Tag: don’t be distracted

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Red Teaming Humanity: Keep the Unbelieving From Believing (Part 2 of 4)

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Followup

Let’s problem-solve for a bit. If you’re Satan, lashing out against God by trying to rob Him of the joy of humans receiving salvation, how do you go about doing it?

Well, it might help to take a look at the process God uses to bring the lost to faith, then use whatever means are necessary to interrupt or counter any of the steps in that process.

Let’s establish a few assumptions. First, ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, we all live with something called “original sin.” That means we’re born with a sinful nature, and our default setting when we die is to spend eternity separated from God. (The good news is we’re given the option to be rescued from that fate through acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice, but in reality, few choose it.) In that sense, when it comes to the fate of any given soul, Satan doesn’t need to play to win, he just needs to play to not lose.

Also, it’s important to understand that for Satan, the death of any human being is beneficial. A death for the unsaved is like taking that soul to the bank. It’s over. That soul no longer has the opportunity to embrace Christ. God’s possible joy over that soul’s salvation will forever go unrealized. On the flip side, the enemy rejoices in the death of Christians because they can no longer rob from his fiefdom after that. Either way, he’s happy to see death occur. He may not be able to inflict death on people directly, but he can attempt to persuade some to inflict it on others or themselves. Although I’m unsure of what his capabilities might be, I imagine he does what he can to instigate famines, disease outbreaks, and other types of natural disasters, all in the hopes of raising the death toll.

He’s got a split focus; his goal has to be keeping unsaved people unsaved while minimizing the evangelical effectiveness of those he loses to Christ. Hamstringing Christians reduces the glory brought to God, and if that means some people get saved later in life than they otherwise would have, it collectively reduces the amount of lifetime that Christians spend as effective doers of God’s will. We’ll cover more on how Satan might approach Christians next time, but for now let’s take a look at how he might aim to keep unbelievers from believing.

At a simplistic level, we’ll define God’s process of bringing the unsaved to faith in Him by way of the three W’s: He takes a wanderer who is searching but does not have a saving relationship with Him, He wakens them by revealing Himself to them, at which point they begin their walk with God. Again, very simplified here. There are countless ways through which these steps can occur, and I doubt if any two stories of salvation are exactly alike, but these are the basic steps in the process.

What do you do if you want to disrupt that three-step process? To counter any or all of the three Ws, you might use the three F’s: You fulfill the longings of the wanderer through other means, you fight the wakening by inciting chaos in the person’s life, and you try to flatten their walk if it turns out they’re serious about following Christ.

Let’s start with the “fulfill” step. God created humans with a longing, a hunger, for something more in this life. I’ve heard it said that people are created with a God-shaped hole in their heart. Satan’s goal is to fill that hole with anything other than God. One tactic is straightforward and easy: use other religions to fill the void. Christ said “I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.” If that’s true, no other religions are valid means of entering Heaven after death. What simpler way to throw people off a Heavenly course than by providing impotent facsimiles where people still get to believe in a god? Even if a religion’s founder completely believes that he or she witnessed a supernatural being delivering a special message that doesn’t jive with what God says, there’s a reason for that, found in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15: And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Satan and his minions can assume a beautiful or supernatural form and employ that showmanship to start entire new religions meant to distract from the real thing.

There are numerous other ways to fill that hole in the heart. Christ created us to know that there’s something bigger than us out there, so we have a need to fill a sense of belonging. What’s the counter? Come up with ways to fill that need without addressing the deeper yearning. The focus could be good things, like family, pride in your nation or occupation, or volunteer work at shelters. Maybe it’s something neutral, like being a fanatical sports fan, or, depending on the cause, being a dedicated activist for a cause you believe in. They could be things that turn bad too, like alcoholism, destructive relationships, or doing things to feed your greed. The enemy wants to see unbelievers get caught up in something that fulfills the longing in their heart at least enough to stop searching for something lasting to fill the void. (This is why Communist nations ban or tightly control religion. Those governments want the people to seek fulfillment through the State and its success, not turn to any other entity for hope and morality.)

