faith

Advice: Stop Offering Satan Your Heart For Two Forgotten Reasons!

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
black and white heart illustration

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

He was trained and expected to emerge as a teen rock idol.

Then, he died in a sudden air crash at a young age. Over 40 years later, his music is still popular, resonating deeply with our hearts*. And he had shaggy hair, a groomed beard and bell bottoms, so we know we can trust him!

(I’m a closet Hippie, too. How can you tell? One of my teachers didn’t seem to know my real name and called me “Hippie Chick” for four years of high school.)

And that’s how you can know you can trust me, too, because therefore, I MUST be cool, too!

And now that I have established my authority as someone who is MORE COOL than you, I’m sure you will be waiting in anticipation for my next words!

Ahem . . .

You MIGHT want to stop worshipping Satan.

This suggestion is just an idea. See this post for the beginnings of this argument. Now, before you SLAM your laptop closed in indignation, asserting to me, “I would NEVER do that, Loser!” can I have your ear for two minutes so we can challenge each other for a moment?

There has been an alarming increase in people visiting exorcists in the last several years. An exorcist is someone “who expels or attempts to expel a supposed evil spirit from a person or place”. For example, as mentioned here, over the last several years both the Catholic and Protestant churches have noted an alarming increase in the number of reported demonic possessions.

People are more frequently looking for hope in the dark arts.

Why is this?

The musician mentioned earlier, Keith Green, gives us a hint in the lyrics of his song “No One Believes In Me Anymore (Satan’s Boast)”

I’m drawing people just like flies ‘cause they like what they hear

Keith Green said (and we can trust him, as noted above because of his nice hair – remember?) that we are looking for hope in the wrong places.

Also, his words align with those who are intimate with these sorts of issues.

For example, in The Exorcist Files, which is among the top podcasts overall on Apple, Father Carlos Martins explains that many seeking hope turn to Spiritists etc. because they desperately want something. Power, unusual strength, knowledge of the future, or sometimes things as joyful as the hope of having a baby drive people to open the door to satanic practices.

This deep hope is also called worship.

Worship is where we show “reverence” or “deep respect.” It’s where we turn to for hope for our spiritual, emotional or physical ailments. We dabble. We dip. We sacrifice just a bit.

We toss a coin in the wishing well of the dark arts, hoping our wish comes true. And what emerges from this innocent hope is sometimes a dark shape that is much stronger than we anticipated.

And then we need help.

And so many more are returning to the church, but not as we expected. Not as congregants wondering if worship on Sunday will offer their soul’s peace, but as those seeking to be rid of the dark art’s hold on them. Bummer.

It’s better to steer clear of that stuff.

I’m just suggesting.

My opinion.

Hello World text

Photo by KOBU Agency on Unsplash

My job is getting easier because no one believes in me anymore

Keith Green – No One Believes In Me Anymore (Satan’s Boast)

And so, the two forgotten reasons we should stop giving Satanism our hope?

  1. The stuff is real.
  2. Satanism will eventually consume you, friend, not set you free.

More on that next time.

God, we pray you give us the wisdom to steer clear of and open our eyes to any dangers of Satanism.

To learn from real people who have been set free from demonic possession, consider listening to The Exorcist Files. Stories are based on the real experiences of Father Carlos Martins.

If we want to feel scared at Hallowe’en, we might as well fear REAL stuff!

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

As the song below plays, ask God, “Am I seeking hope in the wrong direction? Where can true hope be found to help me with my very real problems?” Consider chatting openly about your thoughts with one who is trying to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

God is love . . . There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear.

The Message

Footnotes

*The music of Keith Green still comforts over 175,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, for example.

ADVICE: Worship A Good God Instead Of Foul Demons!

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
person holding pink flower
Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

So, I’ve been reading about becoming a successful and influential online figure that others look up to and admire.

Did I mention that yet?

Yesterday, I learned that we need to establish AUTHORITY that we KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON before we boss others around. “So THAT’S what I have been doing wrong!” I realized, slapping my head with this newfound wisdom. So today, I will ASSERT my AUTHORITY and EXPERTISE in the following sentence before I advise you:

I WAS VOTED ONE OF THE BEST DRESSED PEOPLE (!!) IN MY SMALL RED-NECKED HIGH SCHOOL SEVERAL DECADES AGO!!

And so, because of this obvious flair for fashion, you can now wholly trust me as I tell you about the cultural fashion trends I am currently observing!

As I sat in the new Mexican taco place last week, I was scratching my head and puzzling over the décor.

Why was this place decorated with skeletons and skulls?

The previous month, in another restaurant, when the 20-year-old kind waitress turned, her forearm flashed a skull tattoo. She didn’t look or sound like a terrifying “Hell’s Angel” motorbike member, cussing and starting fights. Or whatever scary biker guys do – I don’t happen to have any good friends who are active Hell’s Angels members, come to think of it!

Actually, there is one scary-looking biker guy who attends our church, but his heart is so kind and full of a desire to love like Jesus that I forgot he’s frightening.

a man in a santa hat holding a cat
Photo by Petrebels on Unsplash

Anyway, this young waitress had a kind smile and a genuine desire to see us be well served.

She just happened also to like skull tattoos. “Why did she like a skull tattoo so much that she wanted it engraved into her arm, never to come off?” I wondered, scratching my head, trying to figure out this new fad.

