Embracing Evil in our Entertainment: Harmless or Harmful?

"The major strategy of Satan is to distort the character of God and the truth of who we are." (Neil T. Anderson)

Over the last six years I have sat across from countless girls who were bound up in the chains of spiritual bondage, miserable victims of the evil this world had to offer them. I have seen the ugliness of evil rear its determined head during counseling sessions and demonic forces furiously rise up against my efforts to help girls find freedom.

This post isn't meant to glorify Satan in any way.  My intentions are to show you how we play on the enemy's playground and expect it to be harmless. We saturate our minds with his agenda and assume our minds will be immune to the reality of his influence. The Lord's prayer contains a very crucial element to our survival here on earth, "deliver us from evil". A question I have been pondering this week is this: Can God fully answer this prayer if we are willingly opening the doors to evil in our movies, books, magazines and music? Why or why not?

Far From Perfect: The Good Girl's Battle Against Temptation and Failure

"Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is...We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

The Path of Temptation
From a very young age I was a student in the art of sinning and a master of deceit in covering my tracks. My first real memory of committing a sin was shoplifting at age three. I remember standing in front of the check out counter when I spotted the Archie's Comic Book. The brightly colored front page was too much temptation for a three-year-old toddler and so without giving it another thought, my pudgy little hands reached for the book and hurriedly stuffed it inside my coat. You can imagine the look of horror on my dad's face when he brought me home from shopping that day only to discover his angelic little blonde haired, blue eyed daughter was a thief!

Six Ways to Fight Discouragement

You give and pour into the lives of others. Epic victory. The trip ends. Your body crashes. Emotionally you feel zapped. Weeks later you are still processing all the amazing things God has done and yet deep inside you feel numb. 

You feel alone even when surrounded by people. Discouragement grips your heart and life seems burdensome.

Our weakest moments rarely come in the midst of our greatest battle but in the aftermath of the victory. 

Take up Your Sword and FIGHT!

"I was in a serious battle. Everything that was normally light and bright now seemed dark and dull. As I stood there in the darkness I felt I was in quicksand, knowing that if I didn't react and do something quick I would panic and drown.

"My battle wasn't taking place in the normal sense; this was a battle for my mind. The enemy was throwing accusations in my face. My emotions started spinning out of control as Satan's lies flooded my heart. Desperately, I tried rejecting them but my feeble attempts to ignore only cause the battle to rage more fiercely within. What a poor soldier I turned out to be! 

"Then, someone stepped to my side and offered a glistening, sharp edged sword. 'This is no ordinary sword. Listen to its promptings and be ready to use it wherever you go', he said.