God vs. Evil Muppet?

I am watching a segment on the History Channel called God vs. Satan.  As usual, it is extremely inaccurate and is very bibically twisted.  Even the title bugs me; God vs. Satan, as if God and Satan were equal matches for each other!

Some of you may be confused at me telling you this, that God and Satan aren't equal matches.  I find it funny how much credit we give to Satan.  When Satan comes to mind, what image penetrates your thoughts?  Maybe a dragon, like the one used to symbolize the Devil in the book of Revelation.  He probably holds a pitchfork and breaths fire, right?  What powers do we associate Satan with?  Does he send demons into peoples bodies like we see in all the exorcist movies?  Are we powerless to his dark seduction that he brings on us all?

Well sorry to crush your horrific image of the guy downstairs, but the truth is that Satan isn't really that powerful.  Lets look at a list of his powers:

• Fear

• Pride

There must have been some mistake!  The big scary dragon doesn't look that scary anymore, does he?  I think we should take a look at the list of powers the little guy doesn't have:

• Tempting us beyond our will

• Controlling fire (or even breathing it for that matter!)

• He doesn't hold a pitchfork (even if he did, what would it do?)

• He has no resemblance to a dragon

• He is not God's rival

• He is not absolutely evil as God is absolutely good

Satan will probably be curled up in a dark corner crying by the time I finish writing this post.  If you have ever seen the Wizard of Oz you remember the little guy behind the curtain controlling all the big hologram and the fire that made the so called "great Wizard of Oz" look so scary and powerful to Dorthy and the Lion, Tin man, and the Scarecrow.  That's really all the Devil is, a little dude behind a curtain trying to make himself look all fiery and dragon-like.

He has been symbolized as a dragon because he uses fear to make himself look scary.  A dragon is the scariest creature man could think up, and Satan used it to his advantage.  We always credit Satan for putting things in our mind when he does his best work keeping things out.  He didn't want us to know that he isn't powerful so he just let our imaginations run away with us.

Another misconception we have of the Devil is that he is God's rival.  That Satan does evil for the sake of being evil just as God is good for the sake of being good.  Satan is a fallen angel, which means he was created by God.  So Satan was originally good.  Everything that is evil is just something good that has been twisted.  People don't go around doing horrible things because it's wrong.  When you ask someone why they duct-taped a car to a metal pole or shaved their neighbor's cat in the winter time, they don't say, "I did it because it's horrible!!"  If they were honest enough to admit to it, they would tell you, "I did it because I wanted to watch their hilarious reaction!"  They wanted humor.  Humor in itself is a good thing, but their twisted pursuit for humor is what made them do the bad thing.  Satan exists and has will, those are both good things.  So for the Devil to even exist or do anything, he has to steal a little of God's goodness.  So Satan isn't this  stand alone figure that is God's equal.  The guy downstairs, no matter how evil, will always be in God's massive shadow.

Tempting us beyond our will is one of the many other things that Satan is credited for.  It's probably the oldest excuse out there.    Ever hear these three words:  "I couldn't resist".  Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone has.  Here is the thing.  We live in a imperfect world and our twisted view can cause us to sin but we could stop sinning a lot more if we just listen to our conscience and resist temptation.  How cool is that?!  God even ensures that we can resist temptation, but only under his wing.  If you look in this wonderful book called the Bible (and open it without being blinded by raw awesomeness) and turn the pages of said book you will (after a while) find the 13th verse of the 10th chapter of the little book of 1 Corinthians which states:

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1 Corinthians 10:13, NIV)

Any temptation that is presented to you has already been experienced by the millions of people that have lived before you and the millions of people that do occupy the world today.  Any temptation that Satan whispers in your ear can be smacked down with God's help.

As for the whole dragon with a pitchfork with a barbed tail thing.  I don't know why the pitchfork is so scary, I guess even a sneezing panda could be menacing when held by a dragon.  He doesn't even control fire, God uses it to punish him!  I think we should draw a more accurate picture of the Devil.  I prefer the little snake in Genesis, he is like one of the muppets, he even talks!  I have never seen him bite but we need to remember that his forked tongue can sweet talk you into embracing your false fears and indulging in your pride.  So the scary dragon turns out to be an evil muppet.

Tis The Season For Forgetting?