Try this additional method on for size. Some people have an exceptional thirst for the supernatural. Well, if you’re Satan or one of his minions and can assume numerous forms and do things a human being can’t, it’s probably a piece of cake to inspire ghost and alien sightings. People want to believe in the supernatural, and Satan long ago invented ways that allow them to do it without embracing Christ.

Let’s move on to the “fighting” step. Sometimes God will work on a person’s heart for years before they accept Him as Savior; for others the timeline is much shorter. As Satan recognizes that a person is about to come to faith in Christ, many times he tries to ensure their life becomes chaotic. He plants seeds in their minds. The person’s head is flooded with thoughts like “What will your family say?” “You’ll lose your position or status if you join them!” “You mean you want to be one of those nuts that think the earth was created in 7 days and an old man went out and gathered two of every kind of animal on the planet and put them in an ark to survive a flood that covered the whole earth?” “Are you crazy?! Think about the shame you’ll bring to the people that care about you!” “You’ll lose everything you’ve worked for!” “YOU?! You think God could ever love or forgive you after all the things YOU’VE done?!”

These planted thoughts are meant to inspire fear, make you rationalize away the things you’ve been experiencing, and get you to turn your back on the idea of embracing Christ as your Savior. It’s like pulling a transplanted sapling out of the dirt before the sapling has a chance to take root. (If you want a closer look at the rational side of the faith, see this blog’s “This would make Spock raise an eyebrow and say ‘Curious’” category. There’s only one entry there right now, but more are on the way.)

Finally, Satan will try to “flatten” a new believer’s faith. Some people may very well lose friends or a good relationship with their family. In some sections of the world, they’ll forfeit their life if their faith becomes known.

I’ve been on youth retreats where people become Christians. They’re caught up in the emotion of it all, everybody’s singing songs, and there’s a great speaker. Telling a counselor or pastor of their decision brings happiness all around, and everyone is supportive of their decision to accept Christ. Then they go back to their normal life. Are they really supposed to turn their backs on the behaviors that have been a regular part of their life for so long? Are they supposed to read the whole Bible? That thing’s huge! “Do I have to stop hanging out with my friends?” They rationalize their decision away. “Well, I was sleep-deprived, the speaker was convincing…I kind of felt pressured to do it.” They talk themselves out of it, and turn their back on what they heard.

This is a simplified version of what happens to new Christians of any age (and is a good example of why your Christian walk should not be based on emotion and feelings…there will be low points, so building your faith using facts and reasoning is important too). Without a supportive network, many new Christians fizzle out, and isolated baby Christians are prime targets for the adversary to pick off. Preventing them from connecting with and being mentored by other Christians will go a long way toward getting them to fall away from their newfound faith.

Well there’s a lot to this, but people are going to stop reading if I keep going. To wrap up, Satan will use any means necessary to interfere with the process God uses to bring people to faith. God uses the three Ws: He takes a Wanderer, He Wakens them, and helps establish their Walk with Him. Looking to counter at least one of those steps, Satan uses the three Fs: he tries to Fulfill our innate desire for God by using other things, he Fights God’s process of wakening a lost soul, and if neither of those work, he’ll try to Flatten the new Christian’s belief.

Eternity is at stake, and the consequences are deadly serious. Today’s post addressed the non-Christian aspect of Satan’s war with humanity; come back next time for some of the ways he reduces the spiritual effectiveness of those who have embraced Christ as their savior. It might save your spiritual life, or help you be a part of saving someone else’s!

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Followup

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Red Teaming Humanity (Part 1 of 4: Intro)

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Followup

In the United States military there’s a tremendous amount of information that can be lost if our side isn’t careful about protecting it. We want information on our weaknesses or vulnerabilities, be they physical, cyber, medical, whatever they are…to be kept from adversaries. There’s a practice in the Department of Defense that encourages designated individuals or teams to look at themselves through the eyes of an adversary, with the intent to identify where information is leaking. The goal, of course, is to find and plug those leaks. This practice, that of looking at your own unit’s operation through the eyes of your adversary, is called “Red Teaming.”

