Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Silencing The Roar Of The Lion
When daughter, Bev, "Blessed Beyond Measure" sent this week's CWO quote, I intended
posting about it, but may be too late for it to run. However, I feel so strongly about this quote that I will post it anyway.
CWOs quote is "Satan's ultimate lie is that you are capable of being the god of your own life, and his ultimate bondage is getting you to live as though his lie is truth", by psychologist, Neil Anderson. Bible quotes are from The International Inductive Standard Bible, the New American Standard Bible.
I should tell you that I don't presume to be anywhere nearly a learned Bible historian, but offer only my understanding of this.
When time for Jesus who lived on earth as you and I, was ending, He spent His last hours trying to prepare the apostles for what lay ahead. Peter, the strong and outspoken one, would be arrested and imprisoned, and later be killed. Religious leaders wanted to silence those who followed his teachings. To say those were turbulent times is an understatement the size of the universe.
"Rumor had it that Nero had burned Rome so he could rebuild it as he wanted." and needing someone to blame it on, he blamed the fire on the Christians, and began the systematic persecution of God's children".
"Jesus had prepared Peter for the world's tribulation; Now Peter would prepare others. On the eve of Nero's persecution Peter wrote his first epistle. True to God's unmeasurable love, Peter's words still stand today for you and me:
1 Peter, ch.5, v.8: "Be of sober spirit,
be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil
prowls about, like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour."
While gathering information I checked the subject Satan, and counted 36 or more references. There even may be more. Two instances about how he operates, probably the ones best known, are when Jesus was tempted, but long before that, the situation in the garden of Eden, of Adam and Eve.
If I understand it correctly, It was soon after Jesus was baptized that Satan showed up. Two things stand out. This encounter wasn't happenstance. The Bible says "Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil". But before that, Jesus had fasted forty days. Isn't it interesting that the first thing Satan used to try to tempt him was about food.
Like a self appointed know it all, Satan thought he knew our Savior's weakest vein, but forgot some things: Jesus doesn't have any detriments, and His fasting only gave him more spiritual strength. But did you notice what Satan tried first? He did the same thing when he tried entangling Adam and Eve, sliley suggested doubt. If, if, if. You'll hear that a lot from him. He so oozes uncertainty.
When Jesus fed him back God's protective word, he quickly moved toward a different attack, but still tried to create doubt.
Next, Satan took Jesus to the Holy City, and had him stand on the pinnical of the temple, the highest point, and with continued effort to instill doubt he was God's son, tried to persuade Him to throw himself off. Talk about orchestration, where he took Jesus was no accident. Neither was his quoting scripture unplanned. Already, the one who would devour mankind was honing in on the would be kill.
For the first temptation Satan used the ruse of needed food. The second one, along with hammering away about doubt, Satan insulted Jesus's God by taunting him, without saying it out loud. "Show me how well your god can protect you" is what he implied. Jesus didn't need to quibble with this angel turned would be roaring lion.
On his third try, which I imagine was Satan's ultimate intention in the first place, he takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory, and attempts his knockout punch. "All these will I give you, if you fall down and worship me". This time Jesus doesn't just quote scriptures. He backs him off with "Get thee behind me, for you shall worship the Lord your God and serve only Him."
The Bible says at this point the devil left Jesus, and angels came and ministered to him. Think about, If Satan had obeyed God long before, he might have had the joy of being one of them.
I'd like to take you now to a place that's very well known, the Garden of Eden. In the book of Genesis, beginning at ch.2, v.5, "Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord had not sent rain upon the earth; and there was no man to cultivate the ground." God could create the world by merely saying it. That's how powerful His Word is, but plowing and chopping and raking and hoeing, might require some human effort.
"But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground."
"Then the Lord God formed man of clay from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being."
"And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed."
"And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
"Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four."
To not quote the entire book of Genesis, I'll skip to verse 12: "And the gold of that land is good."
