Category: Satans Schemes

Takeaways from the Book of Job-

Lisa M. PriceLeave a comment

Despite all this, Job did not sin, nor did he blame God- Job 1:22 NASB

NO ONE actually LOVES the book of Job. 

There are those who wax eloquent about the literary merits of the book. However, when pressed, even those folks admit there is little to love about the actual story. It’s just kind of sad. 

It goes like this: 

There’s this really awesome guy named Job. Job does all the right things. He loves God and his family. Job shuns evil and is honest. Job worries about the spiritual condition of his kids and does his level best to be an all-around stand-up guy in every area of his life (Job 1:1-5, Job 1:8). 

God digs him.

Then one day, out of the blue, Satan rolls up uninvited to what appears to be some sort of an angelic roll call (Job 1:6).  Satan informs God he’s been roaming the earth looking for decent people he can accuse of evil (Revelation 12:10). God proudly points to Job as an outstanding example of humanity. Satan immediately accuses Job of only loving God because God has blessed Job with all sorts of good things (wealth, property, good health, a great family). God tells Satan Job’s love for Him is genuine. 

God and Satan make a deal.

God tells Satan he can take everything from Job except his life (Job 1:12). Satan gets the job done in short order. Job loses his wealth, his health, his home, and even his kids all in the course of a few hours. The only thing Satan doesn’t take is Job’s wife, which is kind of a bummer because she’s not exactly supportive. The most encouraging thing she does in the whole book is to tell Job to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9). Then Job’s friends, (the worst friends ever) show up to “comfort” Job.  They accuse Job of all sorts of secret sins and give him oodles of misguided advice. Then, just when you begin to think they are never going to stop harassing poor Job, God shows up and sets everyone straight.  (Job 38-41, Job 42:7-9). 

The story does have a happy-ish ending

God restores Job’s fortune; his family shows up to comfort him and in time, Job is blessed with seven sons and three (really pretty) daughters. Job lives a long life and he continues to be an upstanding guy who pleases God (Job 42:10-17).  

It’s good stuff. 

Nonetheless, (in my opinion) the happy ending is obfuscated by the utter gloominess of the account.  All that being said, Job’s story is in the Bible because there is much we can learn from it (2nd Timothy 3:16). The book has value whether we are going through something terrible or helping someone who is. Following are six take-aways from the book of Job:

There’s more to our trials than just pain- 

Job teaches that all trials serve some sort of a purpose. Normally, the purpose goes beyond proving the devil wrong about something. God uses trials to teach us and mold us into the image of Jesus. We get the most out of a trial when we choose to keep our hearts soft towards God and continue to seek Him in the middle of our pain and confusion (Job 1:22, 1st Peter 1:3-7, James 1:2-4). We need to understand, like Job did, that the point of this life is to prepare us to spend eternity with God and sometimes trials bring about that end (Job 19:25-26). 

Not all truth applies to every person or situation-  

Job’s friends were jerks (Job 42:7-9). Nonetheless, they were not wrong about every single thing they said, they were actually right about a lot of things. However, none of what they were right about applied directly to Job (Proverbs 18:13, Proverbs 18:17) They were convinced God must be punishing Job for SOMETHING. Nonetheless, Job was one-hundred-percent blameless. The book of Job teaches the importance of truly understanding all the particulars of a situation before we make judgments about the people involved (Proverbs 18:21).  

Sometimes it’s better to listen rather than speak-

Job’s friends made a mistake most people make at some point: they were quick to share their “wisdom” without hearing what was being said or understanding the particulars of the situation. When someone is hurting sometimes all they need is to feel understood (James 1:19, Proverbs 13:3, Proverbs 20:12). Once a person feels heard and cared for they will be more willing to hear and apply any advice that should be given.

God doesn’t always give answers but He’s still good-  

Job had a lot of (really good) questions for God and God never answered a single one of them.  Zilch. Zero. Nada. This does not mean God didn’t love Job or care about what he was going through. The book clearly teaches that God loved Job and blessed him for his faith and obedience in spite of some pretty gnarly circumstances. He does the same for us. 