Over the next several entries I’m going to Red Team Humanity from the perspective of our enemy, Satan.

Before we get into that, let’s take a step back to set the stage. It’s not a truth that people like to hear, but upon their death, humans by default are not on the path to Heaven. God made a way for us to reach Heaven along with an eternity in His presence, but there are some obstacles we need to overcome in this life. Although many people might think of him as a silly little red cartoon character, Satan is very real, and his tactics are simple but effective. His bitterness toward Christ at having already beaten him is beyond description, and he seethes with jealousy. I’m sure there has been some lashing out in rage, but he’s also not a mindless fool. He’s cunning, sophisticated, and intelligent. He was created as the greatest of all angels. Knowing that he cannot actually harm God or stop His plan, Satan’s best chance of hurting God now is to do everything in his power to rob God of the thing He loves the most…a loving relationship with us, the crown of God’s creation.

God gave us an amazing gift, and this time I’m not talking about salvation. Imagine creating us, giving us a free path to rescue us from our default path of destruction, but still leaving the door open for us to have the freedom to choose to accept it or reject it. This is a God that loves us so much that He won’t force us to love Him back because that would force us to be someone we’re not; the only souls in Heaven will be the people that chose willingly and genuinely to embrace Him as their savior.

So now put yourself in Satan’s place. You hate God, but you can’t beat him. The worst you can do to Him is to make Him sad. You recognize that God doesn’t mandate that people love Him, so if they have free will, there’s an opening for you to exploit. You can do anything within your power to prevent people from embracing Christ or sharing Him with others. Some things are off limits for Satan (he asked permission to sift Peter and the disciples “like wheat” in Luke 22:31-32 and had to seek permission to bring certain circumstances against Job). He may not be allowed to bring physical harm to some, but our minds are always fair game and are always open to attack. If you can consistently attack someone’s mind in an effective manner, you’ve got a great chance of getting the result you’re looking for.

How, then, do you attack someone’s mind?

I’m not going to give you an exhaustive list (I’d have to be pretty arrogant to claim to know all the tricks Satan uses), but using variations of only a handful of concepts has worked well for millennia against us humans. Even if we each live to be 100 years old, that’s still pretty short compared to the amount of time Satan’s had to hone his skills of trickery and deception. Hopefully it will help give you a better understanding of why the different pieces of the Armor of God referenced in Ephesians 6:10-18 are so vital to a Christian, and at the same time help give new urgency to why it’s so important to reach non-Christians.

In all things remember that God will be with us and He won’t desert us, but it’s up to us to believe it and not give up, even when our persistent prayers are met with silence. We are the ones that are most likely to come up short when it comes to the lifelong struggle we each face. Hanging in there and knowing God takes the long term over the short term is the way we’ll get through it.

There’s more going on out there than what we can see, and my prayer is that this series helps you think more in those terms so that you can recognize when you’re being influenced and can make good choices in times of high stress. God works through people to implement His will, and Satan will use any means to water down your effectiveness at glorifying God. Protect your mind. Take comfort in knowing that your helmet of salvation provides a great deal of protection, but don’t allow yourself to let your guard down.

Stick with me over the next few weeks, because these are going to be important. If you’re not a subscriber, check back every Thursday for a new entry in this four-part series, or sign up to receive new posts in your email.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. –Ephesians 6:11

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Followup

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How Important is Focus?

Starting training in the military is generally a miserable experience. In the Air Force, it’s called Basic Military Training (BMT). If you’re an instructor at BMT, you have to take Americans from all cultural backgrounds and give them a common understanding, giving them the foundation to be a professional warrior, sometimes for people as young as 17.

Before you can build recruits into what you want them to become, you have to tear down what they currently are…individuals with their own sense of self, their own moral compasses, and their own priorities.