Now, as proven here I am a very cool person, and with only a BIT of imagination, I am even CLOSE to attainting the title of “Cool Surfer Dude!” At least, this is the case in my imagination. (Now – What is my editor yelling at me again for anyway? – And something about “Authenticity”? She’s a bother!)

We can all define ourselves the way we want, and I am definitely cool.

Anyway, since I am, as proven above, so VERY cool, you’ll want to sit down and listen to me when I talk about tattoo fashion trends and current decoration styles in the public space.

The only problem is, with this ONE vogue trend of demonic fashion decor, I have absolutely NO idea what is going on. (I’m SURE there are NO other cultural fashion trends for which I am confused – Rest assured!)

The point of this post?

We’ve tossed the church as the source of a beautiful gate leading to God’s heart. The gate has cobwebs, and the path beyond it seems dark and foreboding.  We have added stuff to Christ’s message so that The Way isn’t as brightly lit, especially in contrast to other paths that flash their bright neon lights and claim The Way to God. And so, people are gently turned away from the beautiful gate by the cultural forces of progress. “Travel here,” the dark shapes seduce us.

“Life comes from death”, they whisper, stroking our heads to keep us calm, like a parent to a small child.

It is true that life comes from death.

Unless a grain of wheat is . . . dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.

Jesus Christ, the guy 1/3 of the world claims to follow

We sense hints of the divine in the symbol of the life of a flower emerging from the skull of symbolic death, so we blindly walk in that direction.

And so, we allow ourselves to be steered down a path of partial truth, which has always been the path to the most destructive of lies.

There is a profound truth within this metaphor, but blindly embracing all demonic symbolism is a path leading in the wrong direction.

Wake up, friends!

Let the bathwater of unhealthy Christian culture wake you as we toss it in a panic. Ah! Let’s throw out everything that doesn’t reflect the love Jesus showed us as He washed His friends’ feet and hung on a cross! Let’s toss the dirty bathwater of some parts of Christian culture! And may many wake up by this water splashed in their faces as we toss it, friends.

But let’s keep the baby.

A virgin will get pregnant and bear a son; They will name him Immanuel (. . .for “God is with us”)

The Message

Let’s polish that beautiful gate and allow Christ to transform our hearts so they are bright enough, full enough of selfless love that our hearts on fire light the way for others to see the path to God, too.

But let’s stop turning to demons, friends, to show us the path to God.

Let’s worship God instead!

The reasons why we may want to worship a beautiful God who wants to set us free in joy instead of foul demons that will eventually devour us will be discussed in the next couple of posts!

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

The Truth About 3 Lies That Are Often Found Deep In Our Hearts -It’s Time To Toss Them

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
A man holding a stick on top of a sandy beach
Photo by Harsh Aryan on Unsplash

So I went to church the other day.

A kind fellow welcomed me by taking off his hat and bowing to me. Then he slapped me upside the head and told me that I had to believe a political ideology as well before they would welcome me into their church.

They’ll make a show of religion but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people.

The Message

I left the church and got into that church through another entrance because I knew how to look for another door. But many of you don’t. Many of you turn away, saddened, looking for another path to God.

“That path is not in the church,” many of us assert.

Have we replaced our primary sense of belonging . . .to [Jesus] . . . with politics…?

Christianity Today

So we stay home the following Sunday and watch TV or ask questions online, wondering, “Where is God?” Our hearts are stirred at night as God tries to wake us from spiritual slumber. We hear stories and wonder, “Maybe?” and then we are again distracted by our lunch and phone notifications.

But our hearts are a black hole that attracts the supernatural, often against our will or our reason.

Let’s dig deep down in our hearts today, friends, and see what we find deposited there in the depths. Like a vacuum attracting dust and debris, cultural beliefs swirl around in our hearts and sometimes settle there even though these ideas are simply filth, cluttering our minds. Instead, we need to find thoughts and questions that are food to fuel our spiritual journeys.

What we find often surprises us when we dig deep, deep down, hitting the depths of the heart.

Here’s some everyday clutter that we dig up and can inspect from all angles before DECIDING, with our MINDS, whether these ideas should be treasured in the depths of our hearts or thrown far, far away into the night, never to wake us again with their mischievous badgering. Sometimes, the wrong thoughts keep us awake at night. What do we toss, and what do we hold onto of the musings deep in our hearts, friend?

Here are several ideas:

  1. When we reach into our pants pocket, we pull out the plastic figurine of Jesus that we’ve carried all our lives. It’s time to toss him.
  2. When we reach into our other pants pocket, we pull out the counterfeit $20 bill we’ve also carried all our lives. This is our experience of church thus far and assumptions based on this experience. It’s time to toss it.
  3. Like the useful “Pensive” in the Harry Potter series, which allows the extraction of memories for in-depth study, we must also extract memories buried deep in our hearts. You also have a memory of another guy who slapped you upside the head, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, before offering you a seat in one of the pews at church. “No thanks,” you said, running from the building and locking the door behind you. It’s time to toss the key to the door you locked.

Why?

A counterfeit Jesus, counterfeit rules, and counterfeit beliefs POINT TO THE TRUTH THAT SOMEWHERE OUT THERE, THERE IS “THE REAL” OF EACH OF THESE THINGS.

No one counterfeits items that hold no value.

The fact that someone bothered to counterfeit these items hints at the truth that the accurate, authentic, valuable versions are out there somewhere.

Don’t turn away from your path to God just because someone slapped you upside the head a bit.

Find the other entrance.