When I used to live in Korea, my wife and I bought a UV sanitizer to sanitize the bottles and toys for our firstborn. Here’s a picture of the box.
It’s fascinating that this company has effectively advertised that germs are from the Devil. Interesting, isn’t it?
When’s the last time you’ve seen a product in North America advertised in a spiritual manner?
We’re talking about worldview here. When I lived in Korea, I noticed that spirituality was much more on the forefront of people’s minds, than it is here in North America.
Now what does a UV sanitizer–with a picture of the devil on it–have to do with church leadership?
The answer is…everything.
When’s the last time you’ve read Ephesians 6?
For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. (Ephesians 6:12 HCSB)
Ultimately, the biggest obstacle to living a vibrant life in Christ isn’t your overbooked schedule, stressful children, or finances…it’s Satan.
In C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, he mentions that one of Satan’s strategies is to try to make it look like he actually doesn’t exist.
My Dear Wormwood, I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course this has not always been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and sceptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The “Life Force”, the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work – the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits” – then the end of the war will be in sight. But in the meantime we must obey our orders. I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that “devils” are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.
Now we can go to either extreme here by attributing every bad circumstance to Satan, or by ignoring him completely, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
What I am talking about is awareness.
Read Ephesians 6:10-20.
When’s the last time you’ve prayed for those in your family, church, or life group? Or what about your coworkers and neighbors? Now I’m not just talking about brief five second prayers, or praying within the allotted “gossip time” during your life group (wait, did I just say that?). I’m talking about setting aside specific times to really pray for those in your life, especially for those who are far from God.
Why not schedule a time this week to do that? Why not pray right now? You may not see immediate physical results, but there will be immediate spiritual results.