Are Christians Automatically Protected From Evil?

Earlier this week someone from the Bible study that I lead each Wednesday sent me a question. I felt like it was "blogworthy" so I've decided to post the question and my response.

Hey there.. I have a Bible question for you. I've heard it said (not sure if it's Biblical or not), that nothing comes to us except by God... meaning that even the devil can't really touch us unless God allows... Hmm, just had a different question come to mind..
If the devil can't touch us unless as a child of God, God allows it, like Job, can the devil instead, affect others that are not of God's children to then have an effect on us? Thereby, "skirting" the issue? Is this "Spiritual warfare"? Thanks for your thoughts

This is quite the complex question. At the root of what I believe about God and His character, which is love, I think it boils down to free will. God has always created and given free will to his created beings. This includes angels, of whom Satan was one at one time. This leaves us open to what I see as oppression or attack from an evil source. I believe that possession happens to those willing to dabble with and openly communicate with evil spirits, i.e. demons. Thus their heart is open to being overwhelmed by evil.

The bigger question might be "Why doesn't God step in, when one of his believing creations are being attacked spiritually or physically?" That is a question which is extremely tough to figure out an answer for.

I was reading through a book that referenced scripture from Luke 4:38,39 addressing this very idea.  

"Jesus ministered to Simon's mother-in-law, who was afflicted with a high fever. The text says Jesus rebuked the fever. Interestingly, Luke used the exact same word in verse 35 to describe Christ's response to a man afflicted with an evil spirit. Luke, the observant physician, is not saying that every fever is caused by an evil spirit, but this one was. In our fallen world, the stuff of hell sometimes gets splattered on us. Simon's mother-in-law obviously was a godly woman, because as soon as she was released from the fever she got up at once and began to serve her house guests. But in spite of her godliness, she was being affected by a demonic spirit, and Jesus dealt with the situation."

I've dealt with real spiritual warfare and I can tell you that it's a scary thing to see and experience. I think it can be easy to get distracted by (and that's the devil's goal) evil in this world so much that we begin to doubt God because we're hurt or in the midst of suffering. It's only once He's pulled us through that circumstance(when we allow Him to do this), that we see He was there all along and fully in control of the situation.

Update.... A Long Time Coming

Hello.

It's been quite a LONG time since I've taken time to add to this blog. I honestly had kind of forgotten about it actually being here until I was recently asked to do an interview for another online blogger. Her name is Angela Strong. She's a local author and a fellow divorcee'. Her blog is called "Moving on after he's moved out". For the most part it's written from a female's point of view describing her healing process from a divorce that was not of her choosing. 

I met Angela and her (now husband) Jim at a singles BBQ a while back. The BBQ was filled with many who were in their 30's and a majority of us were single due to divorce. At that time I had only been divorced for about a year, so the wounds were still pretty fresh. Fast forward to now. 

In May it will have been 4 years since my wife left me. (A brief synopsis of what occurred can be found in the interview that Angela did with me for her blog, http://angelaruthstrong.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-john-shaul.html ) It has been at times a pretty bumpy ride with LOTS of lessons learned. I by no means have come out unscathed, but throughout each step of the journey, God has guided me and "realigned" along the way. 

I am still "Clinging To The Rock", in ways that I'd never expect to be. I have found new strength and resolve in this stage of my life, knowing that God does and will point me towards that woman who will be "the right one". I no longer believe in the Hollywood farce that says that we each have a "soul mate", but I do believe that God has built us each with unique characteristics, talents, strengths, and weaknesses, and when the right combination of those things comes together, you can and will have a successful marriage and a committed lifelong relationship. 

I no longer dwell in what "didn't become" of my past wrecked dreams, but now I strive on towards the whisper of God's voice, guiding me towards His will and His design for my life, knowing that in trusting Him, rather than feeding my own desires, I will find a life that is fulfilling and full of promise.

Breakfast With A Stranger

Okay... so this is probably the first blog entry I've created in months, but what happened today over breakfast seemed be enough of an event to motivate me to let out some creativity. So here goes...


