The Lion, The Witch and Temptation
Disclaimer: The opinions here are 100% mine (Adam Parmenter) and not necessarily the views of Sojourn. Every post won't have a disclaimer, but I'm digging into to some sensative issues for which Sojourn doesn't have an official stand. I'm terrible at spelling and I type to fast, so any typos are purely me.
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In the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, the White Queen was coldly beautiful and graceful in a sort of hollow way. She was really a witch that had taken the form of a queen. She could be charming and kind if it suited her purposes to do so. Inside, her heart was cold, and she was bent on only one objective: gaining and keeping power. Gaining and keeping control.
In real life, the Devil works to disguise his evil as good, deceiving people with just enough good to trick them into turning to evil. The Bible says, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” He gives just enough truth to make his evil sound right.
An Islamic terrorist is trained to have an ardent fervor for God. Serving God is good. Being fervent and devoted is good. Blowing yourself up to kill others . . . not good, that’s from Satan. I’m hungry and I want steak for dinner tonight. I deserve to eat. Isn’t right that I should eat? I’ll only steal one steak. That won’t break the stores pocket book.
God created beauty. Satan twists beauty into fashion trends that pump men and women for billions a year, face lifts, tummy tucks, crash diets, and a million other ways to spend money so that other people will want to look at me.
God created sex. He did. He created sex for the enjoyment and bonding of a husband and wife. It is part of the marriage relationship. Satan twists sex into sex appeal and sells it back to us as lust. Sex has become a recreational activity, but God meant sex to be special, pure, wonderfully enjoyable, and the joining of only one man and one woman. It creates a picture of how God’s spirit joins with his people. Well sin and Satan have trashed that one to Hell (no pun intended).
God created a woman's womb to be a safe, nurturing home that brings a baby into the world. Satan has tempted people's selfishness and has brought murder into the world. Abortion is murder that activists disguise as dignity. The abortion activists use words like "choice" and imply that woman are being repressed by being forced to deliver a baby that is not according to their choosing. In doing so the baby is reduced to the status of a tissue mass, an acquisition that will help the woman self actualize. Abortion is sold as a loving, freeing choice, and it has reeked havoc in the lives of pregnant women the world over.
God created us humans to seek and experience pleasure, with our greatest pleasures and desires culminating in union with God Himself. In fact God created us with an inborn desire to be one with Him. When that union with God is born out of the truth of the Bible, and the Beliver fully engages in a relationship with the creator, there is pleasure, joy, happiness. God created us with a desire for that fulfillment. Satan and sin have twisted that into people filling an inborn hunger for God with drugs, over eating, sex , fame, fashion, power, money, and everything else but God.
It’s easy to be brought into Satan’s lies when there is just enough good coated onto the front end. I heard spoke of a young man who was in need of funds for school and had no way of earning enough money. He turned to stripping at a club to earn the cash he needed. He was spoken of admirably as having done whatever it takes to make it through school. According to the prevailing wisdom that young man was determined, persistent, and resourceful.
There is such a twisting of right and wrong, bad stuff disguised as good. I feel like a prudish retch condemning all the many evil things that seem to make everyone so happy, and it’s all because of one basic principle. I believe that the Bible is the absolute truth and points to the only way to have real life. It’s at that point that I would be the one dropping out of college rather than compromise what I believe.
I actually did that. I had finished my bachelor’s degree in communication. A communications bachelors is a fairly general course of study and I didn’t really see how it opened up many great career paths for me. It probably could have, but I just didn’t see it. Then I saw a course of study called Music Therapy. That seemed perfect! So I went back to school. I started hunting for financial aid, but could only get loans. My voice teacher explained to me how I could fool the system in order to get various grants so that I could finish my degree. It had to do with answering questions on forms in just the right way. I wouldn't be hurting anyone, but I would be helping myself get a valuable education. An education is a good thing, and I could use music therapy to help others.
I ended up quitting school instead. I had been married for two years and had a new baby. I also needed to get to work and pull my own weight. I don’t want to make myself sound like some kind of saint, but the good of finishing a degree of study, would not have made up for the evil of lying. To my voice teaching it wasn’t lying. It was just making do so that one could get through school.
Evil masquerading as good.
Satan is our enemy, and at least for now, he has sway in this world. He twists good toward his evil direction and offers it up to us. Problem is we’ve chosen it over the pure pleasures of God’s grace. Satan is our enemy and we have embraced him as a friend.