Again, the Bible mentions Adam being placed in the garden "to cultivate it and keep it." What's important about this is not that God needed Adam's help. Adam needed to be responsible, a faithful steward of the land. Giving something back, insteaadof only taking. Who knows, perhaps if he had had less time to check the forbidden tree, he might not have got into so much trouble.
What Sunday School hasn't taught the story of Adam and Eve, how God made Adam a helpmate so he wouldn't be alone. He even let Adam name the beasts and birds, and the cattle. But clearly God commanded Adam and Eve must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This wasn't to tantalyze them, or set excessive rules. If Adam and Eve had only obeyed, they wouldn't have even brushed with evil. Until now they were in a wonderful blissful state, with all their needs supplied.
Until they disobeyed, they were not ashamed, and had no reason to be.
In chapter 13 Satan in the form of a serpent is described as more crafty than any beast of the field. He confirms this by entangling Eve in a not so innocent conversation.
Talk about twisting words, Satan begins: "Indeed, has God said, ""You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?"" Eve's first mistake is that she talks to him at all, but she does, as we may do sometimes, and as Satan tried to entangle Jesus when he was testing Him, the serpent wants to plant some doubt.
Eve may have thought she could explain God's instructions, but that wouldn't have mattered. The serpent had already achieved his goal, to confuse her and try to discredit God's instructions. He says: "You surely shall not die", and then he adds, "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like him, knowing good and evil" Notice how subtly he sneaks that comment in.
Adam and Eve disobey, and are banished from the garden. Adam shifts responsibility for it onto Eve, and she lies: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate".
God gave Adam a paradise garden to tend, but Adam more than neglected it, and in addition sinned. His punishment was to chop weedes and thorns and thistles the rest of his life, and this was handed down,. ike the result of fathers' sins sometime fall upon their children backs.
From there it only got worse, beginning with one son of Adam and Eve killing another.
In chapter 6 of Genesis, verses 5 and 6, we learn what God thought and how He felt about mankind. "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually." "And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."
A God who would love us even after that, care about us individually, so much so that He sent His own son to take our deserved place for sins, that's a God I can serve all my life, but something is required. It's spelled out in the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt have no gods before me", especially not me.
posting about it, but may be too late for it to run. However, I feel so strongly about this quote that I will post it anyway.
CWOs quote is "Satan's ultimate lie is that you are capable of being the god of your own life, and his ultimate bondage is getting you to live as though his lie is truth", by psychologist, Neil Anderson. Bible quotes are from The International Inductive Standard Bible, the New American Standard Bible.
I should tell you that I don't presume to be anywhere nearly a learned Bible historian, but offer only my understanding of this.
When time for Jesus who lived on earth as you and I, was ending, He spent His last hours trying to prepare the apostles for what lay ahead. Peter, the strong and outspoken one, would be arrested and imprisoned, and later be killed. Religious leaders wanted to silence those who followed his teachings. To say those were turbulent times is an understatement the size of the universe.
"Rumor had it that Nero had burned Rome so he could rebuild it as he wanted." and needing someone to blame it on, he blamed the fire on the Christians, and began the systematic persecution of God's children".
"Jesus had prepared Peter for the world's tribulation; Now Peter would prepare others. On the eve of Nero's persecution Peter wrote his first epistle. True to God's unmeasurable love, Peter's words still stand today for you and me:
1 Peter, ch.5, v.8: "Be of sober spirit,
be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil
prowls about, like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour."
While gathering information I checked the subject Satan, and counted 36 or more references. There even may be more. Two instances about how he operates, probably the ones best known, are when Jesus was tempted, but long before that, the situation in the garden of Eden, of Adam and Eve.
If I understand it correctly, It was soon after Jesus was baptized that Satan showed up. Two things stand out. This encounter wasn't happenstance. The Bible says "Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil". But before that, Jesus had fasted forty days. Isn't it interesting that the first thing Satan used to try to tempt him was about food.
Like a self appointed know it all, Satan thought he knew our Savior's weakest vein, but forgot some things: Jesus doesn't have any detriments, and His fasting only gave him more spiritual strength. But did you notice what Satan tried first? He did the same thing when he tried entangling Adam and Eve, sliley suggested doubt. If, if, if. You'll hear that a lot from him. He so oozes uncertainty.
