“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”  2 Thessalonians 3:3

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”   (Psalm 91:1)

First a couple of apologies.  One, in last week’s devotion talking about Slenderman, I didn’t mention that the little girl who was stabbed did survive.  As depressing as the story was, that was at least a little bright spot, and I left it out.  Not good.  Secondly, sorry this is late today, but the good news is that it will be shorter than most of these novelettes that I have been putting out lately.  Unfortunately I have been taught (and have taught the same thing) that we should write like we talk- and you know how I talk.

Last week, I told you about the influence the internet and this new age of technology has on all of us.  It can be dangerous, but the key to recognizing any danger that lives around us is to tune into the power that resides within us.   If we don’t keep a relationship with God and instead live spiritual  lives full of rejection, we will live spiritual lives void of protection.  We are embattled by the world, the flesh, and Satan.  It would seem we are outnumbered, but as Paul reminds us in Romans 8:31, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Like someone wise once said, “God plus me makes a majority.”

The primary thrust of God’s Word is instruction on how
to abide in Him.   If we can begin to see His wonderful providence and His unfailing provision, we will begin to understand His unfailing protection.  The assurance that we receive from the Word can then be conveyed to others like our children, family, friends, and even strangers, so that they to can experience protection afforded in God’s perfection.   We need to be able to tell others, with confidence, that “[He is] my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!”

That means that we have to sell out to a life that is full with Christ, not just occasionally touched by Christ.   The thing that I fear might be happening in our churches and families today is similar to what happens in medicine.   When we go in for  an inoculation, we get just enough of the disease to not receive it in full.   I think that often we receive just enough of God to inoculate us against experiencing Him in all His fullness.   We are satisfied with little doses of Him as though that is all that is necessary.  When it comes to God, we need to experience the real thing.  If we don’t, not only will we lose to evil, we probably won’t even recognize it.

Until we admit that Slenderman is just one of thousands of evil influences meant to infiltrate our families, churches, towns, and countries, we will not armor up.  We will float along until slowly, imperceptibly, we are taken over.  By the time that England’s Chamberlain saw the light, Hitler was so strong that it would take the rest of the world to bring him down.   We must keep our eyes open and examine everything through the glasses of God’s Word.

I was reading Ephesians 4:11-16 today and verses 13 and 14 say, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”  If we remain babes in Christ, not able to eat meat, we will be like infants.  We will be like those two 12 year old girls who were deceived by that which is not real.   We will be tossed by the winds of doctrine no matter where they blow and by the winds of deceit from whomever they come.

The well-known Puritan writer Thomas Brooks writes:

Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; He promises honor and pays with disgrace; He promises pleasure and pays with pain; He promises profit and pays with loss;  He promises life and pays with death.

We can put the word always in these sentences above.   Satan never delivers on what he promises because he wants the worst for us and if we listen to his lies, the worst is what we will get.

The only way to protect those we love (and even those we don’t) is by not appeasing the enemy but by defeating him.  Satan laughs at our puny efforts if we try to stand up against him on our own.  He has thousands of years of experience, no moral obligation to do the right thing, and fights dirty.   His minions prowl around infiltrating our homes and churches.  We need to be like the FBI guys who can recognize counterfeits.  They don’t study counterfeits, they study the real thing.  They study it so closely that they will recognized any irregularities in a fake.  That is what we must do.  We must study Christ and the Word so closely that we will recognize any irregularities that confront us.

Those who are more mature in Christ are obligated to help protect those who are less mature.  That can be our kids, grandkids, new believers, slow maturing  believers and even unbelievers.  We can’t do that without be able to recognize the enemies ourselves.   There once was a man who had trekked through many miles of a snowstorm to reach his cabin.  The security of the cabin lulled him into a sense of safety, so he neglected to take off his wet clothes and just lay down to sleep.  His dog would not let it go, however, and pulled on the man until he awakened.  The man took off his wet clothes and built a fire.  The man had become numb and did not realize the danger of his wet clothes and except for his dog’s urgings, would have died in his sleep.

This story is the story of today.  So many lie down in the numbness of sin and  deception and think they are safe.  It is our job (if I can compare us to St. Bernards for a moment), to rouse them from their slumber.  It is up to us to point out the need to take off the cold and sinful attire that will eventually lead to their demise.   Of course, we cannot do that if we, too, are lying down ready to slumber in our own sins.  God is our protector and we are to be like Him.  That makes us protectors, as well.   If we are going to be protectors we must, “Put on the full armor of God so that (we) can stand against the tactics of the Devil.”  (Ephesians 6:11)  No need to appease Slenderman and his cronies.  Let’s just beat them.