Wednesday, December 16, 2009

WHO IS THE ENEMY?

As I consider the lives of those around me, who mock the existance of God, my heart is greatly troubled. I see adults who once proclaimed that Jesus is Lord and worshiped in the House of God with me; participated in some of the most anointed dramas I've ever experienced and today are living lives that very much identify with the morally bankrupt lifestyles of most movies and television productions and the people that produce them.
Out of their mouths now, they are saying they have been liberated from the 'lies of the past' and are free for the first time in their life. And their children now reflect the parent's new lifestyle and every manner of evil choices are being done openly, without fear of consequences.
How can this be? Did some great trauma happen and suddenly everything changed overnight for them? Did they ever really have a relationship with the Lord? Was all they experienced in the Lord, an act? Was Jesus Christ ever real to them? Can't they see how their choices are now shaping the lives of their children?
It can be so subtle, going unnoticed as deception begins to creep into a life. We can blame it on the enemy of our soul if we choose. He definitly plays a role in the deception that will drag us off into a devil's hell but the Word of God tells us that we are drawn away by our own lust.
James 1:14-15 says, "Each one is tempted when, by his own desire, (lust) he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death."
For the most part, we deceive ourselves, so that we can satisfy our own lusts without the complication of having to be held accountable. We throw away the Truth and say it was a lie, so we can bow down at the altar of a self-directed, self-gratifying lifestyle; gods unto ourselves.
The enemy knows, that once we have started down the path of a lukewarm relationship with Christ, we need little help from him because life is all about us at that point.
And, even more deadly than these who are up front, in your face with their sin, is the one who is keeping all the rules, plays the perfect role, looks the perfect part, but under the surface, they are living another life inside their heads.
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature, will reap destruction." (Galatians 6:7-8)
The grim consequences? "Don't you know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God?" (1 Corinthians 6:9)
Who is the enemy?