Tuesday, January 24, 2017
I did not have sufficient time in my sermon this past Sunday in church to elaborate so I would like to focus on the points I omitted, hoping that it can be of some benefit to our readership. I titled the message “Under Attack” because the Lord had impressed me lately with the idea that Satan’s battle against us has intensified. Perhaps it has because the devil is aware that his time is running out. I don’t know what the Apostle Paul saw exactly when he reminded Timothy: “This know also: that in the last days perilous times shall come.” (2 Tim. 3:1 KJV) In other bible versions they are called hard or difficult times or times of trouble, but one need not be too spiritually perceptive to see that times of trouble are here already and that it begins at the government level and extends all the way down into our homes.
As I mentioned in the message, Satan succeeded in driving a wedge between the brothers in the first family and we all know how that ended up. His tactics haven’t changed. He is still trying to divide and to sow discord, which is one sin God especially detests. (See Proverbs 6:16-19) If it is such a wicked sin, it is surely inspired of the devil. Sadly, Satan seems to be having success in all areas today, beginning with our country and ending at the home level. He’s even been successful in church. Here too, it is nothing new. In fact, Paul addressed such a situation in his letter to the Philippians, beseeching two prominent women in the church to settle their differences, reminding them that they were not enemies but rather sisters in Christ.
That is what the text to my message this past Sunday pointed out. Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the devil and all other demonic spirits. (See Ephesians 6:12) If the devil is shooting at us, why are we responding by shooting at a brother or sister in Christ? After all, they, just as we are all capable of doing, are being influenced by the devil himself. It is Satan who is really behind it, and he is capable of dividing even the strongest in the faith if they get careless. Sunday, I wanted to end with this plea but I ran out of time, so I’ll present it to you: If you are having an issue with a brother or sister in Christ and if you don’t have the grace or strength of forgetting or dropping it altogether, please make a sincere effort of settling it with him or her. To remind you that this is nothing new and that it happens more than we are willing to admit, this is what Paul begged the members of the Corinthian church who were fighting amongst themselves: “Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? (1 Cor. 6:7) If you’ve said “I’m not gonna take it”, Let me ask you, “Can you take it for Jesus?”
God’s word for today: (Galatians 3:28) “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
