Please remember that you bless us with your presence, and may the Holy Spirit bring you His comfort and His peace. Join us!!!
Zoom Link:
For Study, Prayer and Fellowship - 8:00 AM PDT on 07/05/2025:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82968961343?pwd=LzcwVjJKcWVESDRURlhDcXlNV0JUdz09
Meeting ID: 829 6896 1343
Passcode: 77299ere:
07/05/2025 – Prologue - A quintessential Louisiana phrase, “laissez les bon temps rouler” is a Cajun expression meaning “let the good times roll” – that is, to make merry. It is mostly associated with the city of New Orleans and is frequently heard during Mardi Gras celebrations. The saying conveys the joie de vivre (joy of living) that symbolizes the culture of the city.
Last week we made the assertion that we are in the midst of a war, a spiritual war, to be more precise. One can ask if we have arrived at this war because unconsciously, we have adopted the sentiment of the folks of New Orleans? We also asked who our enemies are? Let us eliminate some of the usual suspects. It is not that Christian tribe in another region or neighborhood whose religious culture is different from ours. It is not the other creeds of the Abrahamic faiths. It is not other religious organizations claiming to be Christian such as Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is not the ‘Liberals’, our eternal destination will not be based on one misguided social engineering program or another. It is not any anti-Christian terror group whether in China, North Korea, Iran, or Sudan. It is not the enemy ‘de jour’ that the US has created over the past 70 years. It is not the media flacks who support the crackpot ideas being promulgated in our intellectual and cinematic centers. Our enemies are not a few clerics who may well have entered our seminaries for the wrong reason. It is not the ‘Pick and Choose’ Christians, nor the ‘I did it my way’ Christians. It is not the Christian/Catholic universities and their elite faculties who aid and abet those in the two preceding categories. Have we missed anything/anyone?
Does Jesus tell us? “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him (God) who, after the killing of the body, has the power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you fear Him (God).” [Luke 12:4-5] When Jesus talks about Satan, fallen angels, evil spirits, and demons; and you utter this in public or polite conversation be prepared to be denigrated and demeaned. If this happens the best response is this Jesus quote, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers”. [Luke 22:31-32] Peter’s response was immediate, but also appears some years later in [1 Peter 5:9] ‘Resist him, (the devil) standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.’ And Paul confirms Peter, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” [Eph. 6:12]
The power of the ‘dark’ world has two elements or steps. The first is being pursued by the devil; having the devil actively trying to lower our resistance to temptation and subsequent sin; which is totally based on our sin nature. The second step is to actually become the devil. The first step of our sinfulness is what we do external to our souls. These are sins of commission. All sin is the devil’s work and most often it is of the flesh. Sin means doing the devil’s work, damaging God’s work. This is what we do! The reason the devil is able to do his work in our ‘world’ is that we give him our consent. God will not allow the devil to work without our free consent. But here is the good news – the ‘Good News.’ If sin is our enemy, then Jesus is our Savior, because God has beaten Satan and Jesus is the vine. [John 15:1] He is our answer because He is more powerful! Peter Kreeft, PhD, makes a bold claim: “That the weapon that will win this spiritual war will be the saints. They are humanly good people; saints are little Christs, flawed cells in Christ’s flawless body.” Kreeft asks. “When the light of Christ meets the darkness of sin, the culture of death, and its dark lord, what happens?” He answers, “When this light shines into this darkness, the darkness is not able to comprehend it, it is not able to surround it, either with understanding or with power.” Satan cannot understand Christ’s saints, nor can he overpower or conquer them. The reason being, is that the devil does not have as much power as God unless we give it to him.
The most popular religion in America is “spirituality”. This is according to a recent study, (08/2023), by the folks at Pew Research. Coincidentally, this fact began to appear in the literature twenty-five years ago. The numbers in this study are voluminous, however, for the purposes of our commentary on Christian culture these are six takeaways: 70% of Americans call them-selves ‘spiritual’; 22% of Americans claim to be ‘spiritual’, but not religious; These folks are less likely to identify with an organized religion; The highest number of ‘spiritual’ people are in the 30 – 49 age bracket; Of those who are ‘spiritual’, but not religious 38% are apt to claim religion does more harm than good and 60% of those who claim to be not ‘spiritual’ and not religious are men. This trend certainly cannot be viewed as healthy: individually and societally. And we need to ask, What does this mean? Foremost, is that within Christian history, this is a longstanding issue and is the most immortal heresy in Christian history. It denies devils, saying that spirit
“Spirituality” denies devils (those who practice “spirituality” claim that the spirit is only good, not evil. It also denies sin, saying that man is only good. In application it confuses three things: man’s nature, goodness, and “spirituality.” How are Christians applying these characteristics? As Christians we identify goodness [Gal. 5:22-23; 2 Peter 1:5-7] not with “spirituality”, but with sanctity (holiness) [1 Thes. 5:23] or obedience to God’s will and law; Christians identify man’s self with body and soul [Heb. 10:24-25]; and Christians identify man with original sin [Rom. 5:12] and original goodness [Rom. 12:21].
Secularists' fear of real religion is similar to leftist’s fear of rational, human conservatism. But what is the most obvious difference between Christianity and ‘spiritualism’? Christianity deals in commandments and the latter deals only in values. Unfortunately, “Spiritualism” has been drawn into many churches and the private lives of Christians, by desire (lust). There are three kinds of people in our Western Civilization: 1) The few who realize that we are in the third millennium (anno domini – AD) of Jesus Christ; 2) The majority who lack the awareness to link Jesus to the third millennium; and 3) Another few would quickly discuss the evolutionary accidents that cause man to change over time. Try this experiment some time by asking friends why we should be celebrating that in 2025 we are in the third millennium of the birth of Jesus Christ. If we only had two groups: one and three we could have many robust discussions.
Group two is the challenge: it is large, it is populated with “spiritual” people some of whom are Christians and some who do not believe in either one or three. They believe in “spirituality”. They think any religion is a good thing not because it teaches the truth, but because it embraces morality which they further neutralize as compassion or tolerance. They are wary of religion as the genesis of fanaticism or they say they like ‘religion, but not 'organized religion.’ This is important because groups two and three do not believe in the devil: group two either because man is good or the devil is not compassionate and group three, because their god – science, cannot detect the devil. To be continued! AMEN
Love, hank
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