The Problem of Living for Me

The thin figure caught my eye as the team and I gathered back together from evangelizing on the pier in El Salvador. I didn't know if it was a he or she, but this person walked in a rather strange way. He wore tights and a green trench coat. His hair went to his shoulders, and he wore a hat that seemed to fit his look. In his hand he held a blonde doll. 

The people I was with also noticed him, and we all watched as he walked by. Suddenly, he turned and saw us watching. "Don't make eye contact," someone warned us. He took a few steps toward us. In his eyes, evil danced, a grin spread across his face that seemed to say, "I see you watching..."
His face, his body language, everything about him, seemed to by trying to beckon us to come. Come experience this evil with him.

How strange he seemed. One of our team members tried to give him a tract, and as soon as she did so, he darted away, as if opposing magnetic forces had come in contact. He was gone. His face forever etched in my mind -the evil dancing in his eyes... There was no life there; only death. 

I realized while watching that the evil I saw was not really him, but it was the powers of darkness to whom he'd surrendered control. He was a voodoo doctor, someone informed us, and he was obviously ready to do his work whenever someone bid him to.

The Evil that God Sees

Is this what God is watching every day? He sees the evil going on and is repulsed by it. Why? Because they are surrendering control to the evil one, His sworn enemy!

Fellow Christian, compassion should be what drives us, as it did Christ. That man I saw was helplessly under the control of demonic forces... I realized it was not him I was disgusted at, but the enemy who had him under his control. Sure, this man had to have chosen the life he is living, but doesn't most everyone? 

Some of you are thinking, "well, actually, no, Sandie... Most people don't have a choice as to what circumstances they are in." 

While it is true that we did not choose our parents and siblings, our nationality, our looks, our time in history, our gender, etc., it is also true that we have a choice as to how we deal with our circumstances. 

Our response is entirely up to us. Nobody forced Eve to eat that apple in the garden. Nobody is forcing you to live for yourself either. 

We do have a choice

Joshua implored the people of Israel, "Choose you this day whom you will serve..." (Josh 24:15) It was no circumstantial happening -Oops! Today I'm accidentally serving myself!- no, indeed, it was a choice. One you and I must take seriously. 

Choose to live for you, and you never know what path Satan and his demons will trick you into walking on. Choose to live for Jesus, and you have a Guide, a Protector, a Savior at your side all the time, guiding you away from the devil's traps and onto a path of blessing and abundant life. 

I don't believe a Christian can be demon possessed, because he is already owned by Jesus Christ, who will never disown him. But I do believe a Christian can be tricked by demons into following paths of self destruction. 

The Problem of Living for Me

So much is going on in this present day and age among believers that is turning off the power of the Spirit in their lives... Christians are doing the same things that non Christians are doing. They participate in "...sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these..." (Galatians 5: 19-21) That is what happens when you follow your own desires -when you choose to live for you instead of Christ.

That, my dear fellow believer, is Satan's goal for your life! Are you walking in the power of the Spirit every day? If not, perhaps you've chosen to live for yourself instead of the One who died for you! 

Shall I be so bold? I think I should! 

I just came from a country where Christians are putting their lives on the line for the sake of the gospel. Are you doing that? We visited a widow of a man who was killed for his faith in El Salvador. She is still in love with Jesus even now, although it was for His sake her husband died.

Some of you have broken families, some of you are friendless, some of you have experienced abuse and other horrible things I cannot imagine... but these situations are not an excuse to leave God! Do you realize what He's done for you? Have you so easily forgotten this gracious Savior of ours who took the blame for your sin? Have you left Him thinking He's just the way to heaven and nothing more? 

Shame on us if this is so! 

"For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God." (1 Peter 1:18-19)

How high was the price that God paid for your soul... Let the weight of this truth sink in deep. Your sin -that empty life you'd inherited from your ancestors- was keeping you separated from God, so He paid the price to get it removed from you! The price was the blood of His very own Son, Jesus Christ! He let His Son die in your place.

Then He raised Him up from the dead so that you could be given new life. Not the same one you had before; not a life of emptiness and sin and being far away from God! No, no, NO!

Oh, Christian, He died and rose again so that you could be freed and far away from that life of emptiness and so that you could know God!

The Voodoo Doctor
As his face kept coming back to my mind, evil dancing in his eyes, God reminded me of a prayer I pray often: "God, I want to decrease so much that all people see in me is Jesus and not Sandie!"

You see, when I looked at that voodoo doctor, I saw another power greater than him. This power was dark, and had control of his whole being. He was utterly helpless to the control of it. He was completely obedient to it.

Let me ask you a question, dear Christian.... Are you that obedient to God? Are you so surrendered to Him that when people look at you, they don't see you, but they see a power so much greater -the power of the Kingdom of Light? Do they see in your eyes that love has reached down into the depths of your soul and changed you? Are you following Christ and Christ alone?

If the voodoo doctor were only halfway in the service of demons I might've noticed some of the man's own personality, but he wasn't. (Not that halfway service is any safer to the soul.) All I could see was evil, bondage, and death.

Should we not be even more radically one hundred percent in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives us freedom and life?

Radical Thinking
Oh, I know, Christian, this is too radical and extreme for you to think about. But just think about it anyway. Let it stretch your thinking beyond its limits. Read in the bible and you will see that Jesus is looking for people that would leave all and follow Him. Are you doing that? Are you living with your hands off the temporal and on the eternal?

Great blessing comes when we are in the service of God under His power, by His grace simply through our faith in His Son Jesus.

Don't count your life so dear, your possessions so special, your friends so close, your work so needed, that you would never risk them for the sake of Christ!