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Old 01-29-2019, 06:50 PM   #105
Male30Dan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dirt_dobber View Post
as to the OP thread title
....and humanity's descent into madness

And the Devil Smiled by Todd Starnes
Feb 15, 2018 By Todd Starnes

Another American high school has been turned into a killing field. And the nation wonders why.

Well, I'm going to answer that question for you. And the answer may leave you a bit unsettled. You see - I believe there is a God -- but I also believe there is a Devil. And I see his hand at work here.

We've raised a generation to believe that truth is relative - that there is no right or wrong.
And the Devil smiled.

They kicked God out of public schools - banned Bibles and prayer.
And the Devil smiled.

We've destroyed the traditional family - broken homes raising broken kids
And the Devil smiled.

There are no consequences for bad behavior - no personal responsibility.
And the Devil smiled.

Our movies and music and games glorify violence and gore. Marriage vows poisoned by pornography.
And the Devil smiled.

What happened in Parkland, Florida is about wickedness - a war with the forces of darkness - good versus evil.

There is no doubt our land is wounded, her people suffering. But we have turned our backs on the One who promised to heal our Land.

The politicians and pundits would have you believe this is not about God, it's not about righteousness. They would have you believe it's about politics and mental illness and gun control.
And the Devil smiled.
I happened to see this thread and hadn't read it until today and man, browsing through and being reminded of these acts of violence just kind of broke my heart all over again. The post I've quoted specifically caught my eye. That and the post that followed it calling it a boatload of horse crap (paraphrasing of course).

I will lead with the absolute true statement that I hope I don't offend anyone with what I'm about to type. It's not my intent. It really isn't. My preacher would say that he hopes he does, because if so, that's God speaking to you. But I don't want to myself. All I can do is plow the field and occasionally plant a seed, but it's up to God to grow that seed (and he certainly can).

That said, I couldn't possibly agree more with Mr. Starnes' writing above and couldn't possible disagree more with Sefant77's (gun laws can certainly help and there are clearly sins committed by saved people - we are all sinners saved by grace - but those sins don't change the fact that there is a God and our world needs Him) and Underdog's (bad things happen to good people all the time UD - it doesn't mean God doesn't exist and it doesn't mean God made it happen). I wouldn't tell you that I've always agreed with this writer's work, but the truth is, over the past couple of years, my life has changed pretty drastically.

Cue backstory music (hehe)... You see, I always considered myself a Christian. I had been saved by way of me stating that I believed in Christ at a pretty young age. I had even been baptized at the age of 18. Of course I know now I was never really saved as I didn't mean the words I said at the time that I said them. Nothing changed in my heart and, as those of you know all too well that have been around me from all the early years I've posted here, I did, in no way, shine Christ's light with my words, actions, etc.

Well, that has changed over the past couple of years. It's funny when you really do get saved how the Holy Spirit truly comes rushing into your life. Those of you that are atheists, agnostic, etc - I know how you can doubt as I also doubted several times over the years, but I can only understand right up until the moment you stand before God with tears running down your face and honestly surrender yourself to His will and God himself enters your very body with a sledgehammer and starts tearing down walls that change your very stance on, well, everything. After that, if ever you take that leap, there's literally zero doubting. It certainly didn't happen all at once, but God did start changing me and, while I have SO much more changing needed in my life, I have him to thank for who I am today.

I know with all of my heart and soul that God exists. I literally FEEL His presence in my life. I know with all of my heart and soul that Jesus Christ lived a perfect sinless life, died for our sins, was buried and rose again. I know with all of my heart and soul that God gave us a comforter in the way of the Holy Spirit to help guide us through scripture, connect us to Christ, etc. I know with all of my heart and soul that all three are one and that every word in the Bible is the very inspired and infallible word of God. I'd also truly love discussing any and all of this with anyone on the fence, doubting, or those of you that believe and want encouragement from the testimony of someone that was very much not living his life as a Christian for a very long time but that, thanks solely to God's love, mercy and grace, found my way, but that's a different topic for a different day.

So why am I prefacing all of this with some boring story of my last couple of years? I guess because I want any of you that don't know God due to not yet being saved, choosing to never believe, etc to understand the transforming power God can have in a life. Likewise, for those of you that may have been a Christian your entire life, never backsliding, etc, I wanted to point this out so that you can understand that same power that you may not have ever fully experienced because your entire life you believed, followed God, etc. God absolutely changes people. The old man falls away and the new man is born. Your flesh is still there and the devil pulls against it all the time (read Romans), but you ARE changed by believing in Christ!

