Monday, November 8, 2010
SOBERING THOUGHTS AT THE END OF THE CHURCH YEAR (1):
THE SCARY MONSTER THAT IS OUR ENEMY
If the theme of the secular holiday referred to as Halloween could be boiled down to a single world it would probably be "BOO!" It seems that people delight in being frightened or in frightening others. Yet many of the monsters meant to scare us are entirely fictional, products of nightmarish human imagination. How does one overcome a fictional enemy? It's as easy as forgetting. After all, scary monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf man aren't real; they don't exist except in print and in the mind.
We don't need to make up scary monsters. There are real ones, and I'm not talking about some terrorist. We have a real foe that is a scary monster and yet few are afraid of him. People aren't scared because he has cleverly allowed himself to be pictured as a fool in red long-johns with a pointed tail and a pitchfork, or written off as an imaginary being.
But be assured, the Devil is no fool. He is not imaginary, he's real. He is scary and he is more than our match were we to face him alone. It is for good reason that we are warned (1 Peter 5:8): "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
We don't have to face Satan alone, neither do we have to fear him. Our Savior Jesus has conquered him -- even crushed him. The Letter to the Hebrews reveals how it was done (Hebrews 2:14-15): "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
Our enemy is a scary monster, but if we stay close to Christ, united to Him by faith, we need not fear.
