 A NEWSLETTER FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE GREENWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
Beware Of Satan!By Steve Niemeier“Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8). Peter’s warning reminds of the few times that I participated in a game called Laser Tag; I prefer to call it The War of The Lasers. You go in and put on a vest and get you weapon and away you go. They explain the rules to you in a small room and you are divided into colors. The goal is to protect your own fort while capturing the opponent’s fort. You do this by trying to “laser” the opponent’s and not getting “lasered” yourself. Of course your team comes up with all this strategy and then when the game starts it seems that everyone panics and forgets the strategy and even the rules. Some even forget what they are doing and walk around getting “lasered” many times. God has equipped us, given us the rules, told us what we are to accomplish and warned us about the adversary we face. Yet it seems when we realize we are in the heat of the battle that we forget what we have learned and what we are to do and where we go for safety. Thus the adversary, Satan “lasers” us just as if we had no idea he would be doing that. In Laser Tag you do not go into the field of battle until you have been given what you need for your protection. Of course what you do with that is up to you. I remember one fellow just being beside himself when he was “shot” by his opponent even though he walked right up to his opponent to ask how to fire his laser! Sounds like some of us doesn’t it? We walk right up to those in the army of Satan to seek advice instead of going to the One who is all knowing and all seeing. We need to beware of Satan! He will use any available weapon to devour us. We need to be careful even in our own families (Matthew 10:34-39). We need to be careful with our friends. We need to be careful with our thoughts, speech and actions at all times. We need to grab a hold of the thought that the roaring lion (Satan) is trying to devour us! Paul tells us in II Corinthians 2:11 “…lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” Then later in the 13th chapter and verses 13 through 15 he states, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” Now that should make us take notice. Satan will transform into something that looks okay to us. Maybe we need to watch out and beware the next time we start rationalizing that it would be okay to put something ahead of our service to God. It could be Satan encouraging us to transform our excuses into rational reasons that we even fool ourselves. He wants to look like a Christian so he can fool a Christian. After all we would recognize him if he wore a red suit and had a pitch fork wouldn’t we? Even though that is man’s idea of Satan it seems that unless he is dressed in some way that totally offends us we don’t mind tolerating him. Yes, we need to beware of Satan. He wants to look good to all so that he can devour us. It is hard to believe that we have an enemy that we can’t see but is visible through his camouflages everywhere. Yes, my friend we need to Beware of Satan! Adding Charity or LoveBy Steve NiemeierPeter tells us in II Peter 1:7 that we are to add love to our brotherly kindness. That seems to fit well doesn’t it? After all if we are to abound in brotherly kindness doesn’t it make sense that we should abound in love also? I Cor.13 is a chapter in which Paul gives a detail description of love. We might want to take a look at what love is to be found with. Bro. Bobby K. Thompson put it this way in a past gospel sermon. Love is to be found with:
It is no secret that we should keep love in its proper company according to Romans 12:9-10. One of the challenges to adding love and abounding in love/charity is our blindness of being centered on ourselves and our lives. How many times have we been caught up in our own issues and were oblivious to the needs of others? The Lord certainly had issues to deal with while on the face of this earth. Yet, whatever He did whether teaching, rebuking, healing or praying He displayed love. Paul said in I Corinthians 11:1 that we are to imitate him as he imitated Christ. Am I imitating Christ in my love/charity? Remember what Paul said in I Cor. 13:1? “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or clanging cymbal.” Let me heed that warning and abound in love! |
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