I honestly can't believe I came across this if I'm being honest because it feels quite strange given how much it relates to a message I prepared a couple of weeks ago that I'm presenting for my Sunday School class this week. The really odd thing is that it's sports-themed (with a heavy emphasis on Basketball). I've actually decided to post it in it's entirety so feel free to read it, ignore it, etc, but I think it's useful in this context and would ask that you specifically look at the last quoted scripture from Ephesians pertaining to Satan... The message I plan on teaching Sunday copied straight from Word:

Sunday School Lesson (02/03/2019):

• How was everyone’s week?
• Prayer requests?
• Let us pray
__________________________________________________ _________________

• The last time I spoke, we talked about 3 topics that I wanted to just briefly recap, especially since today’s message will touch on a couple of those. Those original topics were:

o God’s word is truth and you should absolutely trust Him
o God is worth being courageous for and He wants us to be
o God is always with us and, through Him, anything is possible

• Today’s message covers a single topic that deals with our need to rely on God. To be more specific, whether our life’s management supports that need and whether or not we might need to make a change in management.

• This topic actually came to me a few weeks back when I watched a movie with my wife for the first time by the name of War Room. I’m sure all of you have seen it but, if not, I can’t recommend it enough. Once the movie ended, the main takeaway I had dealt with the scene where it was loudly declared to Satan that the lead character’s home was under new management and that her joy was no longer going to be taken away by the Devil in all the ways that he had been doing that prior to that moment.

• What I kept going back to in my mind was how many years I lived my life with terrible management that not only allowed Satan to steal my joy, but provided the exact conditions for him to thrive in. I kept thinking about this reality and I couldn’t get over how poorly I ran my life. How badly I needed new management. A coaching change for my life was an urgent need and I wasn’t even aware of it.

• See, I mention coaching change interchangeably with management change because this resonates to me given I’m such a sports fan. Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Tennis – you name it and I either played it when I was younger (and in some cases still do) or love to watch it today. So when I was thinking of how to best explain this message, what I kept coming back to was sports and how a coach is his team’s manager and how a coach leads his team and how a poor coach will often do his team a great disservice that will directly lead to losses.

• Then I started thinking about the best players in the history of sports. The best players in basketball’s history. The best players in football’s history. Baseball’s history. Hockey’s history. In the NBA you have Michael Jordan, who is regularly considered the greatest of all time. In the NFL, you have Tom Brady who is often mentioned as the best QB, but hey, we’re in Texas so we’ll just use Troy Aikman in this example. In baseball the greatest is often said to be Babe Ruth and, for hockey, definitely Wayne Gretzky.

• I started looking up all 4 of these amazing players and I found a total of 17 championships won among them. Of course, when you add up the total years played from all 4 of these tremendous players, it came to 70 years. So that means that the absolute best players in their respective sport won their championship less than 25% of the time. We’ll come back to that…

• Now, I reflected back to what a poor coach might do. The thing that stood out to me that never happened for any of these team’s players I mentioned above would be not playing them. They’re the best right? Why on Earth wouldn’t they start and play a huge role on their teams. But that’s what came back to me as the most obvious error a terrible coach might make when they have a true super star on their team like these teams had.

• So now let’s expand on basketball given Jordan is often considered the greatest athlete of all time across all sports. You see, Jordan actually won a title in 6 of his 15 seasons, so he actually managed a 40% success rate and was helping to prop up the averages for those other players I mentioned. 40% is a lot better than 25%, wouldn’t you say?

• Now, let’s say we were in a close game and we decided, when the game got the most difficult, and we were being pressured by the opposing defense the most, to take our best player out of the game. To actually bench Michael Jordan! What an insane thought, right? Who would take him out of the game? Only the worst coach! Jordan played the majority of every minute of every game he ever suited up for but still failed 60% of the time.

• Now ask yourself when you’re dealing with a difficult challenge in your life, if you ever find yourself taking your best player out. Ignoring your super star that so badly wants to be put into the game. That so badly wants to take the last shot to secure victory for you. And, amazingly enough, that wins at a slightly higher percentage of, well, 100%. Not too shabby huh?

• So I want you to think about that and I’m going to read a few verses and then we’ll come back to this analogy later. Again, feel free to turn to each of these if you’d like or feel free to write them down to review later. It’s totally up to you. First, I’d like to read from:

o Jeremiah 17:5-14 “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.”

 Here’s specific scripture that outlines the very real need to avoid trusting in the ways of man. Instead God wants us to trust totally in Him and to rely on Him in our lives and to put our hope into Him! But again, do we ever find ourselves in a troublesome situation, whether small or large, where we fail to rely on God? Where we feel we’re sufficient without turning to God in prayer. Where we feel we can handle the issue so we ignore involving God. I know I’ve sure failed to properly put on God’s armor through reading His word and praying while instead trusting I’m sufficient, but we’re not sufficient. God, however, is! Next, please turn to:

o John 15:1-11 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”

 These verses so accurately depict how God wants us to fully abide in Him and, without doing so, will lead to us withering away like a dead branch that has been broken off from a living tree. The tree goes on providing for all other branches that remain a part of the tree, but the separated branch dies. That really shows just how helpless we are when we depend only on ourselves and fail to rely on God. That said, if we truly rely on God, he has promised us that His joy will remain in us and that our joy will be full! Just as the War Room’s lead character passionately declared, shouldn’t we want to stop Satan from stealing our joy? God shows us here that we can do that by abiding in him! Next, please turn to:

o Matthew 6:24-33 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

 Here it is made clear that we can’t serve God and any other master, whether that master is man, money, or anything else that we elect to put on a pedestal beside God. It is also explained that we shouldn’t worry ourselves with our needs and instead should seek God and his righteousness and, in doing so, will ensure that our needs are met. It is when we turn away from relying on ourselves to meet our needs and fully realize that our Father in Heaven loves us and desires to provide for us and that we should rely on Him that our life can fully change. To put it simply, we must put God in the game!

