"The Devil Made Me Do It!"
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
You have doubtless heard the expression "The Devil Made Me Do It!" It's a convenient way to project guilt on someone or something else rather than accepting blame for one's own actions. This guilt-projection is as old as the human race: when Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam told God - "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." By this, he was casting blame on Eve... and on God. Then Eve told God - "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." So there it is: "The Devil Made Me Do It!"
Today we're not much more sophisticated: we say - "That's the way God made me!" or simply - "I was born that way!" But you must be careful to use the expression "Born That Way" to only refer to one of the protected species of victims in the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ alphabet soup, or else you'll be found guilty of hate speech. When asked how you identify your gender, you must not say - "I'm male (or female), I was born that way," or the thought police might arrest you!
By using these expressions in this way, post-moderns are not only projecting blame on God or nature, they are also switching the old value system for their new value system: a "transvaluation of values" by which evil becomes good, left becomes right, red becomes blue, darkness becomes light, and wrong becomes right. This is what Isaiah prophesied (5:20-21) - "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!"
This twisted trait in human nature manifests itself in people's refusal to repent and change their ways: when a morbidly obese person or a nicotine-addicted chain smoker is told by a health professional that they need to change their harmful habits, they will often say - "I can just look at food and I gain weight!" or "I can stop smoking any time, I'm just not ready yet!" Such is the power of compulsive-addictive behaviors over people, that they simply can't stop. So they will turn to one of these lame excuses instead... until they're dead.
This death is not always physical death, it is what the Bible describes as being "dead in your trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). Spiritual death is being unresponsive to God's Holy Spirit, being unwilling to repent and change our ways. "But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ" (Eph. 2:4-5). It takes a miracle from God, a movement of God's grace in our hearts, to become able to repent and change our ways.
Do you remember the vision that the prophet Ezekiel had about the valley full of dry bones? Here it is:
"The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, behold, they were very dry. He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered, Lord God, you know. Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and, behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone" (Ezekiel 37:1-7).
I believe we can apply this text to the condition of being spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins. We say to ourselves - "I can't do anything about it, that's just the way God made me!" Or we say - "I was born fat, I was a fat little kid, I was always fat and I'll always be fat." Similar excuses pop up for smoking, alcohol addiction, sexual addiction, and on and on.
"But God, being rich in mercy" can break down our excuses and change our thought patterns. The Lord can speak to our "dead bones" and cause a fresh breath to enter into us, and we shall live. God's grace is the saving and transforming energies of God that, like the rays of the sun, can radiate into our dead, dry bones and, like warm spring sunlight striking shriveled-up seeds, can cause them to come alive again.
When Jesus began His ministry, He went into a synagogue, took up the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and read - "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because Ne has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, And to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19).
Are you brokenhearted, discouraged and depressed, unable to do anything to change your lifestyle? Jesus proclaims release to the captives and deliverance to the crushed. Are you ready now to change, that is, to be changed? He is ready, willing and able to change you, if you are ready and willing to change!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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No doubt you remember the nursery story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" about the bears' porridge Goldilocks tasted. Well, I'd like to tell you the revised story of "Too Hot, Too Cold, or Just Right?" Ready?