Adam
adam@sojournband.com
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In the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, the White Queen was coldly beautiful and graceful in a sort of hollow way. She was really a witch that had taken the form of a queen. She could be charming and kind if it suited her purposes to do so. Inside, her heart was cold, and she was bent on only one objective: gaining and keeping power. Gaining and keeping control.
In real life, the Devil works to disguise his evil as good, deceiving people with just enough good to trick them into turning to evil. The Bible says, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” He gives just enough truth to make his evil sound right.
An Islamic terrorist is trained to have an ardent fervor for God. Serving God is good. Being fervent and devoted is good. Blowing yourself up to kill others . . . not good, that’s from Satan. I’m hungry and I want steak for dinner tonight. I deserve to eat. Isn’t right that I should eat? I’ll only steal one steak. That won’t break the stores pocket book.
God created beauty. Satan twists beauty into fashion trends that pump men and women for billions a year, face lifts, tummy tucks, crash diets, and a million other ways to spend money so that other people will want to look at me.
God created sex. He did. He created sex for the enjoyment and bonding of a husband and wife. It is part of the marriage relationship. Satan twists sex into sex appeal and sells it back to us as lust. Sex has become a recreational activity, but God meant sex to be special, pure, wonderfully enjoyable, and the joining of only one man and one woman. It creates a picture of how God’s spirit joins with his people. Well sin and Satan have trashed that one to Hell (no pun intended).
God created a woman's womb to be a safe, nurturing home that brings a baby into the world. Satan has tempted people's selfishness and has brought murder into the world. Abortion is murder that activists disguise as dignity. The abortion activists use words like "choice" and imply that woman are being repressed by being forced to deliver a baby that is not according to their choosing. In doing so the baby is reduced to the status of a tissue mass, an acquisition that will help the woman self actualize. Abortion is sold as a loving, freeing choice, and it has reeked havoc in the lives of pregnant women the world over.
God created us humans to seek and experience pleasure, with our greatest pleasures and desires culminating in union with God Himself. In fact God created us with an inborn desire to be one with Him. When that union with God is born out of the truth of the Bible, and the Beliver fully engages in a relationship with the creator, there is pleasure, joy, happiness. God created us with a desire for that fulfillment. Satan and sin have twisted that into people filling an inborn hunger for God with drugs, over eating, sex , fame, fashion, power, money, and everything else but God.
It’s easy to be brought into Satan’s lies when there is just enough good coated onto the front end. I heard spoke of a young man who was in need of funds for school and had no way of earning enough money. He turned to stripping at a club to earn the cash he needed. He was spoken of admirably as having done whatever it takes to make it through school. According to the prevailing wisdom that young man was determined, persistent, and resourceful.
There is such a twisting of right and wrong, bad stuff disguised as good. I feel like a prudish retch condemning all the many evil things that seem to make everyone so happy, and it’s all because of one basic principle. I believe that the Bible is the absolute truth and points to the only way to have real life. It’s at that point that I would be the one dropping out of college rather than compromise what I believe.
I actually did that. I had finished my bachelor’s degree in communication. A communications bachelors is a fairly general course of study and I didn’t really see how it opened up many great career paths for me. It probably could have, but I just didn’t see it. Then I saw a course of study called Music Therapy. That seemed perfect! So I went back to school. I started hunting for financial aid, but could only get loans. My voice teacher explained to me how I could fool the system in order to get various grants so that I could finish my degree. It had to do with answering questions on forms in just the right way. I wouldn't be hurting anyone, but I would be helping myself get a valuable education. An education is a good thing, and I could use music therapy to help others.
I ended up quitting school instead. I had been married for two years and had a new baby. I also needed to get to work and pull my own weight. I don’t want to make myself sound like some kind of saint, but the good of finishing a degree of study, would not have made up for the evil of lying. To my voice teaching it wasn’t lying. It was just making do so that one could get through school.
Evil masquerading as good.
Satan is our enemy, and at least for now, he has sway in this world. He twists good toward his evil direction and offers it up to us. Problem is we’ve chosen it over the pure pleasures of God’s grace. Satan is our enemy and we have embraced him as a friend.
Adam
adam@sojournband.com
posted by Sojourn @ 9:21 AM
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