Saturday, January 22, 2022

A CRUSHED ENEMY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Romans 16:20

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Evil is alive and well in our world. You only need to watch the news to see it because just in case you haven’t noticed, the media seems obsessed with glorifying wickedness and there seems to be no limits. No matter how horrific a person has been violated, injured, or killed, you’ll find news cameras rushing to the scene so the story can run on television or online as soon as possible.

And so the picture painted is that we live in a dark world full of darkness and danger. It’s more the norm than the exception and there’s little good news, little light to overcome the darkness.

This is just the way Satan wants it to be.

Friends, God gave us His Son, Jesus, for a reason...so we can know the truth and that truth can set us free (John 8:32), free from deception and free from fear. He sent His Son to be the Light of the world, the light that darkness can never overcome (John 1:5). Anyone who follows Jesus and places their trust in Him walks in the light, even when life brings a person into the shadow of the valley of death (Psalm 23:4). He protects us and helps us ward off the attacks of our enemy Satan and as we see in our single verse of hope today, one day Jesus is going to eradicate Satan altogether. The great instigator of malice will be crushed by God’s Son. Here’s how Revelation paints that picture:

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city He loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Revelation 20:1-10

What do we learn here?

Satan has no power over our Lord. None.

He is as subservient as anyone else and will fully experience the wrath of God’s judgment. He will be captured and shackled for 1,000 years and then set free so he can be formally defeated and the first to be cast into eternal damnation and torment followed by anyone whose name is not found in the book of life (Revelation 20:11-15).

In other words, Satan will become our crushed enemy.

Now, those whose names were written in the book of life, all those who believed in Jesus as Savior, will ascend with Jesus to inhabit the new heaven and new earth. They will rise up while Satan is cast down, defeated, and condemned to Hell forever. And this shows us that there are only one of two final outcomes for us in life after this worldly life is over.

We will either live eternally in light and love and free from affliction with the God of peace and His Son Jesus, our Savior.

or

We will live with our enemy Satan in Hell in everlasting damnation and suffering.

Where do you stand today?

Are you in a place where you too will be crushed by God, an enemy of His because you rejected His offer of salvation through His Son?

Or are you in a place of victory, knowing your eternal place in the kingdom of God is secure because you chose to believe in Jesus as your personal Savior?

My prayer is that you are in the latter place but if it’s the former, today is the day you can change your life forever. My encouragement to you is to come to Jesus, surrender your life to Him and walk in His light, now and forever more.

You’ll never regret that you did.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

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