Articles
Hiding In Plain Sight
The caption of the graphic hit the nail on the head! "We live in a time where Satan doesn't even hide anymore, and you still don't see him".
Jesus once asked a question, "Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?" (Mark 8:18). Certainly we are not ignorant that evil, the workings of Satan, are all around us. But do we always see them?
Here’s a scripture speaking to many in our world today, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20)
I've quoted this next scripture many times in this space, and it's just as true now as ever, "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power." (2 Tim 3:1-5...) Paul warns "have nothing to do with such people!".
Don't miss the last part of Paul's warning, they "have the appearance of godliness". Not all of them do, some of them clearly stand with Satan, yet according to Paul, many who claim to be "believers" are caught up in the Devil's schemes. How do we know who they are? How do we know if it's us? Look at Paul's list, and discern for yourself. Paul warns us because running with such a crowd affords the reality of exactly what the artist captioned his/her painting with, Satan walks with the crowd, and is hiding in plain sight!
In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul is again talking about the same type of people, those who "...suppress the truth by their wickedness..." who "...neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him...", those who have "...become futile and their foolish hearts were darkened...". He goes on talking about those who "...claimed to be wise...and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images..." and "..exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator...". (Rom 1:18-25) That last one is huge in our world.
God let them go, to pursue the sinful desires of their hearts, and to degrade their bodies in sexual impurity. We are surrounded by people like this today, the ones that have "become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy." (Rom 1:29-31)
YET, God still loves them, and God still desires for them to repent, and turn to Him so that He can make them whole. God hates their sinful ways, but He loves them, and desires them to come into His family. He wants us to love them too, and to teach them, and to try to persuade them to turn from their destructive ways, yet we can't make them our constant companions. We can't run with that crowd without taking too great a risk of becoming one of them.
It's a wake up call to us, to understand that Satan is walking the streets, parading around as a messenger of light, using a form of godliness but denying it's power just like Paul said. We must understand how our enemy fights in order to win the battle against him. Today, look around really well, and consider what influence Satan has on you, and through whom, and if necessary, heed the warnings of Christ and His Apostles, and "have nothing to do with such people!"