As I sit here watching the Santa Clause 3 movie, I wonder if the world is forgetting what Christmas actually is and why we even bother to celebrate it.  If you look at the nativity scene there are three wise men giving baby Jesus gold, frankincense ,and myrrh.  Apparently frankincense and myrrh are dried tree sap and were so valuable because they smelled good.  That's your fun fact for the day.  Anyway, we are supposed to give gifts on Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

It seems that a lot of people are trying to take the Christ of of Christmas.  For example:

Operation Christmas Child is an organization that provides children in third world countries a shoebox filled with stuff--shoe boxes that anyone can fill and drop them off so they can be delivered.  There was a story on the news about people being angry with the organization just because packets were sent home with children at a school and one of the questions was why they love Jesus.  I see a problem with this.  Why aren't the people mad at Christmas instead of the organization?  Operation Christmas Child just promotes the celebration of the birth of Jesus to overseas--to children that understand the love of God better than anyone else, because they aren't distracted by the holiday madness that can so easily overwhelm us all.  People are acting as if Christ is an optional part of Christmas, like believing in Santa Clause!

Something else that kind of irks me is that Obama's family is now calling their Christmas tree a holiday tree.  America has this idea that religion is an option.  If Christianity is an option then there must be several other ways to get into Heaven.  If that is so, then then Jesus really isn't all that important.  If religion is an option like so many people believe, then Jesus didn't have to die for our sins at all, because after all, there are other ways to gain eternity with God.  That is the deadly trap that fools millions of us.  When we try to secularize Christmas, we lose the meaning of Christmas.  We lose the celebration of Jesus Christ.  So why is Christmas so special for all those people who have nothing to celebrate? 

This is because love is contagious.  I'm talking about raw love.  The love that only comes from God.  Our Heavenly Father sent down His only son as a sacrifice for our sins, because He loves us!  Christmas is about celebrating and recognizing that raw pure love.  Even when some people forget that, there are so many people that do remember--and always will recognize that love.  Christmas is powerful because God is powerful.  Recognizing this is not enough, love isn't for keeping to yourself.  Share with the world why Christmas is important--Jesus!

In fact, Jesus was so important that the Magi visited him.  The Magi were pretty powerful dudes, they were a part of the Megistanes.  The Megistanes had the power and responsibility to choose who were going to be the kings of the Parthian empire.  Songs have referred to the Magi as kings because the absolute king was the only thing that had any power over them.  Contrary to popular belief there were not just three of these guys, nowhere in the Bible does it say that.  Some historians think that the Magi traveled to Jerusalem in a small army.  These guys were responsible for defeating the Roman army.  Yes, the macho Roman army.

You can imagine Herod's reaction when the Magi came storming in Jerusalem demanding to see a baby king because they want to worship the little guy.  These are guys that pick out kings for a living, not the three quiet dudes riding camels silently through the night that you hear about in church.  Herod wouldn't even be concerned with losers like that, but these macho Magi were enough to make Herod jump out of his pampered royal skin!  These powerful Magi travel all the way to Bethlehem to give expensive gifts, gifts that babies don't need.  They gave the gifts because it was a symbol of their power.  They were humble enough to state how powerful they were and get down on their hands and knees with their faces to the ground to worship a baby.  Based on a hunch.  That is the meaning of Christmas.  Isn't that a lot cooler than a fat person with a beard trying to get up and down chimneys?

The Fall Of Man

What is the one thing that separates man from God?  Many of you would say sin.  Yes, but what kind of sin?  That sin is pride.  It has been doing it's dark deceitful work in man since the beginning of man itself.  Lucifer forged it and got booted out of Heaven, then he presented it to us.  When he did, we embraced it wholeheartedly.  This is why we live in the sinful world we live in.  Pride is responsible for the fall of man.

Lets go back to where pride was presented to man in the first verse of Genesis 3. 

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

This was the seed of pride planted in poor Eve.  Eve had never questioned God before or even pondered why anyone wouldn't trust God.  She tells the serpent what God told her.

"We may eat fruit from the trees  in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

I can see her wondering why the serpent doesn't already know this.  Why this creature is questioning his own Creator.  Then Satan throws out the bait.

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.  "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

She had just been told that her Celestial Father lied to her, and that she could gain something from eating the forbidden fruit.  For the first time in her life, she is thinking of herself more than her Creator.  She took the bait.  The next verse says that now she desired the fruit for "gaining wisdom".  Now she is entirely looking out for herself and God is out of mind entirely.  She shares the fruit with her husband and their eyes were opened.  They were both bare naked.  They had always been that way but something changed.  Now they were self conscious of it. 

