Warning against another scheme of the devil

In the Screwtape Letters Lewis talks about how the devil disguises himself as a Christian and catches us off our guard, thus driving a wedge between us and God. What the devil knows is that Sin has marred everything that God made good, and that man was made to worship. God made us to worship him but once sin entered the world it forced a divide between man and God but while the original function of man is operational sin has corrupted the use of mans function. So instead worshipping God man worships himself manifesting into a variety of things basically just covering up for the fact that we don't want to admit to God that we love and worship ourselves instead of him. One of these cover-ups is religion, and I am talking about religion in the sense that it is a set of rules and laws and regulations and legalistic hoo-haw in order that if we do these things then we are a better person and are going to heaven because of these things. There are many men who love religion could recite the bible forwards and backwards but they do not understand what it truly says or means.

We have examples in Paul and in Nicodemus and the Pharisees. In Paul we find him saying that he was a Pharisee of Pharisees a Hebrew of Hebrews and that he was Zealous for the Law but he did not know Christ and in not knowing Christ he persecuted the early Christians (Philippians 3). How was Paul saved? Through Christ Revealing himself to Paul(acts 9), not through his religion and his knowledge of the bible and what did he do after Christ revealed the truth to him He Worshipped Him and made Christ his treasure.

As for Nicodemus and the Pharisees we have several accounts where Christ rebukes them for not understanding what was written in the Law and the prophets. Yes they'd read it a million times yes they knew every word of it but they were blind to what it meant they were lying to themselves about the true treasure of life. John 3 shows that Nicodemus though he grew up in the Jewish faith and studied the law and became a Pharisee he still did not understand what was written.

But this isn't the warning I wanted to write about I’m just pointing out that as a Christian you must be careful of the Devils Schemes Because he even tried to corrupt the very word of God. The very first Example is the one that brought sin into mankind. In the Garden though God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree, Satan comes in and distorts the command telling Eve that the real reason God doesn't want you to eat from the tree is because God is hiding something from you mainly the ability to be Like him. The distortion here is God didn't mean an instantaneous physical death, the lure of being like God, and God is hiding something from you. God, when he gave the command, did not say that you will surely drop dead and cease to exist if that had been the case God probably would not have put the tree in the garden. God knew that once man had disobeyed God he would die spiritually. But with a spiritual death comes an instantaneous physical death because at that moment a divide was set between us and our life giver. In the two chapters before the account of the fall we find that God is the giver and sustainer of life but at that moment that sin entered the world we were cut off from him not able to access his life support and so from that point on were are ticking objects of death from the moment we are conceived were are dying deteriorating and lifeless. I believe the reason Eve gave some fruit to her husband is because while she was still blinded by the devils scheme she saw his reasoning and further proved it to herself and her husband by saying see I’m not dead. so Adam ate as well and probably thinking to himself "who is this God character why would he say that I would die when I find that my wife ate and she didn't die and to add to that this is the most delicious fruit of all the garden what else is this guy hiding from me why should I trust him if he hides things from me." Why do I think that might have been what was spoken and thought because I am descended from Adam I have the same sin flowing through my veins I in my sin natured thought the same thoughts was blinded by the same reasoning of the devil. But soon after Adam ate their eyes were opened the blind reasoning of the devil was lifted and they saw what they had done and were guilty. They were ashamed of their nakedness and wanted to cover their sin up and hide it from God and so with every one today. But God is Merciful to Adam and Eve and makes clothing for them and gives them hope of even better clothing to come, Christ the cloak of Righteousness. Secondly Satan lured Eve in by smooth talking and making her forget for the moment that she was already made in the image of God so therefore like God. Satan here is like the cliché used car salesman or the high pressure salesman the guy who, though he may not be outright lying to your face telling you things you know are not true, smooth talks you and tells you what you want to hear and gets you off track and thinking “hey this guy is actually a good guy why in the world would anyone say bad things about him or for that matter why are we judging him he’s just a person trying to feed his family just like me.” When the devil first approached Eve and began to ask about the tree I’m sure she felt a presence of evil but that feeling was soon smooth talked and rationalized away as the crafty words of the devil began to pour out and soon she began to think “this serpent isn’t such a bad guy he’s just trying to make sure that I get a good deal out of this whole thing,” and as soon as the rationalizations began to spew out of her mind the serpent knew that he had her and began to speak against God and his command and he told her that the real reason God didn’t want her to eat was because God didn’t want her to be like him. The devil tells her that God lied about the death thing and he probably makes it sound like this, God is actually envious of you because he’s less powerful than you and he doesn’t want you to be better than him. Now anyone in their right mind would say well of course that’s not true but when we are caught in the smooth talk of sin it’s easy to be blinded to the truth of the matter and all logic and reason loses its goes out the window. In that moment Eve lost her faith in God’s promise to provide and sustain her and Adam, and that faith was the only thing that could have made seeing through the smooth talk possible. Faith would have said to the serpent do not try to deter me from following the commands of God He is good and he is fair.

