Daily Devotional for Thursday April 20, 2006
A Battle for Souls ? Satan is Not Playing Games
(John 10:10)
Each day, Liveprayer receives and responds to over 40,000 emails for prayer. While I personally take 100-150 at random each day, I get a detailed report of the types of prayer needs we receive. In over 4 1/2 years of operating this ministry I can say there is very little that shocks me any more.
Last week, I received an email from a mother that was upset because her 12-year-old daughter had been suspended from school. The reason? She and another 12-year-old girl had a contest one day to see how many boys they could give oral sex to on the bus before they reached their school. I wish I could say this was the first time I ever received such an email, but I have had at least a half dozen like it in the last couple of years. Where do 12-year olds even get such ideas? They get them daily through television, music, magazines, and advertising!
Case in point. The hottest selling clothing in Europe today comes from a UK apparel company, the FrenchConnection Group, that sells it goods under the acronym FCUK. They recently came out with a line of fragrances. One is for men called, FCUK Him, and the other is for women called, FCUK Her. They targeted teens with a $10 million dollar ad campaign called ?Scent To Bed.?
My two-fold purpose for even mentioning this company and their marketing campaign is to first warn parents what their children are being exposed to and to drive home the point I try to share often with you?SATAN IS NOT PLAYING GAMES!!!
Parents, now more than ever, you MUST know what is out in the popular culture that your children are being exposed to. You MUST be aware of what is on t.v., what the popular music is, what the hot movies are, what kind of clothes are being marketed to your kids, the content of the magazines your children are reading, and the advertising campaigns that are geared to reach YOUR KIDS!
I can only encourage you to work daily to have a good line of communication open with your children. You need to talk to them. You need to understand the messages that they are getting daily from the world, and make sure they know what God says about these issues. Building a solid spiritual foundation in their lives through church, praying with them, doing family devotions, is critical. They need to be able to identify the lies of satan, and know the truth of God?s Word so that they can stand strong in the midst of all that they are exposed to on a daily basis.
YOUR CHILDREN ARE THE NUMBER ONE MINISTRY THAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU!!! One of the huge problems we have in this nation is there is now a large percentage of 2 full generations that have not gone to church and are growing up in homes void of God. You have parents now that grew up in homes void of God, raising children that are obviously growing up in homes void of God. This means the only ?truth? these people know is the lies they have been fed by the world. They simply don?t know or absolutely reject what God says. This is why most of Europe and Canada have become places void of God and open to everything that God opposes.
If you think satan is playing games, you should come to the Liveprayer offices some day and scan through some of the 40,000 emails that we receive each day. The vast majority are from people that have bought into satan?s lies, and their lives have been greatly damaged. Jesus told us in John Chapter 10 what the enemies goal was, to steal, kill, and destroy. Steal our peace and joy, destroy our lives so that we can never fulfill our purpose in life to serve God, and literally kill us.
Life is a battle for the eternal souls of people. Satan is DEADLY serious about taking as many souls into everlasting damnation as he possibly can. We live in a world that has become so void of God, satan has free reign to do whatever he wants to get as many people as he can eternally separated from God. God loves us so much, that He sent His Son to die for our sins so that we could be forgiven and spend eternity with Him. He has made a way for man to be with Him forever by coming to know Jesus Christ by faith.
What is the answer? Those who know Christ as their Savior, MUST take the message of hope, love, and everlasting life thru Christ to this lost world that we live in. I am all for the practical efforts to boycott stores, t.v. programs, advertisers, work to change laws, and all of those meaningful efforts that can help the climate that we currently live in. I pray for and support those ministries and organizations called to do those types of things. My calling however, is to boldly, loudly, and without fear proclaim the truth of God?s Word, to help lead the lost and hurting into an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I love you and care about you so much. Maybe now you can catch a glimpse of why I am so passionate about what I do every day. Why I am so focused on using the same vehicles satan uses to carry his lies to the masses, like the Internet and secular television. You see, I know, just like Elijah did in 1 Kings Chapter 18, that if you simply put God head to head with satan, God will win EVERY TIME!!!
GOD IS UNDEFEATED!!! THE FACT IS, THE GAME IS ALREADY OVER AND GOD HAS WON!!!
The only thing left to be determined is how many people will end up on the winning team, and how many will choose to be part of the losing team. Satan is serious about leading people to everlasting death, the people of God need to be just as serious about leading people to everlasting life! This is a battle for the eternal souls of people.