When Jesus fed him back God's protective word, he quickly moved toward a different attack, but still tried to create doubt.
Next, Satan took Jesus to the Holy City, and had him stand on the pinnical of the temple, the highest point, and with continued effort to instill doubt he was God's son, tried to persuade Him to throw himself off. Talk about orchestration, where he took Jesus was no accident. Neither was his quoting scripture unplanned. Already, the one who would devour mankind was honing in on the would be kill.
For the first temptation Satan used the ruse of needed food. The second one, along with hammering away about doubt, Satan insulted Jesus's God by taunting him, without saying it out loud. "Show me how well your god can protect you" is what he implied. Jesus didn't need to quibble with this angel turned would be roaring lion.
On his third try, which I imagine was Satan's ultimate intention in the first place, he takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory, and attempts his knockout punch. "All these will I give you, if you fall down and worship me". This time Jesus doesn't just quote scriptures. He backs him off with "Get thee behind me, for you shall worship the Lord your God and serve only Him."
The Bible says at this point the devil left Jesus, and angels came and ministered to him. Think about, If Satan had obeyed God long before, he might have had the joy of being one of them.
I'd like to take you now to a place that's very well known, the Garden of Eden. In the book of Genesis, beginning at ch.2, v.5, "Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord had not sent rain upon the earth; and there was no man to cultivate the ground." God could create the world by merely saying it. That's how powerful His Word is, but plowing and chopping and raking and hoeing, might require some human effort.
"But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground."
"Then the Lord God formed man of clay from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being."
"And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed."
"And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
"Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four."
To not quote the entire book of Genesis, I'll skip to verse 12: "And the gold of that land is good."
Again, the Bible mentions Adam being placed in the garden "to cultivate it and keep it." What's important about this is not that God needed Adam's help. Adam needed to be responsible, a faithful steward of the land. Giving something back, insteaadof only taking. Who knows, perhaps if he had had less time to check the forbidden tree, he might not have got into so much trouble.
What Sunday School hasn't taught the story of Adam and Eve, how God made Adam a helpmate so he wouldn't be alone. He even let Adam name the beasts and birds, and the cattle. But clearly God commanded Adam and Eve must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This wasn't to tantalyze them, or set excessive rules. If Adam and Eve had only obeyed, they wouldn't have even brushed with evil. Until now they were in a wonderful blissful state, with all their needs supplied.
Until they disobeyed, they were not ashamed, and had no reason to be.
In chapter 13 Satan in the form of a serpent is described as more crafty than any beast of the field. He confirms this by entangling Eve in a not so innocent conversation.
Talk about twisting words, Satan begins: "Indeed, has God said, ""You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?"" Eve's first mistake is that she talks to him at all, but she does, as we may do sometimes, and as Satan tried to entangle Jesus when he was testing Him, the serpent wants to plant some doubt.
Eve may have thought she could explain God's instructions, but that wouldn't have mattered. The serpent had already achieved his goal, to confuse her and try to discredit God's instructions. He says: "You surely shall not die", and then he adds, "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like him, knowing good and evil" Notice how subtly he sneaks that comment in.
Adam and Eve disobey, and are banished from the garden. Adam shifts responsibility for it onto Eve, and she lies: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate".
God gave Adam a paradise garden to tend, but Adam more than neglected it, and in addition sinned. His punishment was to chop weedes and thorns and thistles the rest of his life, and this was handed down,. ike the result of fathers' sins sometime fall upon their children backs.
From there it only got worse, beginning with one son of Adam and Eve killing another.
In chapter 6 of Genesis, verses 5 and 6, we learn what God thought and how He felt about mankind. "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually." "And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."
A God who would love us even after that, care about us individually, so much so that He sent His own son to take our deserved place for sins, that's a God I can serve all my life, but something is required. It's spelled out in the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt have no gods before me", especially not me.