On the first day you arrive for BMT, you’re arriving in buses that came from airports, railroad stations, or other bus stations. Everybody’s dressed in their own street clothes. Some men have long hair, some are completely bald, some have mohawks. For the instructors to begin their work of tearing down recruits’ sense of individuality, they largely take the approach of scaring the bejeezus out of everyone.

Almost no instructor speaks in a normal voice. It’s all yelling. If they whisper or speak quietly to you, it’s really bad. You’re taught to stand there, motionless, with a thousand-yard stare. For how long? It doesn’t matter, keep standing there until they tell you to move. That was one of the first lessons they taught us on the first day…there are times when you are not to be distracted, even when you’ve got nothing to do.

The sheer logistics of confirming the identities of hundreds of men and women and verifying that they arrived safely takes a well-oiled machine. They eventually had to start moving us from the parking lot to a spot indoors, so they arranged groups of us in line and we’d wait our turn to shuffle inside.

As the line crept forward and I neared the entrance to the building, there was a large window to the foyer, through which a waiting room was visible. Inside it stood a man dressed in street clothes. I didn’t look at him directly, but he started gently knocking on the window, and from the corner of my eye it looked like he was trying to get the attention of either me or the guy in front of me.

Man, I didn’t want any trouble. Our friendly instructors had just finished telling us not to be distracted. Maybe this guy wanted to tell me my shoelace was untied or my fly was open or something. He kept knocking, but I kept staring at the back of the head of the guy in front of me. That knocking was persistent. Focus, focus, focus! Knock, knock, knock. Just as I was about to look over at him, the guy in front of me turned his head just a little too much to look at the guy, who then got a big smile and then pointed straight at the guy in front of me. Immediately what seemed like a horde of angry instructors descended upon this guy, yelling with red faces and bulging neck veins, reminding the offender that they had just talked about the importance of not losing focus!

I knew it was probably a trap, and I was still about to give in!

I’ll lay it out there in plain terms. As Christians, we’re here for two very simple reasons: 1. know God, and 2. make Him known. While there are countless ways of sharing the news of God’s love with the world, anything that’s taking you off point is a distraction. A word of caution: sometimes you may recognize that a distraction is a trap, but I’d guess more often than not, you’re not going to see it for what it is. Be on guard.

Think Trump will be re-elected? Who’s right, Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, or All Lives Matter? Will COVID-19 and climate change wipe out half the earth’s population by 2030?

See what I mean? It’s easy to allow yourself to be pulled off course. You may have already completely lost sight of what I’ve been writing about. Don’t take your eye off the prize. There will always be distractions, and they’ll come in many shapes and sizes, but they can all be characterized as things that take you off your mission: 1. know God, and 2. make Him known.

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” – Luke 2:49

Happy Birthday America! You’re not perfect, but neither am I and there’s nowhere I’d rather live!

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You’re the Key

Those are all keys behind him

When I was really young, my dad was a maintenance guy at a Christian conference center in eastern Pennsylvania, and our family lived on the campus. Groups of people from churches in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania would come and attend retreats at this place. Once the groups departed, somebody had to walk around to all the rooms that had just been vacated, and make sure all the lights were turned off and the heat/air conditioning weren’t blasting in a vacant room. Sometimes that duty fell to my dad, and every once in awhile he’d take me along.

As a part of the maintenance staff, Dad had a key ring that was chock full of keys that opened just about anything and everything on the whole complex. It could be a master key for all the guest rooms in a given building, the key to the room in the gymnasium where they kept all the spare basketballs, the padlock to the room in the basement of the snack shack where they kept a bunch of electronics and motors, or a little key to adjust the thermostat in the meeting rooms. If you needed to open a lock anywhere on the campus, there’s a good chance my dad’s key ring had a solution.

As a kid, it was impossible to keep track of the differences between all the keys. A few of them stood out from the others; maybe some were shinier, bigger, or the head had a distinct shape or color. To me, though, most of them were indistinguishable from one another. If someone plunked me down in front of a random locked door somewhere on the campus with that key ring, it would’ve taken a good deal of time by trial and error for me to open it. Dad knew what each one did, though.