Now that pride was in them both, they both felt inferior to God and each other.  They had both sinned and now their eyes had been opened to good and evil.  Their eyes had been opened to the cold hard fact that the first evil was the first sin, and they committed the first sin.  Now they had something to be ashamed of.  Now they wanted to look extra good in Gods eyes, and in each others eyes.

They sewed together clothes for themselves.  The only thing they are thinking of now is how they want to look in the eyes of others.  Not long after that God swoops through the garden and Adam and Eve are scrambling up trees trying to escape the sight of their Creator. 

God already knew what was going on.  Just like my dad playing hide and seek with me when I was five.  I would lay on the sofa under the covers trying not to giggle while my dad would walk around the living room eying the breathing mass of blankets on the sofa, all the while asking himself in a singsong voice, "Caaaaleb . . . Wheeeere aaare yoooouuu?"  He was doing it for my satisfaction.  He was stooping down to the naive mindset I had as a five-year-old.

In a similar way, God stoops to the naive mindset of us for our satisfaction.  He does it to check our pride.  So God called to them, "Where are you?"

Adam answered God:

"I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

Here Adam admits that he feels inferior.  This is not a sign of humbleness.  Adam had a lot of pride, he didn't want to look bad or feel stupid in the eyes of anyone, especially God.  Now God asks the obvious:

"Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

Now Adam knows that God is on to him.  He knows that there is no use hiding it but he still doesn't want to look stupid in front of God, so he pins it on Eve.

The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Let me point out that Adam was standing beside Eve the whole time the serpent was talking to her, so he had just as much a chance to say "no" to the fruit as Eve did.  So don't go heaping all the blame on Eve.  Now God questions Eve:

"What is this you have done?"

Now Eve pins it on Satan and God chews them all out and lays out the consequences.  This is how pride was planted in the hearts of us all.  This was the fall of man.

How I Came To The Cross

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The actual change in my life was a very lengthy process. I would say that my youth group started the ball rolling. I had a lot of questions about Christianity at that point and youth group helped fuel my curiosity. I wanted the insight that other Christians had on God. I was very timid getting into an actual relationship with God. Since my dad was a youth pastor for a short while I knew there was a God and I knew He was a personal God. I knew how powerful He is.

I knew I would undergo a huge change if I got into a relationship with Him. I was afraid of that change. I was horrified. I was afraid that God would change my life too much and that I wouldn't like it. I didn't know what to expect from such a powerful Being. Since I had no friends at the start of middle school and making new ones was hard enough as it was, I didn't want God jumping into my life and complicating everything.

At one point I just surrendered. I knew that if my life was going to mean something I had to hand it over to the One who created it. Because if God didn't know the plan for my life--the reason I was created--then who did? I gave my life to Him. As soon as I jumped in that relationship I realized that there was more to Christianity than I ever thought possible. I started trying to make good friends that shared my beliefs. I was trying my hardest to focus on God and youth group. If I recall correctly, that was around the time I started this blog.

I noticed how much a lot of Christians knew the Bible pretty well. I wanted to read the entire Bible. After talking to my dad about it he advised me to start reading the New Testament first and then go back and then go back and read the Old Testament. I began to see the world in a new light. I felt like a veil was lifted off the world and I could see clearer the more I read. I started applying the Bible to my life, it was pretty scary to do at times--it still is. I started seeing connections between Bible verses and I began recording my spiritual observations. I saw God all around me. I was seeking Him and He was showing Himself to me.

The more knowledge I had of God, the more I desired. That hunger is still growing today. I was leaning on God more and more as time passed by. Every time I reflect on my life before I met God it disgusts me more and more. I know God was changing me so He could use me. Use me to make His name known--use my life. I wrote more in depth posts as I gained more and more knowledge of God and His Word.

As I look back now, many emotions flood my mind as I try to explain how God changed my life. There is one song by Reliant K that describes these many feelings. These are some of the lyrics:

When I got tired of running from you I stopped right there to catch my breath
They're your words
They caught my ears
They said, "I miss you son, some home".
And my sins they watch me leave
And in my heart I so believe
The love you felt for me was mine
The love I'd wished for all this time

And when the doors were closed
I heard no I told you so's
I said the words "I knew you knew"
Oh God, Oh God I needed you
God all this time I needed you
I needed you
And I so hate consequences
Running from you is what my best defense is
Cause I don't want to let you down
And I don't want to deal without

Every time I hear that song I am reminded of the amazing love and grace that God has for me. I am reminded of the kid I once was, and the kid I changed into. I am a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come.