Editor’s note: I am screaming as I write this. Forgive me if it goes astray.-JS
She was twenty-years younger than me. She could have been my daughter. I preached her funeral Thursday. There are still tears in my eyes.
What a beautiful child. Not perfect but a Christian. She was raised in the church and sat up front with Wendy and me. She brought her children. Then she didn’t.
I remember where we were standing when she told me she wouldn’t be back. Her brother lived an alternative lifestyle and it hurt her feelings that we called it sin. I explained to her, there was no choice to make. God declares what is sin and from sin we must repent. All Christians are bound by the word of God (Isaiah 5:20). It was not what she wanted to hear.
Could I have done more to bring her back? Should I have been more stern? Should I have made more of an effort? Her husband told me at the time, there was more to why she left. Would she have come back if I pressed harder to find out what those things were? I knew Satan won that day. I just didn’t know he would pay his wage so soon (Romans 6:23).
She put a gun to her forehead and pulled the trigger last Thursday. She left her husband and two children two years ago. Her journey away from God led her to a life of alcohol and into a relationship with another woman. Police told her estranged husband there were messages on her phone that said she wanted to be back with her children, but she felt trapped. There was an argument…then a single shot.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”-I Peter 5:8
“the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”-Revelation 12:12
We humans have a choice of spirits we must make. We can come to Christ and have his Spirit live in us. We can serve Satan and be controlled by evil. The older I get, the more sensitive to this reality I become. What kind of spirit dwells in this person? I can sense it as clearly as what kind of clothes they are wearing. Are they animated by the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:5-9) or are they controlled by the god of this world (Ephesians 2:2)?
In this sense, demon-possession is real today. Demons do not overcome our will, but once allowed inside, they can and do dominate lives. I think of the father who brought his son to Jesus. He described the evil spirit’s influence this way, “it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him.”-Mark 9:22. What is the difference between the demon in Jesus’ time and the spirit of evil that destroyed my young friend? I fail to see a significant difference.
I beg you to choose the Spirit of life. Lose your life of stubborn rebellion to God. Submit to Jesus. Repent of your sins. You are playing with something that is not playing with you. It is Satan who calls you to remain in sin. Don’t let him blind you (II Corinthians 4:4). He is a destroyer and a murderer (John 8:44). Resist him, strong in the faith (I Peter 5:9).
Please.
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