Now imagine that every Christian is a key on God’s giant key ring. There’s a door, or maybe a group of doors, that you have the ability to unlock (or lock). It’s your purpose; it’s what you were made for. You can be jealous of what other keys were built for, but it sure isn’t going to help you fulfill your role any better. You might even try to function in a lock you weren’t designed to operate, but it’s not what you were made for. Some people are dissatisfied or in denial about the lock in which they fit, and they want to choose their own lock.

Sorry Pardner, it doesn’t work that way.

There’s a lock out there for which you are the key, and you might encounter your lock during this unique time in history. The Man holding the key ring wants to use you according to His schedule, but if you’re unwilling or are too focused on a lock for which you’re not the key, you’re missing your calling. My request to you would be: work the lock you’re built for.

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Meaning of Life

Imagine you’re at the top of your game and you are successful in everything you put your mind to. You have a great reputation, you have a great job, you have a great family, and your volunteer work makes a difference. Money isn’t a problem, and you lack nothing.

Does this give meaning to your life?

Long ago the world’s richest and wisest man took it upon himself to seek out the meaning of life. In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon decided to investigate how to achieve fulfillment in life. First he tried living a life of pleasure, but learned that this wasn’t the answer. He studied the generalities of life and upon reflection was disappointed that death comes both to the wise man and the fool. He implemented public projects on an enormous scale, only to conclude that his lifetime of achievements could easily be wasted after his death if his successor squanders what he inherits.

Very aware of his own mortality, Solomon realizes that this life is short; it’s fleeting. We busy ourselves with many projects and endeavors, but in the end we all pass through and then move on from this life. Many times in the book of Ecclesiastes does Solomon exclaim “meaningless! It’s all a chasing after the wind!”

The book is almost depressing; he spends 12 chapters exploring different aspects of life in hopes of finding fulfillment, only to realize that even our most notable achievements will be forgotten after a few generations. Then at the very end of the book, almost as an afterthought, Solomon abruptly gives us his conclusion. These two verses, only two verses out of the whole book, provide us insight into what he’s learned. If you give up reading the book before the very end, you miss out on Solomon’s “secret of life:”

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. –Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

After years of experiencing everything life has to offer, Solomon concluded that your purpose is to please God and to live in such a way that you will not fear judgment.

I don’t have the time or space to go into all of God’s commandments here, but I’ll summarize them this way: love God and love people. Each of these topics can have books written about them. It’s a lifelong endeavor, though; there are always opportunities to keep getting better at it.

If you’ve got the “love God” portion down pat, it’s time to “love people.” There are people everywhere you go. You know what I’ve discovered? A lot of them are hard to get along with. It can be draining to interact with them! That’s probably why so much of the Bible talks about how to live and deal with others. Here’s the neat thing: you’re equipped to do it. You have everything you need to do what you’ve been called to do.

For many of us, that calling has to do with making someone’s life better somehow. That’s one exciting (yes, exciting) thing about the Coronavirus-dominated time we’re living through…there are new opportunities to love on people in ways that are not normally available. All you have to do is look for them; you’re in the best position to see them and act on them.

Fear God and keep His commandments, and remember that He’ll judge all of your works. This comes from a lifetime of reflection from the wisest man who ever lived. Just a little something to keep in mind if life gets a little too meaningless for you.

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Be Where You’re Supposed To Be

There’s an old problem-solving technique called “The Five Whys.” It’s simple in its execution. You start with a problem:

We can’t go on the vacation we’ve been planning.

Ask: Why? (Number 1)

We had to spend a big chunk of that money on a car repair.

Ask: Why? (Number 2)

The car broke down unexpectedly.

Ask: Why? (Number 3)

(Sheepishly) Because I haven’t been maintaining it.

The idea is that by the time you’ve asked “Why?” five times, you’ve arrived at the root cause of the problem you’re facing.

