The Church is Under Attack
Satan wants to suppress and extinguish the light of the Gospel of Christ.
His legions in the world war against the Truth and against those who bear it, through lies and twisting of facts and the meanings of words, through assault and oppression, and through censure; through distractions, diversions, temptations, enticements, relationships, comforts, and “goals”. The enemy roars both inside and out of the recognized church. We must take hold of our Captain. We must relinquish our hold on temporal distractions. We must refuse to become servants of worldly things – any worldly thing no matter now noble or how necessary, becomes a stumbling block and an impediment to the work of the Gospel as soon as it has equal time, equal effort, equal priority to Christ and His grace in our life.
The enemy of our Lord has gained much footing in the world and the saints are being drawn away from our Source and His purpose. We know that anyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but we must begin to recognize the other means by which the devil seeks to destroy Christ’s church and His message.
Christians are busy people. When all the worldly pursuits have been fulfilled – earning a living, maintaining a home, family time, recreation, social events, and ‘church’ responsibilities – we are worn out, with little time for God and less for His Gospel. Satan has done his work well; he has succeeded in persuading God’s own people that all of these things are necessary, worthy, or required, and as we struggle to meet all of these worldly expectations, we are drawn away from the ‘one thing that is needful’, which is time with the Lord Himself, who is the source of both our desire and power to do His will.
It’s an ‘eureka moment’ when we suddenly realize that all of the things and people that appear to consume the best hours of our day and the strength of our efforts can be tools in the hands of the enemy of our Lord to drag us out of His presence, to weary and distract us from His purpose, and to effectively shut down either the proclamation of the Gospel, or the proof of the Gospel: lives transformed by the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and temperance, lived in this world with the knowledge that it is passing away, and that our life – our true life – is in eternity with the Lord God Himself.
We need to become unavailable to the devil’s schemes to ruin our witness of the grace of God in His people, and we can only do this by making time – prime time – to sequester ourselves with Our Lord, shutting out the cacophonous compulsions of the world so He can work in us as He desires, and protect us from our enemy’s darts.
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