So at first today seemed like a typical Saturday. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I'm not really much of a list maker or "planner" when it comes to my weekends, let alone much of the rest of my regular routine throughout the week. I had a few things that I wanted to accomplished before I headed over to help move a large piece of furniture at my parent's place at around noon. So I popped some clothes in the washing machine, grabbed my Dad's palm sander (which I had borrowed months ago) to return to him for a project that he needed it for at their place, and headed over to my favorite local restaurant in Nampa. The LeBaron's Honker. 


If you're local to the Nampa area, and you haven't eaten there, you've at least heard of the place. It's a "Mom & Pop" restaurant, that has, in my humble opinion, the best breakfast and THE best restaurant coffee in the valley. I honestly can and often do, drink it by the pot-full.


As I drove down 2nd Street approaching Honkers, I was blessed with the luck of getting a parking space right in front of the place. Although, this was a stroke of luck, finding a place to sit my hungry self down to eat, would prove to be a much harder task. I opened the front door to find the place quite busy and loud. The clanging of dishes and silverware filled the room and giving heed to my ears that the place was busier that normal. As I surveyed the main room, I was not able to see a comfortable place for a "party of one" to sit and enjoy breakfast at 10 am. I meandered over to the banquet hall room only to find more of the same sort of environment. 


After returning to the entry way, I glanced at the large sign that greets you as you enter. It reads "Feel free to seat yourself". I thought to myself "I wish....". But of course, this was not going to be a possibility at this moment in time. Being that this was the case, I pulled out my smart phone and decided to waste a few minutes surfing the net, checking email, and looking over my various friend's Facebook status'. I glanced up every once in a while to see if a seat might have magically opened up while I had my nose in my phone ignoring the world around me. But every time I looked up, the scenery had failed to change. The booths around the edges as well as the tables that filled the center of the room were still occupied.


I struck up a conversation with a small group who had just come in. I made the comment that "It's probably going to be easier for you guys to find a seat than it will be for me being by myself". They chuckled and then their daughter pointed out that it looked like there was an open seat over at the bar. To my surprise, there surely was an open seat. I immediately wound my way through the tables in the middle of the room towards the bar. As I got close to the bar, I politely asked a lady who looked to be in her middle 30's if the seat next to her was open. She dashed my hopes by stating that it wasn't and that her husband would be returning. "Darn it" I thought to myself. Now I had to do an about face and return back to the entryway to retain my spot and wait again. 


As I headed back to the door. I looked to my right and saw an elderly woman, probably in her 80's sitting by herself. She had her face down, intently devouring a plate of hash browns, with ham and eggs. For a split second I debated as to whether I should keep walking or be brave and ask her if I could sit there with her. My impending hunger and growling stomach helped me make this decision pretty quickly. I approached her gingerly and asked her if I could take a seat. She responded "What!?". From her response, I could tell that she was having trouble hearing me, either due to her age, or just the loud sound level in the restaurant. So I repeated myself, but this time a little louder. "Is this seat taken? Do you mind if I join you?" To this, she responded, "No, no, go ahead".


So I sat down. She was already at least half way through her breakfast. I took off my jacket, hung it over the back of my chair and took a seat. The waitress plopped a menu in front of me and asked me quickly if I'd like anything to drink to get me started. I affirmed that I'd "love to have some coffee, thanks." As she left our table, I pulled out my phone again and decided to check back in online and not bother the kind lady who had allowed me to step away from the "starving lobby/entryway" and join her with the rest of the satisfied eaters in the restaurant.


I began looking over some things on Facebook


You see, I'm really big on local history, especially in regards to my hometown and the establishments in the surrounding areas. As the conversation continued to develop, Janice (as she eventually gave me her name) told me about the struggles that her granddaughter had encountered in her life. She told me about how she'd come from a divorced family, a verbally abusive mother from a non-Christian faith, and so on and so on. 