King David is one of the most famous characters in the Bible. He had incredible highs and also some very low lows. In the end, this “man after God’s own heart” was an imperfect human, but he always sought God’s mercy and forgiveness.

His most famous shortcoming occurred with a beautiful woman named Bathsheba. Here’s a quick refresher from 2 Samuel chapter 11:

11 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.

Bathsheba, of course, became pregnant. David made matters worse by trying to cover it up, and when that didn’t work, he had Bathsheba’s husband intentionally killed in battle. It took a prophet to confront him in order to make him admit his wrongdoing. While there’s much we can learn from David, we’ll focus on this tragic tale and try to apply a lesson to our own lives. Let’s use the “Five Whys” with David’s situation:

David got taken to task by Nathan the prophet for murdering an innocent man.

Why? (Number 1)

David ordered the death of Uriah, one of his faithful warriors.

Why? (Number 2)

He had an affair with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba.

Why? (Number 3)

David saw her bathing on the rooftop and decided that he had to have her.

Why? (Number 4)

He wasn’t where he was supposed to be, fighting with his army at Rabbah.

And here we have the root cause. The text doesn’t say why David remained behind in Jerusalem; it just says that he did. By not being with his army, as was the custom of the day’s kings, it opened the door to temptation, which resulted in adultery, lies, and murder.

While you may not be in charge of an army, there’s probably been at least one time in your life when something bad happened because you were somewhere you didn’t belong.

The lesson here? Be where you’re supposed to be.

If you’re a Christ-follower, God has equipped and tasked you to perform certain functions or roles here on Earth. Once you know what He wants you to do, you can either run from it (think Jonah) or you can work toward it (think Paul). The road is never guaranteed to be easy, but there’s peace of mind when you work toward it. Running from it causes restlessness, unrest, and numerous complications.

The simplest way to avoid all of that? Be where you’re supposed to be.

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Bride of Christ

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It’s often viewed as a time to pause and reflect on the “special-ness” of the important people in your life.

While the celebration of love is nice, our culture seems to have adopted the idea that “anything goes” in the name of love, and that finding true love means everything after that point will be perfect. Love stories end with the main characters living “happily ever after.” The unfortunate fact is that taking two imperfect people and placing them in a relationship will always yield less-than-perfect results. Sadly, many committed relationships crumble despite the noble intentions of those involved.

People who have known great heartache can therefore best appreciate the idea of a love that will not fail.

In Bible times, weddings worked a little differently from the way they do today. Back then when a couple became engaged, the groom-to-be departed to make preparations for the wedding, their living arrangements, and their future together. The bride-to-be remained with her family while this took place, and she waited for the groom while he made preparations. Without texts, emails, or any other expedient form of communication, she would have to wait and be perpetually ready for her groom to show up and whisk her away to their wedding and new life together. Imagine not only having no input on the details of your own wedding, but also being left completely in the dark about when it would even take place!

This is the situation where we currently find ourselves. We’re waiting, and we don’t know for how long. In my last post I wrote a bit about the importance of the Church. The Church is sometimes referred to as the “Bride of Christ.” Jesus has gone on ahead to make preparations, but He fully intends to return for us, the Church:

…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2c-3.

Now that’s a kind of love we can celebrate.

Like in Bible times, we receive very little information about the details of when the Bridegroom is planning to come back. Even though we live in an era of instant gratification, lack of a specific date on the calendar actually changes very little about what’s important in this case. It’s important to remember that while waiting, we are to remain faithful and we are to remain ready, no matter how long it takes. It is imperative that we watch with expectation and with anticipation, ever on the lookout for when our Lord will make His return and escort us to a deeper phase of our relationship with Him.

The question is…have you stopped making yourself ready? You know in your mind that He’ll come someday, but it probably won’t be anytime soon, right? I mean, it’s been about 2,000 years since Christ walked the earth; what are the odds that He’ll come during this lifetime?

What you decide to do is up to you, but I’ll pose one last question to you today. Are you living faithfully for the one to whom you are betrothed?

