"Be self-controlled and alert.
Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour."
1 Peter 5:8
Your enemy. The devil.
Everyday I look at the tv news or the Facebook and there is no shortage of stories or posts about messed up people, pushing messed up ideas, doing really messed up things, guided and propelled by messed up agendas. There are even more responses about how messed up those people are and how they need to be impeached, recalled, fired or arrested. With the presidential election coming up most of us have in mind who our guy is and how the other guy is going to destroy everything important to us. But none of these are Our Enemy. Our enemy is the devil. And he is busy roaming, lurking and skulking about looking for ways to devour us. He does so by swallowing us up in fearful thoughts, hateful attitudes and by consuming us with distractions that turn our heads away from the bottom line Truth.
The other day a friend of mine on the social media said that as a Christian he is called to post what he sees as untruth, calling out bad information that is leading people away from the Light and off course with the covid and the politics, etc. Now, I don't know at all about what God has called him to do or not do, but it did get me to thinking. I heard the old song "Go tell it on the mountain" playing in my head. The message of that song is that we should be taking the message of the GOOD NEWS to the mountain tops and advertising it to all the world. The cities of the world below are humming with the sounds of Bad News. The Good News is what we are called to project to every corner of the earth and share with an unsettled and uncertain world. ... and how easy is that now? It is as easy as a click of the finger on a button.
Early on in "these non-sensicle times" I was feeling consumed and devoured by the hopelessness of the news pressing in around me. At that time I ran across 2 Chronicles 20 and the story of King Jehoshaphat and the multiple armies that were coming against him and the tribe of Judah. They were way outgunned and surrounded. They got together and prayed "God we don't know what to do but our eyes are on you"... and then they praised and worshipped God. In the ensuring battle they did not have to fight against the armies. The other armies took out each other! God brought the victory for them in his unpredictable and remarkable way. They didn't have to fight anything but their own fears and doubts and they did so by praising and worshipping the One who could bring victory when it didn't seem possible. They declared the glory of Almighty God from the "mountain top" and their enemy was defeated.
In recent weeks a worship leader has come into the public eye by organizing and leading "pop-up" worship / revival gatherings, some of which have been in very dark communities torn by protests and destruction. The message he is Telling On The Mountain is love, redemption, salvation and hope...in one word, Jesus. He isn't calling out messed up leaders or agendas. His focus is The Goodness. ...and he is getting some push back from several angles. Some voices from the media don't like it because, in the crowds of thousands of peaceful worshippers not enough people are wearing masks. Some people have actually tried to physically attack him and his band as they play. Satanist have gotten in their faces hailing Satan and shouting them down. AND YET, he doesn't fight them. He doesn't push back. They are not his enemy. Instead he continues to do battle in the manner of Jehoshaphat... Fully engaged in praise and worship of the One who is fighting the fight and knows exactly who the enemy is and what destruction is his agenda.
In contrast, the voices below drone on, retweeting, reposting and reporting the bad news, the data, the theories and dim projections... like soul pollution. It keeps our hearts in the mire.
... and our real enemy, the devil just smiles as we are consumed and devoured spreading his message of the bad news, hopeless news and fear filled news from the mountain tops.
"How beautiful on the mountain tops (and the lap tops) are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace and salvation, who declare the news that your God reigns!"
Isaiah 52:7
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