But then she started sharing a story line that was eerily similar to mine. She shared about how God had opened the doors for her granddaughter to be able to go to the Christian university of her choice. About how the Lord had, in her granddaughter's elementary years, provided protection over her and even helped lead her and her granddaughter to find the church in which they now attend and feel at home in.


I was realizing as Janice shared, that the story that she was sharing. The providence that had been given to her, and her granddaughter, was the same love that God has poured out over me. Over and over again, He's provided miracles and gifts to me when I least expected them, and at times when I've directly prayed for them. But over and over again, I've forgotten those gifts, those miracles, those "aha moments" of seeing a glimpse of the love of my Heavenly Father.


As Janice, continued to share, this stranger, this woman who seemed to have looked so lonely and depressed, and a bit disheveled, honestly began to glow with so much joy and radiance in her voice and on her face that you could truly see the love of Jesus just overflowing in her heart. In response to this, I began to really have a sense that today was not just a "regular Saturday". I believe that today's moment at the restaurant was a moment that God had scheduled for me. It wasn't church. It wasn't a Bible study. It wasn't a course in theology. It was just a real moment of sharing with a fellow believer, our testimonies about our loving Heavenly Father and how He has provided for us.


I look forward to experiencing what I did today sometime soon..... 

Trusting God.... Or Pleasing God?

"Many are plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21)

I read this verse today and I feel that this is exactly where I'm at in life right now. Questioning. Wondering. Pondering. "What IS God's will for my life, and where is the next step or decision that I need to take or make in order to realize if I'm actually in the middle of it?"  


This week is the 2 year mark since I was laid off from my job. I then returned to school, finished my degree in the fall semester of 2008 and graduated in the Spring of 2009. My hopes and plans were to, continue to follow my calling and find a full time job in ministry as a music pastor. . . somewhere.

Since then, the economy's taken a nose dive and I've been in the unemployment line. Financially scraping by. Hoping beyond hope that God will open that door and lead me in the direction that He wants me to be in. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had to endure an emergency appendectomy. Along the way though, I've had a few glimmers of joy, love, relationships, & opportunities for involvement with great musicians who've all become really good friends to me. I've even seen some growth in my striving to somehow "touch God" or at least feel His presence on a regular basis. But I have to say, through the ups and downs of this journey, the last 2 months have indeed been the hardest so far.


And believe me, throughout this process, I've probably heard just about every cliche in the book when it comes to life struggles in regard to my situation. "Keep focused on God, He'll provide a way", "God helps those who help themselves", "God works though it all... the good and the bad..." and many more that I can't think of at this time. I often tried to keep myself motivated too by thinking upon the same lines... "Just keep persevering John, God will open the door for you.", "Maybe God's kept you away from those jobs that you've applied for, for a reason?", "There's no coincidences with God... there's got to be a reason for why you haven't gotten a job yet..."  But all I've heard through the last couple of months is . . . *crickets* . . . Whew.... It's quite taxing on the old emotional system, that's for sure. Silence can be golden, but when you're striving for some kind of response from God. . . it can be DEAFENING!


But... there is a bright side. Thankfully God does continue to speak. Be it through His word, the Bible, or through others, especially close friends, in ways that I often don't expect. It just doesn't always happen everyday for me. Am I weird for admitting this?


I haven't ever really written about it openly, but the truth is, I do know that I deal with depression and self esteem issues. Most of which has been impacted or inflicted from outward sources. Over time, the Lord is continuing to heal me of it, and I know that one day I will be free of the clouds of depression that seem to cycle through and often hit me like a hurricane, when I least expect it. Thankfully, I know Who's in control and Who will provide the rainbow of hope that I need in order to survive these moments.