Praying for the jerks who hurt us pleases God-

It just does. Job 42:10 proves it. The second Job got done praying for his awful friends God blessed Job with twice what he had before. God hasn’t changed. He still loves it when we pray for awful people who don’t deserve our prayers.  

And finally:

We should assume that our faith-filled response to pain is all God really wants from us when the very foundations of our lives are shaken (Psalm 16:8, Psalm 112:6, Hebrews 12:28). Job teaches that God richly rewards those who praise Him in the midst of the storms of life (Job1:21). God loves faith (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 9:20-22, Luke 17:6) and there is no greater expression of faith than choosing to praise, honor and glorify God when there appears to be zero reason to do so.

Understanding Satan’s most Effective Schemes-

Lisa M. PriceLeave a comment

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes- Ephesians 6:10-11 NIV

At some point in their spiritual journey Christians have to face the fact that for followers of Jesus this life will never be all sunshine, daisy chains and good vibes (John 16:33).

This is because we live in a world at war (John 10:10, Job 1:1-22, Luke 22:31, Ephesians 6:10-13, 1st Timothy 1:18-19).  

We have a very real enemy who wants to destroy us spiritually, morally and psychologically (1st Peter 5:8), doing so takes him a long way towards his ultimate goal of rendering as many Christians as possible ineffective at glorifying God and leading others to Jesus.   

 Thankfully, followers of Jesus sit squarely on the winning side of this war (Revelation 20:10). Nonetheless, ultimate victory does not exempt us from battle in the here and now (Philippians 2:25, 2nd Timothy 2:3-4, Philemon 1:2). The good news is that God has given us every weapon we need to be victorious. Our success is guaranteed if we learn how to use those weapons properly (Ephesians 6:13-18, 2nd Corinthians 10:3). 

One of the most powerful weapons we have in our arsenal is the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, Ephesians 6:18). Jesus calls the Holy Spirit our guide (John 15:26). A healthy connection to the Holy Spirit will give us spiritual eyes to see through the schemes and tactics of the enemy (2nd Corinthians 2:11, Ephesians 6:11). When we understand our enemy, we are far less likely to become collateral damage in the battle (Hebrews 12:1). 

We underestimate Satan’s craftiness at our own peril. That being said, he is not a particularly inventive creature. As a result, he tends to use the same strategies over and over again. If we learn to recognize those strategies the Bible calls his “schemes” that knowledge will empower us to live every area of our lives victoriously and lead others to faith in Jesus (2nd Corinthians 2:11).  

It quickly becomes a win win for team Jesus. 

Satan’s favorite schemes are as follows: 

The twisting of God’s words- 

This is was the very first scheme Satan used against humanity (Genesis 3:1-5). It was so off-the-charts-effective he has stuck with it over the years. Satan twists God’s word around in our minds in such a way that we end up doing the exact opposite of what God wants us to do. For example, I know a person who as a teenager was told (correctly) Jesus said lusting in your heart is a sin (Matthew 5:28). This person concluded that since that temptation was a sin every temptation must be a sin. It seemed logical to them that if every temptation is a sin then they might as well just do the thing they were tempted to do because they were already guilty of sin.  Sadly, the enemy created a lot of heartache for this person before a good pastor straightened out their doctrinal errors. This scheme is dealt with most effectively through consistent church attendance and spiritual community. Messy theology is far more likely to be corrected when we habitually fellowship and study with other Christians. 

Discouragement or difficulty anytime we choose a higher level of obedience- 

It would make total sense for obedience to always equal obvious blessings and a trouble-free existence. Alas, that would be a fast track to one-hundred-percent obedience on our part all the time. Satan is categorically not a fan of spiritual growth or obedience. So, one of his favorite (and most effective) schemes is to go out of his way to make our lives difficult and complicated anytime we choose obey God fully or pursue Him on a higher level. 

