“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

This is as true today as it was when Peter wrote these words nearly 2,000 years ago. Satan has a desire to destroy you and me by any means possible.

We can guard ourselves against Satan’s destruction by following Peter’s directions for our lives.

1. Be sober-minded. It is imperative that we guard our minds against stinking-thinking. You ever notice how little it takes to discourage us. If Satan can plant one little negative thought in our minds then we usually dwell on it until we are just the opposite of sober-minded. We become inebriated with negativity and we begin stumbling toward destructive thinking and destructive behavior usually follows. It doesn’t take a lot for us to get discouraged and when we are it is usually because we allow ourselves to think unhealthy thoughts. We will dwell on the negativity and fail to look at the blessings that God has given us.
2. Be watchful. If you’ve ever walked through an area where you did not feel safe then you know precisely what Peter meant by this statement. You listen for anything that might bring you harm and you watch for anything that might look suspicious or harmful. Satan is lurking and he’s prowling and if we are not able to identify things and people around us who are destructive we are prone to his tracks.
3. Don’t be that guy or girl who is devoured and don’t let those you love be that guy or girl who is devoured. Heards of animals watch out for one another against the prowling lions. As we are being watchful then we are also looking out for others who might be vulnerable to attack.

Satan is happy when Christians are defeated. No matter what you are facing don’t let him have the victory in your life.

“Stand strong in the lord and in the power of his might.”

Pastor Marty

On September 11, 2001 America was attacked in a horrific way. The vast majority of our great country immediately responded in unity and with a resolve to eliminate those who would attack us in such an evil and cold-hearted manner. At the time, our President, George W. Bush, stood on the heap of rubble from the World Trade Center with a bullhorn in his hand and no teleprompter to be found and said,  “I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!” Those words inspired Americans to lock arms against those who attacked us. Many of us in this nation got on our knees, not before the Allah of Muhammad and Islam, but before the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We begged God to bring comfort and peace to our nation and justice to those who attacked us. A clear line was drawn between good and evil and we stood firm.

But as time went on something else began to unfold and infiltrate the speeches of those in power. Driven by the fear of sounding Islamophobic many of the leaders in America began to embrace the religion of Islam. Speech after speech was made to reassure the Muslim world that they were not the enemy of America and that they were welcome to come and practice their religion freely and openly without fear of attack or persecution.

Now we are several years removed from the tragedy of 9/11 and we are still dealing with the effects of radical Islam around the globe. I’m not an expert in world religions or world politics but I’m currently unaware of any country in which Islam is embraced where they have not tried to take over and make Islam the only acceptable religion.

Today we have a president who seems more bent toward insulting Christians than he is about standing up to radical Islam. He will not call them out, but he has taken several opportunities to call us out as Christians. I guess if I was convinced he was one of us I might accept his criticism more easily but I’m not convinced, and his apparant disdain for Christians irritates me.

Here’s my conclusion. The love and acceptance that has made this nation so great may also cause the demise of many of our freedoms. As in most cases, our greatest strength can also become our greatest weakness. Love and acceptance must find it’s limits according to biblical guidelines. We must distinguish between the Muslim, who needs Jesus, and the religion of Islam, which needs to be destroyed. We should always try to reach the Muslim with the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the love of Christ but reject the religion of Islam. We cannot allow Islamic teaching to infiltrate our political system nor our individual worldview. The religion as a whole teaches and practices things that are contrary to Christianity and to the freedoms we have in America. So, if we continue to allow Islam to gain more ground in America we will soon find ourselves having to submit to the demands of Islam or suffer persecution for it.

We must distinguish between Islamophobia, which is the fear and hatred of Islam, and Muslimophobia (my made-up word), which is the fear of and hatred of Muslims. We should hate the religion of Islam but not the Muslim.

Paul wrote it best in Ephesians 6, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The task before us is to eliminate the religion of Islam by changing the heart of its followers one Muslim at a time.

Pastor Marty