The Lies We Believe

These past three weeks that I've been in school, my classes have been involved in an intense study of Adam and Eve. I feel like I know them so much better now than I did a few weeks ago. One point that has been made in class is that the moment sin was conceived was the moment that Eve believed the serpent over God. The serpant twisted God's words just enough to make Eve doubt that God really had the best plan for her.

The enemy does the same thing today. He whispers little lies in our ears that twist the truth and capture our doubt making us captive to those lies that we've simply taken for granted. Lies like "I'm not strong enough, I'm not capable, No one will ever love me, I'm not beautiful, my plans will fail, I will never succeed in life..." All of thos lies began as a single thought, a single doubt that flashed quickly into our minds and never left. And we believe those lies because sometimes it's easier to believe them than to fight them. And we forget that we have a victory already. That we don't have to fear the evil one because he's already been defeated. Whatever he does to us today does not compare to what will happen to him in the future. His end is imminent. Jesus tells us in John 16:33 to "Be courageous! I have conquered the world" (HCSB) We are on the winning team. But we live as if we have already lost the battle. Why do we do that?

Last week in class, we discussed Hurricane Katrina in light of the questions that people have asked such as "How could God allow this to happen?" Yes, I believe God did allow it to happen, but he didn't incite it. It wasn't sent as a judgement on the city because of where the attack actually occurred. What did the Hurricane harm the most? It didn't hurt the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, nor the voodoo shops. Those were back up and running almost immediately. No, the affected areas were the poor, the helpless, and the Baptist Seminary. Those were the ones that the enemy really was after. He looks to where he can do the most damage, and Bourbon Street is doing plenty of damage to people on its own. He attacked those who were helpless because he was able to do the most damage. And when you think about it, compared to the devastation that was expected from the storm--I think 20,000 body bags were ordered--God must have intervened to prevent such devastation as that.

And God will continue to be glorified. Because He is God. His plan is beyond our comprehension, and He knows exactly what he's doing. There's a new song that's out, but I don't know who it's by. The chorus says "I don't want to box you in. You've been doing big things since the world began. Sometimes I just don't understand that you're big enough, you're big enough Jesus"

Who are we that we should tell the Lord of all creation how to run this world?