A smooth path when we choose disobedience-

Interestingly enough, periods of rebellion can be some of the easiest, most stress-free times of our Christian life. When we are rebelling against God in any area Satan has nothing to worry about from a spiritual perspective, so he leaves us alone.  Our sinful choices have already rendered us ineffective, so he has nothing to do.  Consequently, Satan will go the extra mile and find ways to make our path smooth in times of rebellion because a smooth path makes us unlikely to self-reflect and reverse course. Constant self-reflection is the key to overcoming this scheme. We should examine ourselves regularly and ask God to reveal any areas of sin  

Our thing- whatever that thing is- 

We all have an underlying or besetting sin that trips us up in life— usually without us even realizing what it is. Satan knows what our thing is even if we don’t and he uses our desire for that thing to trip us up every chance he gets. Our thing might be greed, lust, power, a fear of man or a desire to be in control or whatever. If you have a recurring theme in your life—and most of us do. Ask God to show you the sin at the root of the recurring theme.  There is one. If you figure out what IT is Satan will lose his power over you in that area.  

At least half the battle in spiritual warfare is understanding the tactics of our enemy. The other half is of the battle is trusting God with our lives and making the choice every day to walk closely enough with the Holy Spirit that we SEE those tactics at work so we can do something about them. 

Satan’s Diary- September 2022

Lisa M. PriceLeave a comment

The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” Job 1:7 NIV

Dearest Diary,   

 I recently received third-quarter reports from all regions and I’m pleased to report all is well on earth and in hell. 

Seriously.

2022 has been good to me so far.

There are two “pet projects” I decided to prioritize this year and both are off the charts successful. The first is the one I like to call “lies about life”. 

It’s going splendidly! Just splendidly! 

I have convinced the younger generations having a child is the very worst thing that could ever happen to them. Young adults have been raised to believe seeking pleasure is the highest value and self-sacrifice is for idiots. It was beyond easy to convince them parenthood is worse than cancer and prison combined.  Because so many believe this lovely little lie I concocted, those short-sighted chumps will do ANYTHING to maintain the right to kill their own offspring. It warms my icy heart to watch them march around wearing their “I Hate Babies” tee-shirts at their silly little rallies. Such fools! They don’t have a clue! They are so determined to keep abortion lawful they repeatedly vote for bungling and corrupt politicians simply because those politicians have vowed to keep abortion legal. They literally love abortion so much they willingly accept economic ruin to keep it. 

I AM A LITERAL GENIUS! I TELL YOU. LITERAL!

It is now fashionable for firms in the U.S. to provide “comprehensive abortion coverage” for their female employees. Companies pay for both an abortion and the traveling expenses to have the abortion. This as a major win for me AND for the company. The woman is damaged emotionally and spiritually by the abortion (whether she recognizes it or not). This damage is likely to lead to self-loathing and all sorts of other goodies for me, such as addiction, promiscuity and self-harm. 

I just adore addiction and self-harm. 

The corporations who participate in this ghoulish little practice win because they get to promote themselves as do-gooders and champions of women’s rights WHILE they weasel out of paying for the insurance costs for the birth of the baby, maternity leave and insurance coverage for the little parasite after it’s born.  I have no words for how much I adore corporate greediness disguised as good deeds! 

 Some fear losing the “right” to abortion to such a degree they are voluntarily choosing to have hysterectomies or vasectomies. Most are in their prime childbearing years. Such a win! Apparently, those morons haven’t heard of this little thing called birth control! I’m literally laughing out loud as I write this! I literally cannot wait until the day these fools realize what they’ve done all in the name of virtue signaling. 

LOVE!

Speaking of cutting off healthy organs. 

My absolute favorite most treasured project of all time “gender affirming care” is going better than I could have imagined.

It’s beautiful really. 

If a child shows the slightest bit of discontent with their biological gender then an army of school teachers, medical professionals, social workers and trans-activists swoop in to convince the child what they really need to do is explore the “gender spectrum”. 

I just adore the gender spectrum. It’s the best thing I ever came up with. Seriously. I’m a friggin genius. 

The child starts out by “transitioning socially” They choose their preferred pronouns, a new name and begin wearing clothing that matches their new gender identity. It’s very common for the child to decide they really are the gender they have been identifying as. I love this. Seriously, It’s so destructive to the child. It’s beautiful. 