• So, back to my earlier analogy, we’re in a lifetime battle with Satan. We’re constantly competing with him and we will be until the day we die or until God calls us home. Satan has lost the war with Christ and he IS defeated, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try to pull each of us down with him before the trumpets sound.
• As a result, Satan is constantly trying to scrimmage us in all of our small day-to-day situations. He’s trying to play competitive games in our bigger and more important life issues. He’s trying to play for a championship in the really huge situations in our life, which we desperately need to win.

• So there’s always some small, medium or large game we have going on with Satan and each with just a few seconds on the clock. We’re always a shot away from victory if we handle the situation in a way that is pleasing to God by relying on Him and abiding in Him OR a shot away from defeat if we rely on ourselves and come to the false realization that we are sufficient and don’t need God to see us through.

• The truth is that we can’t beat Satan. We want to beat him by ourselves sometimes and, sadly, we all too often try; however, Satan is TOO fast, TOO crafty and his 3 point shot, if left open, will be a perfect swish every single time. He’s good. He’s really good.

• Here’s the amazing thing though! God is better! Not just a little better. Not just Jordan better. He’s undefeated. Praise God, He is undefeated! His shot never misses and his defense is swarming. Yet all too often we’ve left Him on the bench like that bad coach in the example above. He’s our super star left to only wish He could help us drain that last second shot to send the Devil home frustrated. He loves us, has pleaded with us to rely on Him and gave us the blueprint on how to defeat Satan. All we have to do is trust Him, rely on Him and abide in Him, but will we?

• So today I ask you to fully accept these 3 truths:

o Satan is alive and constantly seeks to defeat us in every way possible
o Satan is stronger than we are and we can’t defeat him by ourselves
o God, if relied on and abided in, can defeat Satan 100% of the time

• So I simply wanted to challenge each of you today to put God in your game. It doesn’t matter how small or large that game might be. It could be when traffic is difficult and you’re growing impatient. It could be when you make a mess by being clumsy. It could be when you hear an ugly rumor and want to defend yourself. In each of those small issues, if you rely on yourself and fail to abide in God, you’ll find yourself screaming at the car in front of you, cursing at your terrible luck and saying revengeful words that ruin your testimony. In all of these cases, you’ll allow Satan to steal your joy!

• My hope is that we all walk away today putting on God’s armor, abiding in God to see us through even the smallest of battles with Satan (and certainly the bigger ones) and find a way to consistently send Satan home as a loser. I feel like Paul said it best:

o Ephesians 6:10-17 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

• Let’s put ourselves and our homes under new management today and let’s tell Satan that he will no longer steal our joy! So that’s what God put on my heart to share today - does anyone have anything they’d like to add?

__________________________________________________ _________________

• Let us Pray


So, that will be what I present this Sunday that God put on my heart to talk about and I gave this long history of my personal backstory and shared this message because I can't believe more people don't see the truth in that America has turned their back on God. We've asked Him to leave our schools. We've taken His commandments down all over our nation. We're raising (and have been raising) Americans that have very little in the way of moral and biblical principles, and then we wonder why these things happen at the frequency that they do.

And don't get me wrong as guns are a problem. But you could ban AKs until the Sun stops rising and they would still be fully attainable by way of other methods (or the guns that are still easily attainable would be used or the tons of videos posted all over the web to make bombs would be used, etc). Bottom line, those wanting to kill and cause destruction still could. Also, in addition to guns being a problem, bad things are still going to happen as it's not like any sort of an American revival or movement is going to change everyone - as Paul mentioned above, wickedness is very much here to stay until Satan is fully defeated (read Revelation).

The bottom line is that our children need God in their lives. Our directors and producers and movie stars we all look up to, watch their work, etc need God in their lives. Our athletes need God in their lives. I need God in my life. You need God in your life. Our country needs God but we're turning our back on God so we can be more accepting of sin. I believe the ending should read "One Nation, Under the Premise that we don't want to offend anyone lest we be blasted on Social Media, Easily Divided by Politics, Religion and Sexuality, With Liberty and Justice for All, especially those practicing sin as fully described in the very scripture that this pledge USED to be based on." But hey, I digress...

So yeah, sorry for the book, and I hope I haven't offended, but the more I think about it, if I have, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. God bless.
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