He lives to distract, divide and destroy us Luke 11.14-28
9/22/2009 2:20:01 PM
Scripture Reading:  Luke 11.14-28 Today's inspiration:  Luke 11.28 "blessed are all who hear the Word of God and put it into practice." Good Morning. Ah. . . after a long weekend filled with food, family, friends, and more food, I'm anxious to get back into the food of God's Word.  I pray you are well.


Scripture Reading: Luke 11.14-28 Today's inspiration: Luke 11.28 "blessed are all who hear the Word of God and put it into practice."


Good Morning.


Ah. . . after a long weekend filled with food, family, friends, and more food, I'm anxious to get back into the food of God's Word. I pray you are well.


What was the deal with the demons, anyway? In the first 13 verses of Luke 11, Jesus talks about kingdom principles--teaching His disciples (and us) how to pray--teaching about the love of a heavenly Father for us, His children. He instructs the disciples to keep on asking. . . keep on seeking. . . keep on knocking. . . in prayer, persisting in bringing our needs and requests before the Father, who longs to give us good gifts. And then--wham! We're back to the demon thing. . . why? Because Jesus had brought the kingdom of God to earth, and He was teaching kingdom principles which would not go unchecked without Satan's ploys to distract, detract, and destroy. Luke describes a scene where Jesus delivers a mute man from a demon, and while the people are amazed to hear the man speak, they choose to question Jesus' authority--did He drive this demon out under God's power, or Satan's (Beelzebub)? Jesus answers with a logical point--hey, I'm driving out a demon--if Satan is giving Me the power to do that, he is just defeating himself. . . any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined. . .but then He goes on to make a statement that has broad application for all of us, a house divided against itself will fall.


Division is the work of the enemy. . . the evil one. Consider the carnage in homes, where a wife regularly cuts her husband at the knees--disrespecting him or demeaning him in front of the children--undermining the harmony that could be theirs as a husband and wife. . . consider a church where ego rears its head in the pastoral staff, causing factions. . . how about a company where a senior manager regularly criticizes the CEO, working at cross purposes. Feeble as these examples are, they make the point that these kinds of division weaken the family, the church, the business through the dissension caused. Years ago, I attended a church where a young pastor who didn't like the way things were going in our little neighborhood church, decided to start a new church, right up the road, and took half of our congregation with him. Division. His wife who had led the women's Bible study at the church, waltzed in the following week, acting like she was going to continue right along--even though, together, they had turned the church upside down! Instead, the senior pastor contacted me, and asked me to lead the group. . . In trying to arrive at a decision, all I knew was that I was ill at ease--so I waited. Then, I got the answer I needed from Scripture. In Galatians 5, right before the warm, fuzzy verses on the fruits of the Spirit, you know the ones that talk about how our lives should exhibit the fruits of the Holy Spirit living within us--so that we should be all about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. . . well, right before that, Paul talks about what we should stay away from--acts of the sinful nature, which include DISCORD and DISSENSIONS. I got a Holy Spirit download those 13 years ago that has stayed with me--have nothing to do with anything that divides or causes dissension, (gossip, slander, a critical spirit, sarcasm at someone else's expense (yikes), etc.), for these things are not of God. So, in that little church situation mentioned above, I waited until the senior pastor set things straight before I assumed that leadership role. Dissension, discord.


Well, in verse 27, some life-giving words are shouted from the crowd, "God bless your mother--the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!" Jesus replied, "But even more blessed are all who hear the Word of God and put it into practice." Such a simple refrain by Jesus, but did you catch the import of His words? We are even more blessed than Mary if we read God's Word and put it into practice in our lives.


Clearly contained within God's Word are the "D" words to avoid: dissension, division, discord--for they are the work of the devil, whose intent it is to distract, detract and destroy, so let us not be deceived. Getting down to basics, could we be people who speak life-giving words or none at all? Let's be people who build up rather than tear down, who contribute to the unity of our families, businesses, churches, sports teams. . . 'Any "D" words you need to Distance yourself from? Don't Delay in Deleting them from your Daily Doings and Deliberations.


So that you may know,


Christine