November 11-12

“Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.” (1 John 3:8 MSG)

Last Tuesday evening I was watching the new Plant Earth11 documentary, presented by Richard Attenborough. The footage was amazing, incredible and fascinating as the lives and habitats of the earth's rarest creatures was revealed. Surely there could be no doubt in the minds of viewers that a Creator God exists.

One scene however was bone chilling – a baby iguana ambushed by snakes. This so reminded me of the devil and his tactics.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3OjfK0t1XM

What is the devil’s work? He waits until we are distracted or lulled into a sense of false security, then ambushes us. It’s messing up your heart. Filling it with worry. Filling it with guilt. Filling it with resentment. Filling it with anger. Filling it with fear. Filling it with confusion. It’s whispering in your ear that you’re worthless and helpless and hopeless and aimless.

Where else do you think that stuff comes from? It’s not from God. Satan uses these things to keep us shackled. The biggest tool he uses to mess with our lives is fear.

But fear doesn’t come from God. In 1 John 4:18 the Bible says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear” (NIV). In fact, the Bible says, “God is love.” So when you’re afraid, that’s not from God — because there is no fear in love, and God is love.

The iguana knew fear, but he used it to his advantage. Although newly hatched, the iguana knew his opponent's weakness – in the case of the snakes it was poor eyesight. This was the iguana's protection. In the the devil's case, our safety and protection is in the name and Word of Jesus, “....so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” - 2 Corinthians 2:11.

One thing we have in common – the iguana and us, is that we don't have to give up, defeated. We can fight back – use the opponent's weakness to our advantage, and if we are in situations or places that make us vulnerable to the devil's insidious suggestions....we get out of there, smart!

Jesus defeated death, and that means he also defeated the devil. Do you know that’s why he came to Earth? The Bible says in 1 John 3:8 that “the Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.”

The number one fear for most of us is the fear of death. Satan will use that fear to manipulate us. He finds us at our most vulnerable and uses the grieving process to entice mourners to step into the occult, grasping at the one thing we long for, our loved ones to still be alive and communicating with us. But Jesus defeated death; he’s destroyed the devil’s work. And so, when we grieve a death, we grieve with hope.

It was the fear of death that led to the iguana's escape to safety, but that didn't prevent him from having hope.

In Hebrews 2:14-15 the Bible says, “Since all of these sons and daughters have flesh and blood, Jesus took on flesh and blood to be like them. He did this so that by dying he would destroy the one who had power over death (that is, the devil). In this way he would free those who were slaves all their lives because they were afraid of dying” (GW).

We grieve because we miss those we’ve lost. We grieve, but we know that if they believed in Jesus, we will see them again in Heaven. They are resting in peace, waiting for that glorious day – the day of resurrection. The culmination of our hope.

For today's music we have “Til We Meet Again” New Voices - Kirk Franklin. Click on the picture to listen.