Overheard at the lake

I was talking to a little girl about 4 years old and I said, "You sure have a nice dog." She replied, "Mm Hmm, He is nice but if you try to smell his private parts he'll snap at you."

We were winding down one night. It was about 10:30. No one had said anything for about 10 minutes, when out of the darkness 5-year-old Walker says, "Dad?"
"Hmm?"
"You know what would be really bad?"
"What would be really bad Walks?"
"If you had to go to the bathroom real bad and you were allergic to stink."

And then last night, I was walking back from the bathroom with Walker at four in the morning(our cabin was about 200 metres from the bathroom - the only draw-back to the camp) and he says, "Obeying satan makes a person's life really hard, right dad?"
"Yes Walker, it sure does."
"You know what I think happens dad?" (Walker doesn't seem to know how to whisper)
"Shhhh, there's people sleeping Walker."
"But dad, you know what I think happenes?"
"What Walker."
"Just before you go to hell, I think that satan makes a really big mess and you have to clean up forever and ever."

I am NOT easy to figure out!

It always cracks me up when I hear people say something like, “The reason that satan can trick us so easily, or the reason that it seems like satan can read our minds is because he’s had thousands and thousands of years to study human beings.” Puleeze. Isn’t that so like human nature to believe that, ‘Nobody gets one over on this boy. No sireee. I’m a clever dude. I’m no fool.’

Well, not unless you consider that comment to be evidence of foolish thinking. Ask yourself this. Just how many thousands of years do you imagine that it took before satan was able to trick Adam and Eve? What was that? Oh. Well, how many days then? Hummm? How many hours? Right. All it takes to fool humans into disobeying God is one thought and one thought only. And that thought is, ‘I can’t trust God to meet this need or longing so I have to meet it myself.’

Bingo. Done. Case closed. That’s all it takes. One thought. One sideways glance at our options and we’re gone. The pride, arrogance and self-love that was the cause of satan’s fall are exactly the same tools that he used to cause our fall from grace and it didn’t take him more than a second to figure us out. Corrupted self-love is what caused sin to enter Adam and Eve and it’s what has tripped up every person ever since. It’s our pride that causes us to think that satan has to stake us out, watch us carefully, study us and watch for his chance to strike. Well, forget it. You know from your own life that he can use the same tactic over and over and over for all our years on earth, and without a close relationship with Jesus, we NEVER catch on. Sad, but true

The devil Made Me Do It!

“Can satan read our minds?” someone once asked. “It sure feels like it,” was my reply.

Yes. It certainly feels like it. Virtually every Christian knows the feeling, but Paul corrects that type of thinking. He begins in Romans 7:7. There Paul explains that the Law, the Commandments, the Rules to which we are exposed not only show us what we should and should not be doing. They also trigger in us a strong desire to do what we’re told to NOT do. As everyone knows, there is nothing like being told to not do something to make us really want to do it.

Why is that? Some people excuse their behaviours by saying, “The devil made me do it.” Paul points us somewhere else for the answer. He continues in verses 14 - 25 -

"I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself - after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”

Did you notice? Nowhere in these verses is satan mentioned as the origin of our temptation. Nowhere is he blamed for putting wrong thoughts into our heads. Why? Because in this case, satan isn’t the problem. When evil and vile thoughts spring to mind, it isn’t satan’s fault. When good intentions are challenged in our minds by doubts, it isn’t satan that’s mucking about in our heads. When you pray for forgiveness and another voice says that you don’t deserve it, that’s not satan.

Are we changed as Christians? No doubt. Are we free from slavery to sin? Absolutely. Are we free from our sinful nature drawing us or tempting us to sin? Sadly no. We don’t need to blame others for our faults. Nor do we need to pretend that satan is putting wrong thoughts into our heads. We are hardwired to do that all on our own. It’s our nature. It’s the character type into which we were all born. That is why Jesus came on a rescue mission to earth. We are hopelessly lost and unable to pull ourselves out of the crevasse of sin into which we’ve fallen. Jesus came to give His life so that we could be brought safely home. Jesus brought us freedom from sin, Freedom from guilt, Freedom to live in paradise with our Creator. God is great and God is good.