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What’s That Sound?

We live near Washington, DC, where traffic is a part of life. When we want to go visit family that lives far away, sometimes we get up very early and hit the road in the wee hours of the morning. After the initial excitement of stealing away during the night, the kids usually settle down, lulled to sleep by road noise.

The last time we took a trip like this in our minivan, everyone settled in soon after we got on the highway and the inside of the vehicle was quiet. That’s when we noticed an annoying squeak that happened each time we hit a bump in the road or the vehicle’s chassis twisted slightly. It came from somewhere near the second row of seats, a squeak that was quiet, but loud enough to be annoying if you’re trying to fall asleep. We tried to track it down and stop it, with no success. After awhile the kids were able to tune it out and fall asleep.

We eventually arrived at our destination and had fun with family over Christmas. On several occasions while we were there, I drove the van around town, just doing errands or driving us to friends/family’s houses. I’d actively listen for the squeak, and it was often audible, but it was hidden in the sound of the kids laughing, the current conversation, or whatever was playing on the radio.

Just like the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, the squeak is always there, but you have to actively listen for it if there’s a lot of other noise going on. It doesn’t stop squeaking, but it’s a lot easier to hear when there are no distractions. If there’s a lot of other noise in the mix you have to deliberately focus in on it to notice it. It’s much harder to get a fix on it if you have to pluck it out of the background.

Are you having a regular quiet time where you get alone with your prayer and devotions, away from all the noise and distractions? If not, don’t be surprised that you don’t hear from the Holy Spirit.

You’re an expert on you; you know you better than anyone else. Take the steps you need to create the right environment. If your phone is a distraction, shut it off during this time. If you need to wake up earlier, before others are up and moving around, maybe that’s the way to go. If you’re a night owl, finding the right time before bed might be your sweet spot.

I’d urge you to do what it takes to make your quiet time work. How agonizing would it be to one day find out that God was whispering to you all along but you couldn’t hear Him because of all the noise going on around you?

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

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Luck O’ The Ducks

When I was a kid I used to love watching cartoons. I don’t know what happened since then, but I guess somewhere along the line they decided they were going to stop making good cartoons.

One of my favorite cartoons to watch was “Duck Tales.” It featured Scrooge McDuck (of “Christmas Carol” fame), the three young duckling triplets Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and the lovable (but terrible) pilot, Launchpad McQuack.

Scrooge McDuck was a greedy guy, there’s no doubt about it. Part of the draw for a younger me was that he was always mounting expeditions to go in search of lost treasures. Off to faraway jungles, canyons, deserts, mountains, the ocean floor…no matter the danger, Scrooge McDuck’s greed drove him to adventure.

One such adventure involved catching a leprechaun. The main characters caught a leprechaun and demanded that he show them to the massive underground treasure caverns (because a pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow just ain’t enough sometimes). The leprechaun showed them to the hidden entrance, which was under a young tree. I don’t remember why they couldn’t go exploring down the tunnel right then and there, but for some reason they had to temporarily abandon their quest. Knowing that it would be extremely difficult to identify this one tree in the middle of the forest, McDuck took out a handkerchief and tied it to one of the branches of the tree. After binding the leprechaun by making him promise not to mess with the hanky or the tree, the adventurers departed.

I think it was the next day when the treasure hunters returned. The hanky and the tree were indeed untouched, but now the forest was littered with hundreds of white hankies. The leprechaun had kept his promise, but still managed to obscure the value of the makeshift marker.

Let’s switch gears for a minute. Take the perspective of Satan and the other fallen angels. You’ve had definite limits imposed on you, but you’re free to meddle with humanity in other ways. How can you divert people from the true way to God and eternal life, which is a relationship with Jesus Christ? You can’t touch that one true hanky, but you can sure hang up a lot of other ones that look enough like the original to make the real one hard to spot.

Aside from Christianity, there are a handful of major world religions on the scene, but there are an untold number of minor ones, splinter groups, minor sects, and other less popular religions. All of them are fake hankies.

