Good Morning All,
I remember
watching a documentary on the History Channel about WW 2. It was about the Japanese occupation of
China. The Chinese were not powerful
enough to fight the Japanese Imperial Army head on. It could not attack the Japanese Army posts
directly so the Chinese would cause small disturbances that the Japanese would
send a small detachment of troops to investigate. When the troops were separated from the main
unit, the Chinese would then attack the smaller groups. It was the only way the Chinese could really
fight the Japanese in many places throughout China. While this tactic did not kill many soldiers,
it did cause the Japanese to send much larger sized units of soldiers to patrol
and to investigate problems. This
hampered the Japanese war effort in China and bogged the Japanese down.
In many ways, this is the devil’s strategy
with us. As long as we are near to God,
as long as we are surrounded by the saints and by God’s grace, the devil cannot
touch us. Yet the devil entices us to go
out on our own, away from the safety of God’s loving protection. The devil wants to lead us astray so that we
are easier targets for him to attack.
The devil can never attack God and if he attacks those who are clinging
to God he fails as well. Yet if he can
get you separated from God, then he can succeed.
The devil might do this by leading us to
believe that we are “above” sin. The
devil might try to convince us that whatever we do can be justified because of
who we are. The devil loves to play this
game with preachers. This is the cause
of so many of the downfalls of prominent or famous preachers; they thought they
were too great and too important to sin and whatever action they were doing;
whether stealing money or someone else’s wife, they were “allowed” because of
who they were.
Sometimes the devil uses the trick of
leading us to think that we aren’t really that far from God, so we are
safe. If we go just a few steps away
from the base we are still safe, right?
Then maybe just a couple steps more.
We are “only seeing what is out there;” how can we get in trouble? Yet that is exactly what we get, in
trouble. So, we need to stay close to
God. We need to stay in his Word, and we
need to stay in our prayers. We need to
listen to his call to repentance, to turn from our sin and to stay close to
Him. We are to stay focused and single-minded
remembering to trust in his Word for all our needs.
Father of all mercy, you are the only true source of our
salvation. Defend us by your Spirit and
keep us safe from all the devil’s attacks.
We ask that you especially defend those who are straying from your
loving protection. Bring them back
safely to your gracious kingdom. Bring
healing to those who are broken by the weight of sin. Bring them to the knowledge of your true and
loving grace. In the precious name of
Jesus we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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