Dear Lord,
As we come to You today, please give us a few
tranquil moments to fully engage in the message and hear what You would say to
our hearts. Keep the hectic world at
bay, Lord, and let us simply sit at your feet and feel Your presence.
It is in Jesus’ Name we ask,
Amen
I love my domestic pets. Animals that I have called my furry children
have run the gamut from wild turkeys to American dingoes. What I can’t tame, I still enjoy providing
for. I love leaving food outside for the
deer, fox, songbirds, opossum, and more.
I fall somewhere in between Noah and Ellie Mae. It makes me happy that so many creatures feel
safe at my home. I’ve watched several generations of God’s creatures
play in my yard, learn to fly from my trees, and grow up under the pines. I have welcomed them all.
Unlike many people, I have no irrational fear of
snakes. In fact, unless they are
venomous, I have no reaction to them at all. A few summers ago, a five foot long blacksnake took
to hanging out around the house. One day
he’d sleep in the butterfly bush, another he’d sun along the edge of the
lawn. He even wound himself occasionally
in a dogwood tree that grew alongside my front porch. It was not unusual for him to crawl across
the concrete even as I sat in my rocker. He seemed friendly enough. Because he wasn’t venomous, I didn’t
discourage his familiarity with my yard.
I never once as much as “shooed” him away from any location he chose. I was comforted by the fact that I knew he
would consume the frogs that frequented my walkway and would discourage any
mice from venturing too close.
One day, when Tommy and I returned from a shopping
trip and began bringing bags onto the porch I spotted what appeared to be a
cowboy boot inside my bluebird house. I
thought it was a boot because of the color and the pattern I saw in the opening. It took my brain a few seconds to wrap around
the reality. I was seeing snake skin in
the bluebird house.
I called my daddy to come help me. It took great
effort to prod the snake into coming out.
I was astonished as all five foot of the black snake emerged from a
bluebird house that was less than 1 foot square and already full of nest and
nestlings. When he was out, it was clear---nothing could be
saved. The nest was destroyed. The babies gone. The snake had simply done what snakes do. The problem is that I did not do one thing to
discourage it from happening.
The snake felt safe at my house. The bluebirds felt safe at my house. The issue was this, the bluebirds had an
enemy and their enemy was the snake. I
had provided that snake a comfortable environment on my property in their
proximity. I had willingly harbored the enemy of my beautiful bluebirds to
devastating effect. Because I had given the snake free reign of my yard,
these parents lost their children. Their
home was destroyed. Their future of
caring for and loving their little ones was gone. This was a family I would never see learn to
fly. This was a generation that would
not live to create more beautiful bluebirds for the woods around my home. The snake slithered in and destroyed everything because
I didn’t think about who might suffer the consequences of his appetite. I had provided him with a home and ample
opportunity to do as he pleased.
In a seemingly off topic subject, I’d like to make a
confession. Now, I’ve been a lifelong church
congregational member and have loved the Lord for as long as I can remember. I am baptized and saved. I don’t willingly sin. I carry on near-constant conversations with
Jesus. I have even served on a ministry
staff for several years. But, can I tell
you something? Never once I had I asked
the Lord to cleanse me of all sin. I
really had never thought about asking Him to purify me of hidden sin.
One day at church a while back, a lady was giving me
her testimony and spoke of her prayer that God “search her heart and uncover
any unrighteousness.” And instantly, I
thought, “Wow, I’ve known Jesus as my Savior longer than she has and even I’m
not ready to ask Him to do that!” It bothered me that I felt that way….but, it didn’t
bother me enough to rectify the situation for quite a few years. However, recently it really dawned on
me. I love the Lord, He is abundantly
good to me, He has even created a beautiful home in eternity for me, He
suffered and died for me….and I have the nerve to willing shelter His enemy,
the devil, in my being!!!!!! It was right then and there, I decided I’d have no
more of that!
How had I been so compliant, for so many years? How had I managed to feel comfortable with
permitting the devil safe harbor anywhere in my life?
How about you?
