Daily Devotional Feb 17th 2021: Three Ways of Inviting the Enemy

"Oh, but it's just a TV show." "Well, it's just music, what's wrong with music?" "But it can't be that bad!" These are the responses we get when pointing out to the unaware how the enemy is creeping into our houses, making himself at home, and defiling our sanctuary. There is a reason God commanded Israel to set themselves apart. It's a principal theme throughout God's Word. God wants us to be HOLY. The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines Holy as follows: 

holy

■ adjective (holier, holiest)

1    dedicated to God or a religious purpose.
2 morally and spiritually excellent.
3    informal, chiefly North American used in exclamations of surprise or dismay: holy cow!

—origin Old English hālig, of Germanic origin; related to whole.

 Soanes, C., & Stevenson, A. (Eds.). (2004). Concise Oxford English dictionary (11th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Being Holy means it sets us apart from the (sins of the) world.

Being holy for God requires discipline; becoming a disciple of Jesus. If we don't, we open the doors of our homes to the enemies of God and give them authority over us. They do that because they are not reading their bible. They lack knowledge and forsake wisdom.

Hosea 4:6
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

Here are three common ways Christians, and unbelievers are inviting eternal damnation into their lives.

TV/Music

John 6:50
“This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.”

Luke 4:4
“And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

Would you invite a hostile person into your home to spend time with you and your family for hours, day in, day out? Would you listen every day at your dinner table to their monologues that defile you, demonize you and promote sin? But this is exactly what we are doing when we turn on that "smart" TV or when we listening to music that promote violence, racism, extra-marital affairs; the list is endless.

There is a reason it's called programming. It's referring to the programming of the mind. If we are not careful, the enemy will gradually turn us away from God to embrace the way of the world. It's peer pressure. The whole unholy family watched, and it's the talk at work to be part of the crowd. Our little ones are corrupted. Our minds are corrupted. The enemy's programming is designed to doubt God, yourself, your beliefs, your principles, your adequacy and to fall into the mainstream trap the enemy has set, and to sell you useless products. It's subtle to the unaware, and blatantly obvious to the people who are in His Word. Your kids, too, are poisoned. Do an internet search on "nickelodion+lgbt" and find out what the enemy is serving your children for spiritual dinner. 

It is poison. It is evil. It is unholy.

Friends

Matthew 6:24
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

1 Corinthians 15:33
“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”

Proverbs 13:20
“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”  

James 4:4
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

When I was little, my mom used to say: "Show me who your friends are, and I tell you who you are." How true, her words. Now, Jesus hung out with such unsavory characters as IRS agents, banksters, thieves, and prostitutes. They became followers of Jesus. But he didn't let them turn Him - it was the other way around. But when we hang out with worldly folks just to be friends with them and indulge in worldly pleasures, the peer pressure, much like TV, will turn us against God. It's like getting bitten by a viper and hoping not to die from its poison. I have personally left many 'friends' behind, I separated myself from them - not because I was better than they, but because I had no business following them because I was following Jesus, and they would not. 

True Christians cannot have ungodly friends. We must love the lost, we must preach the Gospel to them, but we ought not to walk in their ways.

Sin    

Please read the scriptures below carefully. 

1 John Chapter 1
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John Chapter 3
4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Romans Chapter 5
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Galatians 5:17
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Did you notice how the scripture in this section ties into the examples in the previous two, TV/Music and Friends? It's because listening to the enemies words rather than embracing our Heavenly Father's Word leads to sin, and therefore death. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all commit sin, but we do not live in sin. We choose not to gamble, or to sleep with the neighbor's wife, to steal from someone else, or to bear false witness. The good news is, if we do sin, the Holy Spirit will convict our spirit, and we become aware of our trespassing and repent. The moment this happens, God forgives us and we are as white as snow.

Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

What to Do About It?

• Be disciplined not to watch TV or listen to music that promotes ungodliness.
• Be principled not to pander to people who cannot be your friends if you are a follower of Christ.
• Be determined to stay in the Word of God, because there is no greater power than His Word to convict us to live righteously. Renew your mind so that you become more like Jesus. Decide to love God's Word. It's easy then to obey His statues.

Romans 12:2
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

How to Pray

LORD, we thank you for this day.
We praise You for who You are.

LORD. we pray for the people in Texas, and North Carolina and everywhere where the freezing weather has limited their access to water, utilities, and the internet.
LORD, keep them warm. Heavenly Father, keep them safe and restore the services to them so that they may not be harmed.

LORD, we pray today for all that do not follow You, that their eyes may be opened to the defilements that has soaked our word,
We pray that the Christian may be disciplined, rich in discernemnt to turn-off their TVs, wisely decide on their friends, and that they hate sin so that they may live.

LORD, we pray that those who do not follow you turn from their evil ways and declare you rightful Lord, that they, too, may be saved.

We pray this in the precious name of Jesus.

Amen 

#Devotional #Scripture4TheDay #Godvictory #GodlyAdvice #GodlyProtection #enemydefiled #undelfiled #purity

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