That is yet another example of the craftiness of Satan in bringing sin into the world and how he distorts God’s word and catches us off guard. I bring it up because it helps remind you to be on guard and to watch out for the crafty words of sin. Now that I have given you a few examples I want to write about the warning I started out with, a warning to watch out for the devil in your practice of the fruits of the spirit. I mentioned at the beginning of this essay The Screwtape Letters and how C.S. Lewis uses it to warn us of how the devil disguises himself, one such instance as follows the devil Screwtape is writing to Wormwood about how to council a man. He says “I see only one thing to do at the moment. Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, ‘By jove! I’m Being Humble’, and almost immediately pride— pride at his own humility—will appear…” (Lewis p.69.) If you remember I said earlier that everything God made good sin has corrupted we have an instance right here of something God made that was good that the sin has destroyed. Humbleness in its true sense recognizes that man in dust worthy of nothing but to return to dust. Think about it for a moment what is there to boast about in dirt, animals defecate on it and tread upon it, sure dirt has many good uses but with out outside influence upon it it’s worthless. Dictionary.com defines dirt as any foul or filthy substance, as mud, grime, dust, or excrement.(2) So with true humbleness we would have nothing to be proud of as men for we are nothing but dust, excrement, grime, or a foul substance. So the problem here is not being humble but being proud of being humble, this is what corrupts the good thing God created. The devil knows that the fruits of the spirit are good he knows that if we truly have them we would not fall into his trap and he knows that he has no power in someone who truly has the fruits of the spirit. At the same time he knows that people in their attempt to please God and men, read the fruits of the spirit and begin to practice them but not have them. Then the devil comes along and begins to whisper his smooth talk into the ear of the Christian practicing the fruits and that smooth talk settles in and blinds the Christian and the Christian begins to believe that he has something to be proud of and that God will find him or her more favorable because of the way that he or she practices the fruits everyday. So Christians be on your guard for the smooth talk of Satan, do not let him tempt you into believing you are worth anything more than dirt. Remember that any good thing you do you do by the grace of God, and that nothing is good outside of God. Screwtape doesn’t stop though he goes on to write “If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt—and so on through as many stages as you please…” (Lewis 69.) So here we have another warning that the war against sin is not over after the first battle, at least for man, but we must continue to fight sin because the devil won’t stop after you slap his hand the first time he’ll come back again and tell you to be proud of not being proud. The more you think about it, it becomes a circle of sin of victory and defeat in pride, you’re proud of your self for not being proud. The truth of the matter is all this is, is a scheme of the devil to get your mind off God and onto yourself. Basically you are fighting a battle on the sidelines when you should be looking at the real war that’s going on and seeing how you can be of use. There is no need to fight with ourselves because God is there to help us to fight our pride for us so we don’t have to keep going around in a circle of defeat becoming vegetables. So as a Christian, remember use God’s word, put on the armor because that’s what he intended it for the Word of God will always defeat the devils scheme, that’s why he provided it for us. God knew that man’s mind could not see through the devils trickery but he can and he knows all the flaws in the logic, or lack thereof, of the devil. Also concerning humbleness beware of becoming arrogant in your humbleness. I was listening to a sermon by John Piper the other day, I can’t remember which sermon it was, but something he said in the sermon struck me to the heart and is really what caused me to start thinking more about this eventually turning into an essay. Piper said something to the effect of when you’re praying do not be afraid to ask God for anything. And he sets this point home by talking about Christians who think the life of humbleness is the life of poverty and in that mindset they refuse to