At this point a teacher, counselor, doctor or social worker will suggest the child go on puberty blockers to “pause” natural puberty. The short-term side effects of “pausing puberty” include fatigue, menstrual disruption, headaches, insomnia and muscle aches. The long-term effects are my personal favorite. They can include loss of bone density, loss of fertility and loss of I.Q. So good.

SUCH A WIN! 

Most children who begin taking puberty blockers later take cross-sex hormones. Side effects of cross sex hormones include cardiovascular disease, sterility, cancer, mood swings and psychosis (WIN). The next step is having their sex organs cut off (BIGGER WIN!). Whatever they decide later, these children are left disfigured for life from this “medical care”. If anyone tries to object to this course of action they are assured the child will commit suicide if they are discouraged from transitioning. 

I just adore bullying. 

The child is left infertile by this little social experiment, which will cause them to become bitter towards all the adults who encouraged this idiocy once they grow up. As an extra added bonus they will never experience the emotional growth and maturity that comes with parenting a child! 

WIN! WIN! WIN!

Thanks to abortion, aggressive trans activism, government meddling, a failing economy, divorce, pornography and rampant sexual sin, the family is in tatters. I literally could not be more thrilled with this development. There is nothing I despise more than a happy, healthy, stable family.

Thankfully, most Christians don’t want to hear anything about any of it. It’s just too terrifying and icky. Most are too distracted by their own problems to care about the state of the world (winning!). Few tell others about Jesus. The vast majority have no clue what’s going on in their child’s classroom and more than half of them refuse to vote, the ones who do vote seldom think about or pray about what or who they’re voting for. 

Some don’t even attend church!

LOL! As if they’re going to survive without Christian community and fellowship! If this continues I will be running the whole place in no time! 

Until next time my dearest diary,

Satan 

More Woke Gaslighting just in time for Halloween-

Lisa M. Price2 Comments

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them- Genesis 1:27 NKJV

The Alliance Defense League (ADL) recently put out a list of tips for parents and schools concerning Halloween celebrations and costumes.

Truth-be-told, I went into the article expecting the whole list to be a steaming pile of woke nonsense but to my surprise one of the tips was really good. The author pointed out that not every family celebrates Halloween and the costumes can get really pricey. Not every parent has the means to purchase elaborate costumes, as a result, Halloween can make a family’s financial situation painfully obvious to every kid in school. These two realities can easily lead to embarrassment and even bullying. It was an auspicious beginning. 

Sadly, it was all downhill from there.

The heart of the article was all about encouraging parents and teachers to avoid gender stereotypes when choosing Halloween costumes. The ADL is encouraging parents to acknowledge and celebrate the “fact” that there is no such thing as gender. 

The ADL wants parents and teachers to “know” that the whole notion of biological gender is make-believe, like the Tooth Fairy and winged dragons. Only clueless numbskulls still believe in such things. Therefore, it is categorically not okay for adults to encourage children born with vaginas (formally known as girls) to dress up as princesses because children born with penises (formally known as boys) can also be princesses. Moreover, superhero costumes are especially problematic for those looking to have an inclusive Halloween. The ADL believes the manufacturers of superhero costumes are all regressive Neanderthals in desperate need of a good cancelling. This is confirmed by the fact that superhero costumes for children born with vaginas always come with skirts while the costumes for children born with penises come with pants. The writer helpfully advised parents to tell to children curious about why skirts are unsuitable for superheroes that skirts are simply not practical for crimefighting.

This is real.

At first glance this tip sheet appears to be just another hearty helping of woke silliness aimed at extracting the joy and pleasure out of life. It’s more than that: the attempt to eliminate gender is actually a brazen attempt to gaslight the whole world. Gaslighting is defined as “making a person or group of people question their perception of reality”. Gaslighting describes someone who puts forth a false narrative which leads another person or a group of people to doubt their own perceptions. Eventually the person or people being gaslighted become disoriented and/or distressed and agree to follow the “truth” the gas-lighter tells them is real. 

In this case gaslighting has deep spiritual implications. 

Think about it.

