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Is the following a mere assertion to you? I say,

Either we’re Christians or we jump on bandwagons.

In my experience, we either take a stand for Christ or we remain neutral toward whatever people might suggest to us. Imagine someone, let’s say a worldly person, approaches you by presenting a hair-raising conspiracy theory to you. Actually, that happened to me two times lately. One person was convinced that her child had become severely sick due to kerosene emission by aircraft… 🙄 Conclusion: this person finally found someone on the internet who not only sold grossly overpriced (and overdosed!) dietary supplement, but who also offered bloodcurdling nonsense to prove his theory. Since no doctor could help her in the past, as she said, yet this person on the net eventually could, she now seems to take everything this man utters at face value. Sigh.

The other person confronted me with something that really made me shudder with disgust. How much has Satan blinded this world? To its fullest as it seems. What she suggested was that… [I know that many of my readers are Americans, therefore it is even more for me difficult to repeat such far-fetched and mindless drivel] … she said that she would believe that the Americans themselves had caused nine eleven. Shock!! I told her that this was obviously a conspiracy theory. Then she got upset with me and added that more and more people would believe this today. These ‘facts’ had been presented in a documentary on TV and this ‘truth’ could be read in various places on the internet as well.

Actually, does that imply that the more people believe something, the truer it gets? I am afraid, the opposite is true at times. Once again, the internet seems to be trusted by many who, with all due respect, cannot discern the spirits as they do not know God, either. It is not their fault, though! But it is saddening for me to see how Satan can use social media, websites and blogs in order to manipulate people in any way possible. 😦 What do you think about the following quote from the Puritan Thomas Brooks who wrote the book ’Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices’. He said,

Satan loves to sail with the wind, and to suit men’s temptations to their conditions and inclinations. If they be in prosperity, he will tempt them to deny God (Proverbs 30:9); if they be in adversity, he will tempt them to distrust God; if their knowledge be weak, he will tempt them to have low thoughts of God; if their conscience be tender, he will tempt to scrupulosity; if large, to carnal security; if bold-spirited, he will tempt to presumption; if timorous, to desperation; if flexible, to inconstancy; if stiff, to impenitency.

https://www.challies.com/reading-classics-together/satan-loves-to-sail-with-the-wind/

(I found the quote above on Tim Challies’ blog.)

Note: Thomas Brooks described the way Satan continuously tries to lead Christians with their individual personalities away from the Lord and from the truth that can only be found by knowing Him in a very personal way. However, what about non-Christians who do not try to please God due to a lack of personal knowledge? 🙄 In fact, Satan can do with them as he pleases since they who do not follow Jesus are still in darkness (cf. Jn 8:12) and “[t]he one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.” (Jn 12:35 ESV)  Even if you find some nice and friendly worldly people, often confused with Christians as they might be churchgoers, too, if they do not have Christ’s Spirit INSIDE (!) them, they do not belong to Him (see Rom 8:9). Period.

Therefore, if we do not want to be ruled by other spirits than Christ’s, we must be cautious to never submit to these spirits approaching us almost every day (the frequency depends on how often we have to do with other people). Finally, how can it happen that we, unknowingly, submit to these false spirits then? It simply happens if we want to please these people more than Christ. Then we won’t draw the line which would be most essential in these cases. Brothers and sisters, I do know how hard it is to let people alone and to go back to Christ by obeying Him. But if we obey, being blessed by His presence is worth it all!  ❤

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1: 1-6 ESV)

All images were taken in the City of Nürnberg (Nuremberg) © 2018 Susanne Schuberth