El Diablo

Two six-year-olds struggled with the problem of the existence of the devil. One said, “Oh, there isn’t any devil.” The other, rather upset, said, “What do you mean, there isn’t any devil? It talks about him all the way through the Bible!” The first replied, “Oh, that’s not true, you know. It’s just like Santa Claus–the devil turns out to be your dad.”

While my kids may agree with that last sentence, the devil is definitely real! And, yes, the Bible tells us so. Rev. Art Schoonveld writes, “Satan wants to have us, and he will use every trick he can think of to try to make us untrue to God. And the closer we live to the Lord, the harder Satan will attack. He comes to us when we are weak. He comes to us when we are down. And he tries to take us away from God. In the words of James, we have to ‘resist the devil’ (James 4:7). But to resist Satan, we have to first acknowledge that he is real. We have to realize that he wants to destroy us. We also have to know our own weaknesses when it comes to resisting Satan. Every day, we need to pray as Christ taught us: ‘Lead us not into temptation [that is, strengthen us from being tempted by our own desires], but deliver us from the evil one’ (Matthew 6:13).”

“The Devil’s Lies”

by Maria Prosecuter

The devil’s been telling me lies again:

That I’m such a fool; I’m better off dead.

He follows me around everywhere that I go,

Every move that I make, every seed that I sow.

He’s the rule I can’t break, the crux to my fall,

The pill on my tongue, the hate in my gall.

Every day is a heartache and it all ends the same;

Like I’m trapped in a Matrix, lost in a game.

I try to do what’s right, but keep hearing all that noise

The devil captivates my ear, telling lies to fill the void.

He says that I’m not worthy; my life is such a shame.

I’ll never be much brighter than a matchbox in the rain.

But he’ll be brokenhearted when I make him out a fool;

As the light that shines inside my heart sheds the grace of truth.

God’s Best…Steven