This past week I was able to watch an incredible sermon entitled "The Room of Good Intentions" by John Lynch. This message struck me at the core. In this sermon illustration, John describes two paths that lead to two rooms that he encounters in Heaven. One path is the path of "pleasing God" and the other is the path of "trusting God". First he chooses the path of "pleasing God". Upon entering the room at the end, he realizes that everyone is wearing masks and everyone is "fine" when they're asked how they're doing. He soon realizes that this is not the room that he wants to be in. He decides after some debating to leave and meander to the path of "trusting God". In this room he finds people who are open and honest about their brokenness, their fears, their sin life, etc... This of course, is a room filled with people touched by God's grace. 


In this brief clip, John succinctly wraps up his sermon with an illustration that really spoke to me about how I've been trying so hard to "please God" and failing miserably at it. When the all powerful Father in Heaven, already knows exactly who I am and what He wants for me. All I have to do is merely have faith and trust Him. I hope it blesses you as much as it did me.

The "What If's"

 I hate the what if's in life. But nonetheless they still creep in from time to time. I know that God is bigger than any problem or circumstance that we face in life, but my humanity can only see so far down the road. I guess that in situations like this, it's faith that has to overcome all the "what if's". Some common ones that have come up in my life have been: "What if I never fall in love again & if I do, will I get hurt again?", or "What if I never get the job that I want?", which is usually followed up by a numerous amount of questions about finances, and bills, and my monstrous student loans that are waiting to be paid. Almost all of these questions are rooted in the fear of the unknown. 

Even though I've been following the Lord for quite some time now, and no longer consider myself to be a "baby Christian", I still have worries and fears that tend overtake me from time to time. I have to be honest with you, that I am a very tenderhearted person. It really doesn't take much for me to tear up and wear my emotions on my sleeve. Some people aren't able to understand why others can become emotional and they shrug it off as a weakness. But over the years I've learned to embrace this feature and how God has instilled it in me. This ability to be real doesn't come without it's costs though. I look at it as a way that the Lord has given me to release the stress and worry that I've allowed to well up in me.... sometimes for way too long. I think that's the struggle that we as men have. We are taught to be strong and never show our weaknesses. We often are taught that tears are a sign of femininity, and therefore should be something that we as men aren't supposed to do or show to others.

I, on the other hand, have realized tears, as one person told me a while ago "Tears are a gift from God to wash our eyes so that we can see His world anew." So yes, as you might be able to tell from this post, I've been having some tearful and fearful moments as of late. Details of which I don't choose to go into at this time, but thankfully my Lord, my Comforter, my Prince of peace, is there to continually give me hope for the next day and strength to get through whatever "what if's" might come my way.

Shalom & Blessings to you.

Blotting Out The Ink

         As I arrived home tonight from men's group, I opened the front door and was greeted by the normal frenzied welcome from my two dogs, Sahera and Gobi. I made my way through the entry and locked the door behind me, and as usual shuffled my way past the dogs and took off my coat. It's become a habit for me to, first thing, check the normal areas where my puppy Gobi may or may not have made a "mistake" while I was gone, and prepare to clean it up. He's pretty much house broken, but 4 hours, as I've learned is his breaking point. As I made way towards the kitchen, I noticed small, irregular patches of something black on the floor. I reached down and dabbed a part of one of the smudges with my index finger in order to examine it's contents a little more close up. Initially, I couldn't quite figure out what the substance was. It was greasy, and thankfully, it wasn't feces. So I followed the trail. It meandered through the kitchen, into the dining room, around the table and chairs, and then back out to the kitchen again. But it still didn't lead me to the source of this mysterious black substance. I took a look closer towards where the linoleum met the carpet of the living room area. It was there that the trail resumed. As I rounded the corner of the couch, I saw, with much horror, the culprit of the substance. There, Gobi, had returned to the scene of the crime. Near his now cowering head, lay a munched up, Uniball, waterproof, fade proof, black, ink pen! The cap still attached, with the opposite end completely destroyed and it's contents spilled all over the carpet.

         Before I go on, I must let you in on part of Gobi's personality. You see, he has a liking, no... a love.... no.... an infatuation, with anything made of plastic! If it's left where he can get it, he WILL chew it up. Some of the long list of things he's chewed up consist of, remote controls, contact lens eye drop bottles, tubes of chapstick, hangers... Well, you get the point. The boy loves the feel of plastic between his young canine teeth.