ask God for help or anything else. Piper calls this arrogance; he says it is arrogant to think that you shouldn’t ask for God for anything because you’re trying to be humble. To say to God I don’t need your help, I don’t need your riches, I don’t need your grace I’ll be fine with what I have is simply arrogant and prideful and an attempt to elevate yourself towards godhood. Too many Christians today believe that to have wealth is to have a one-way ticket to hell. To many Christians today scorn other Christians who have wealth. It is a sad thing to see when any Christian believes he is more heaven worthy than any other person. Think of the most unrighteous person you can think of now or in the past and you are no more worthy of heaven than he is. You are no more worthy of heaven than the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, you are no more worthy of heaven than the people who roamed the earth the day God let loose the flood gates of heaven, you are no more worthy of heaven than the devil himself, so why is it that people think that being in poverty makes you more eligible to get into heaven. Sure we have the passage in Matthew 19:24 that says “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” but does that mean that Christ is advocating poverty. I beg to differ what Christ is saying here is that a man who indulges himself in the riches of the flesh will have an impossible time to get into heaven. Then we have Paul who says “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7). And so we have Christians who blend these two together and we have an understanding that comes out like this, since it’s humanly impossible for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle, it is impossible for evil to get into heaven and Paul says profit is a loss for Christ therefore wealth equals evil. Such is the understanding of those who do not ask for wisdom and gifts from God. But if you read further in Philippians Paul says that anything that he does in the flesh is worthless but with the help of God we can be profitable for the sake of Christ. God knows we are week, and helpless and poor without him and so what does he tell us to do? He tells us to ask him for strength, help, and heavenly riches. And to say that you think your way into heaven is better than God’s is arrogance, flat out A-R-R-O-G-A-N-C-E! Do not be afraid to ask God for anything for he says “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matt 7:7) With a command like that we should not be afraid to ask of course you must keep an open mind about how he gives to you because his blessings are not always exactly how you expect them which is why you must seek out and knock on doors. An example is a couple who is without child and continues to pray LORD we want a child please help us to get pregnant and months later after trying to conceive the opportunity to adopt comes up. I know this because it is the story of how I came to be the child of my parents and yes almost two years later my mother was pregnant and gave birth to my brother. God knows what you need and when you need it don’t blind yourself to his grace by only seeing what you want to see.

Finally I want to remind you all to put on the full armor of God as it is the only way to be prepared to wage war against Sin. Man is too weak to fight on his own and we see this so often in our schools and on our college campuses and in current science. Christians try to reason with evil thoughts and only come out looking foolish and conquered. Don’t forget God gave us his irrefutable words so we could win instead of lose with our faulty logic. So make it a habit to Read and memorize and study and to ask God for wisdom and understanding so that you won’t be caught off guard by the schemes of the devil




(1) Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
(2) dirt." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 30 Jan. 2008. dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dirt.

I need to get an outline in writing.

So i have a lot to write and i'm not sure how to write it but i'm sure if i had an outline then i would be able to keep my mind on track and then be able to write everything. the subject i have in mind deals with opening a heavenly savings account so as to be able to store up treasures in heaven as oppossed to storing up treasures on earth. i'm planing on describing where the idea came from and going into detail on certain bible passages that confirm this thought. but yeah it takes me a while to figure out a completely outlined thesis anyway thats all for now