Christians in a Hostile World

By Aaron Finley

Often times as Christians living in a hostile world we make the mistake of only talking about the joyful and happy things. The only thing we hear about is God's love and the happy things from the Gospel with out talking about the hardships of life or God's judgment. Not that we shouldn't focus our hearts on good and godly things, but to ignore the things around us in this world opens us up for spiritual attack. By not acknowledging the difficulties around us we can easily become snared in the traps satan has set and end up turning away from God.

In this world it is easy to get off course and start going down the wrong path. Ungodly things are all around us. Satan uses lots of things to trick us. TV, movies, music, books, magazines, the internet, and even people can lead us away from God. We justify them in our minds, saying "I can handle it" or "it won't effect me". It is difficult to reject the things of this world, especially when they are really popular. We see the rest of society reading a book or going to a movie and we think, well if everyone else doesn't see anything wrong with it then it must be fine. Those can be some of the most dangerous things. Take the time to carefully look at these things and think what God really thinks about it. You can even ask him, he will tell you. This is also why it is so important to study God's Word. If you know what his Word says, most things in this world will be obvious if they are right or wrong. In Galatians it says...

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Paul seems very clear in his letter to the Galatians what traps they are to watch out for. Even though this is clear and we may admit that these things are wrong, we some how make exceptions in our mind and think that "this is different" or "a little bit won't hurt". Be very cautious about those kind of thoughts. That is how the enemy gets us started down the wrong path. Still, we think it can't happen to us. Let me assure you that some very "good people" have been lead astray.

One area that seems to be a big trap today is the seduction of the occult. When the word occult is used, visions of some satanic ritual is thought of. This isn't necessarily the case. The enemy can be much more subtle than that. Witchcraft, mediums, fortunetellers and other ungodly supernatural things have become center stage and of much interest to our society. It talks about these things in Deuteronomy.

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

Most of us would say that child sacrifice is wrong, but look what God put right up next to it. We sometimes think that it is just in good fun and nothing is going to happen, but truly we are inviting the forces of darkness into our lives. These things should not be in our lives in any form. The less ground that we let the enemy take in our lives, the less we have to take back. Movies, books, TV shows, etc. may not immediately pull us away from God totally, but they are a door that leads down a dark stair case. Each step leads us further away from God and you never know when you are going to land on a slippery step that will take us down in a hurry.

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