         Well, back to the ink situation. I immediately kenneled both dogs. "Why were they not in the kennel the first place?" you might ask. Well, it's too long of story, but lets just say that Gobi is an escape artist, and I've yet had the chance to reinforce his new kennel to make it "Gobi/Houdini-proof".

         I then set about to pooling my cleaning tools and supplies and started picking up all the ink that had been soaking into the carpet. Thank the Lord for the Bissel "Little Green Machine"!. After pre-treating the stains and going through 2 tanks of detergent, followed by mopping up the linoleum, the stains were no more. It was as if Gobi hadn't committed the heinous crime to begin with. I freed them from their kennel and showed him the unconditional love that he expected from me.

         Isn't that how the Lord through His infinite grace and mercy treats us? I once heard those two terms described this way: "Grace is getting what we don't deserve, and mercy is not getting what we do." Often, when people do things in our lives that hurt, offend, or merely just catch us off guard, we tend to react in ways that are not Christ-like and in fact are basically just out of immediate human reaction without thinking. We are called to be Christ to this world. We are called to act lovingly and show grace and mercy to those who have made mistakes in their lives. In doing so, we can be beacons of Christ's light and guide them to Him. Some of them already know Him, and those are the ones that we sometimes find it hardest to forgive and let back into our lives. Have you received grace and mercy from the Lord? Have you received them from others? Are you ready to reflect the unconditional love of the Savior to His world?

Luke 7:44-48

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

 ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 

Time Alone With God

The following is a journal entry from back on June 19th of 2009 that I felt led to share once again today.


Today, I took the extra time that I had available, since I wasn't wasting it in front of the TV, and decided to head out to a local park that I had heard about, but had never actually visited all the years that I've grown up in Caldwell. It's called Curtis Park. It's a very natural park. It's not one of those that's just down the street. It's not well groomed with manicured grass or a fancy playground for the children. Instead it's more.... well.... rustic?

You have to take a winding dirt road to get to it, but once you walk past the gate and a little further down another stretch of dirt road, you are able to see and sense that there is indeed such a peaceful presence there. As you enter the park, there is a swing set, but not anything fancy. Just two single, and very plain rubber swings attached by chains, to a large "T" shaped, welded structure.

Throughout the central part of the park are various, over-sized cement culverts or pipes that have been converted into bonfire pits. Near each of these bonfire pits are some old, weather beaten and rusted iron barbecue grills that have definitely seen their share of cookouts from years gone by.

As I ventured across the park and made my way to the right, I noticed a peculiar wooden sidewalk that seemed to meander away and through the trees. This intrigued me. The child inside me has always been a curious one, so I decided to go exploring. I called out to my dog Sahera, who by this time had already began to do some exploring of her own. As I stepped onto the weathered planks, you could hear the "creeeeek" of wood that had experienced many years of storms and times of sunshine, which indefinitely had brought it to it's current state of being.  Sahera ran on along ahead of me, often trying to take side trips into the bushes and wildflowers that lined various sections of this wildlife trail and wooden sidewalk of sorts.

All along the way, I stopped to take digital photographs to remind myself of the beauty that I was able to experience on this day. It seemed that with every twist and turn, something else would catch my eye, or ... my ear. If it had not been for the wind, I'm sure that all I would've been able to hear would've been the birds chirping or the insects pouncing from plant to plant. But today, the wind was blowing, so there was at times, quite a thunderous clapping coming from the leaves above. It was almost as if, the very trees were shouting God's praises.

You know, it says in the Bible, that if we fail to praise God, then even "the rocks will cry out". Today, I heard and saw God's creation echoing His much deserved praise for the great Creator that He is. May we not waste another moment to reflect back to God, at least . . . AT LEAST... a portion of the grace and love that He gives us daily.

Amen...