In addition to using other religions, the adversary attempts to muddy the waters for actual Bible-based events. The focus of Christmas and Easter used to be Jesus’ birth and Jesus’ triumph over sin, respectively. Now it’s Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Being a Santa fan doesn’t make you a bad person, but consider this: this Christmas, are you and yours giving at least as much emphasis on the story of Jesus’ birth as you are to Santa?

There’s a lot of distraction out there, but remember the true reason for the season and the fact that the adversary has to ask permission to launch certain attacks on Christ-followers.

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat…” Luke 22:31

8Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil.”

9Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

12“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.”

Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. Job 1:8-12

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Do You Honestly Think That’s a Good Idea?

Even the dogs in Australia are mellow.

When Americans think of Australia, one of the things they think about is the wildlife. Some of the things that might come to mind are kangaroos, crocodiles, koala bears, etc. The tour company I traveled with recognized that, so one of the things they built into the itinerary of our Australian trip was a stop at a zoo that had a lot of these animals.

I’ve been to some zoos here in the states. Things are usually set up so that you can’t get too close, but you usually have an unobstructed view of whatever animal is present. Not this place. It was kind of a cross between a petting zoo and a crocodile kennel. You could hand-feed the kangaroos (maybe they were wallabies), handle snakes, and get close to the emu.

I think the main attraction was probably the crocodiles. The owner was a colorful character. Think of him as an older version of Crocodile Dundee that put on a bit of weight and wasn’t quite so light on his feet anymore. He was fun to be around and took us on a tour of the sights.

I’d guess that this guy had anywhere from six to 12 crocodiles in various chain-link pens throughout the zoo. He brought us around to the various pens, sometimes teaching us about crocs from outside the pen, other times going inside and feeding the crocs a chicken or two.

I was a little surprised by this guy’s willingness to go right into the various pens, and even more surprised at how close he was willing to get to the various animals. He would be within a few feet of the gaping jaws of these enormous monsters, and he’d toss meat into their mouths. He was actually missing a few fingers because he had gotten too close in the past and eager crocs had snapped down quicker than expected.

He seemed so laid back about being in such close proximity to reptiles that could kill him. The only thing he kept nearby was a rake. He used it to scratch the back of some of the crocs to help them relax, but he kept it with him for another purpose. When a croc is getting a little too aggressive and you need to move him back, you can flip the rake around and push on a sensitive spot on their head, and it will back up. We got to see this first-hand when one of the crocs started coming out of its pen. Farmer Dundee here flipped the rake around and pushed the croc back far enough to close the door.

One of the things that struck me the most about this guy was how confident he was in knowing when it was safe and when it was not safe to approach one of the beasts. Again, he was so casual about being in extreme close proximity to crocs that I didn’t know what to think. He actually sat on one of them when he was tired and wanted to take a break.

This guy’s behavior is an example of how we can become so comfortable around danger that we let our guard down and get careless. By the time I met him, this guy had been around crocs for years, but for all I know, he could have been attacked and killed by one of them the next week. You can go for years flirting with danger or something you shouldn’t be around and everything turns out fine; until it doesn’t. You won’t always see it coming, either. That’s why it’s best to simply avoid such situations if at all possible. A few examples might help. If you’re a recovering alcoholic, don’t go meet friends at a bar. Avoid situations where you’re alone with that attractive co-worker. Each of us is more susceptible to certain mistakes than others, but we’re better than we might think when it comes to predicting where things can go south. Let’s assume you’ve got a good head on your shoulders; just because you’re not looking at a guy sitting on a crocodile doesn’t mean you can’t recognize a situation that’s a bad idea.

I don’t blame my crocodile farmer friend for doing what he does, but he has to constantly be on high alert for trouble. Even though he’s had a lot of successful crocodile feedings, he’s still missing some fingers. The lesson here: if you’re perfectly aware of the danger but you intentionally stay near it anyway, don’t expect to come out of it unscathed.

Are there any unnecessary risks in your life you need to stop accepting?