Have you ever asked the Lord to search for satan in your heart? Have you asked Him to cleanse you of any dark
blot? Are you giving satan a foothold in
any area of your life?
Let us break it down for ourselves.
God is our Father. Personally, in each of our lives, we can
recount a multitude of times (including sending His Son to offer us salvation)
that God has loved us, cared for us, tended us, rescued us, taught us, fed us,
provided for us and the list goes on and on.
Wouldn’t you agree?
Zephaniah
3:17 expresses this very well -
The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice
over you with gladness; he will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you
with loud singing.
Psalm 121:3 states: He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Matthew
10:30-31: "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. "So do
not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Now,
let us define sin: To sin is to
transgress against God’s divine laws.
God has instructed us, His beloved children, to not
partake in sin because the penalty of committing a sin is a death that will eternally
separate us from Him.
God lovingly sent His son Jesus to us to accept the
penalty of death upon Himself to pay the price for all of our sins. However, in order for His death to pay our
penalty, we must accept that Jesus is the son of God and that He died to pay
our penalty (He offers us the gift of salvation), and we must willingly accept
that gift.
In James 1: 13-15 we read: When tempted, no one should say, “God is
tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; 14 but
each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and
enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin,
when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Hebrews 2:14
speaks of Jesus in saying: Since
therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise partook of
the same things, that through death He
might destroy the one who has the power of
death, that is, the devil.
Throughout the Bible, it is made abundantly clear
that satan is the enemy of your Father.
Examples include:
Revelation 12:9; 20:2 “And the great dragon was
thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was
thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him …
Isaiah 14:12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star,
son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
Acts 13:10
And said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of
all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of
the Lord?
Satan, as the enemy of God, seeks to tempt us to
engage in sin.
As God’s enemy, satan desires to thwart God’s plans
where it hurts the most….satan wishes to make Jesus’ death on the cross a
wasted effort by preventing God’s children from accepting Christ and keeping
them, instead, preoccupied with the world and engaged in perpetual sin.
Matthew 13:19 "When anyone hears the word of
the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away
what has been sown in his heart.
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil,
and you want to do the desires of your father He was a murderer from the
beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him
Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and
the father of lies.
1 John 3:8 Whoever makes
a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the
beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the
devil.
Can you agree with me on these points from our
scripture reading? Isn’t it clear that
the Lord is our Father and loves us?
Didn’t He send His son to suffer and die to prevent us from suffering
the sin-penalty of eternal death that would separate us from Him? Doesn’t scripture make it clear that the
enemy of our loving Father is satan?
Isn’t it without question that satan is at work to keep us sinning and
separated from God, the Father that loves us?
Because I thought there was no harm in the
blacksnake, I didn’t recognize that he was the enemy of my sweet
bluebirds. I gave him a place in my
domain, and from that location, he destroyed their lives.
Because I hadn’t given permission to the Lord to run
satan fully out of my life, I was giving his enemy shelter in my very
being! And, from that vantage point, he
was free to do whatever damage he so chose with ease and comfort. Imagine that, me –harboring the enemy of the
Lord that loves me! When I finally realized this, I immediately prayed
and gave the Lord full, unhindered permission to run satan out of my yard!
The Lord loves you.
He has been good to you. He wants
to bring you home to live with Him in paradise.
He has an enemy….an enemy that cares nothing for you and has hatred for
God. Do you intend to give satan a place
to hide in your heart?
Please join me in our
closing prayer:
Lord, too often we have given satan a comfortable
couch in our livingroom even when we know of his hatred for you. We now open the doors to our house wide open
to You, Lord. Please come in and seek out
satan. Open every door, every
cabinet…look under every bed and dresser.
Anywhere you find him, Lord, drive him out. Never again let it be said that this child of
Yours gives refuge to Your enemy.
It is in the name of Jesus we pray, Amen
The same Christ that is present in the Old
Testament, revealed in the New Testament, and displayed in Creation is the same
Christ that is interwoven in the fabric of the lives of His people. God is the Master of the Universe, yet cares
deeply about every tiny detail of your day.
Seek the Biblical lessons to be learned in all of your experiences.
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