I did not receive a question from any of our readers this week, so I decided to share a personal burden of mine and pose a question for all of us to consider together: What is happening to our community?
Over the past several weeks, I have been deeply grieved by the things which have been making it onto the front page of our local newspaper.
Please know that I do not in any way fault the reporters or the editors of our paper for these headlines because they only compile the news as it comes to them. We the people are the ones who actually make the news.
Consider, first of all, the subject matter of some of these headlines: Summoning ghosts, a drug paraphernalia shop, a new tattoo parlor, etc.
Think also of some of the images which accompanied these headlines: A man gazing into the dark unknown, paranormal energy indicators, a marijuana leaf banner, a strange spectre with an inverted cross hanging around his neck, etc.
Am I the only one in our community who perceives that the kingdom of darkness has a serious stronghold in our community? Am I the only one who still believes that necromancy, drugs, and tattooing are forbidden by God in scripture? Am I the only one who even cares?
Anticipating that many might be tempted to reject my concerns as nothing but the fanatical rantings of an out-of-touch preacher, let me here share with you that I myself spent many years walking in darkness before I became a Christian.
I too summoned familiar spirits, pursued altered states of consciousness through the use of drugs, wore an inverted cross around my neck, and still have plenty of tattoos to prove that I was a slave of Satan and a servant of fleshly lusts.
You will never, therefore, convince me that all the things we have been reading about are harmless because I still bear in my body the scars which remind me otherwise on a daily basis.
Back to my initial question: What is happening to our community? The answer is SIN.
Each and every one of us was conceived and born into an estate of sin. Each an every one of us have also grown up to love our sin and to live comfortably enough in it.
We have a deeper problem that, however, and the scriptures describe it quite plainly: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.” (1 John 3:8a)
Yes – The devil is very real, the whole world is currently under his sway, and he stalks about in this world daily; seeking whom he may deceive and destroy.
Lest any of our readers despair at Satan’s presence and power in our community, let me also share with you the rest of the verse: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8b)
I am writing this article not only to alert you to the devil’s increased activity and influence in our community, but also to invite you to be delivered from his kingdom of darkness and death.
Repent of your sin, confess Jesus Christ as Lord, be baptized in his name, and you will be transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the light of God’s love.
If you would like to talk about any of the things I have here written, please feel free to call me at home anytime. There is nothing you can say that will surprise or scare me. As people say, “I’ve been there and done that.”
But I’m not there any more and you don’t have to be either. My number is 524-5856.
– Christian McShaffrey Citizen of Reedsburg, WI