And I think he already knows he is going to lose.
Lot's of people are scared of demons and such. When we are in Christ, we don't need to be! Sure, we need to acknowledge them, but we are also so protected by Him that the demons can't hurt us unless He allows it! So you know what we can do to Satan?
We can stand there and laugh at him. Because he can't stand being mocked. Demons can't stand it when we are aware of their presence but feel no fear. And we feel no fear because the war is already won- our Lord rose from the grave and conquered death! He won the war!
It's Easter! God bless.
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