One of the first truth-statements God makes in the Bible concerns the existence of male and female. God even links the concept of gender to Himself, saying He made the differences between men and women in His “own image”. The Bible is clear: there are distinctive differences between men and women and those differences are actually unique reflections of God’s personhood in the human race (Genesis 1:26-27). 

If I were Satan I would be enthusiastic about the prospect of persuading the world that gender is construct rather than reality. If that view becomes the norm then every instruction God gave humanity regarding sexuality will become a nonissue because all those instructions are predicated on the existence of only two genders and differences between the genders.  Removing morality from sexuality has caused untold emotional, spiritual and physical harm to human beings.

Removing the reality of gender will have devastating consequences to the most vulnerable among in our world.   Deconstructing gender produces chaos in society, women no longer need to protected from men because there is no such thing as men (no more male/female bathrooms).  Women are no longer the natural caretakers of children because there is no such thing as women. Sex is no longer a sacred act between a husband and a wife because there is no such thing as husbands and wives. Most critically, if there is no male and female then everything God has said about everything automatically becomes suspect in the minds of thinking people. If we can’t trust what God said about male and female, how can we trust anything He said? 

Therefore. 

This attack on gender isn’t coming from the cultural elites, misguided educators or politicians. The attack on gender is coming from Satan Himself. Satan knows that if this one little entry-level truth can be ripped from the foundation then literally everything the Bible says about everything falls with it. If people believe this lie Satan has effectively prepped the world to believe any lie, no matter how outlandish because he’s already convinced us the Emperor has no clothes (metaphorically speaking). Once we stop believing what’s right in front of us we will believe anything. 

Couple of things in closing.

First, Christian leaders cannot allow this philosophy to infiltrate the church. If it does it will have a detrimental impact not just on how Christians view the issue of gender but also on how Christians view God. Second, this is not a place for believers to “stand their ground”. We must do more than simply stand in what we believe, we must go into the culture and tell the truth about gender. We must have loving conversations with our friends and neighbors where we use science and common sense to remind people that gender is real and assigned to us by loving God who knew us and loved us before we drew a single breath (Psalm 139).

How Should a Christian Respond to the Gender Spectrum?

Lisa M. Price4 Comments

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them- Genesis 1:26a-27 NIV

Like every human over the age of forty, I have witnessed a great deal of change over my lifetime. Some of these changes have been wonderful, others meh and some others have been simply awful. It’s fair to say that no area of human society has seen more change in the last two decades than the areas of gender and sexual expression.

Back in the day, there were men and woman.

Those two options pretty much covered the scope and scale of the gender spectrum. A man might have wished he was a woman or dressed like a woman but all of society would have agreed that if a human was born with a penis that was all the evidence needed to declare the person a man.  There were women who impersonated men but it never occurred to anyone that a woman behaving like a man might actually be a man. How one chose to express their sexuality (gay, straight, bi-sexual) had no bearing on whether or not a person was male or female. Gender was determined by this thing called biology. 

Biology is so 1955.

There is now a whole gender spectrum to choose from. Among the plethora of options, one can now be male, female, androgynous, transgender, gender queer, non-binary, gay, straight, bi-sexual, pansexual, asexual, gay trans, bi-sexual-trans, binary trans, gender questioning and gender fluid. 

Sigh. 

For all sorts of really rational reasons average Christians have struggled to address this issue in a logical, respectful and kind way. It’s a difficult issue to wrap our minds around. Further complicating the whole messy muddle any objection to or questioning of the gender spectrum is perceived by most non-Christians and some Christians as transphobic, homophobic, regressive and mean. Consequently, Christians have either ignored the problem altogether, avoided discussing it outside of Christian circles or ridiculed the whole situation openly. Regrettably, none of the aforementioned strategies actually do anything to help Christians act as salt and light in our increasingly confused and broken world (Matthew 5:13-16). 

Ephesians 6:14 commands Christians to stand against evil ideas. In order to do that we have to understand from a biblical perspective what’s wrong with a particular philosophy and where it will likely lead us. 

The gender spectrum is clearly one of the Satanic schemes the Bible warns us about (Ephesians 6:11, 1st Peter 5:8). The notion that there is a gender smorgasbord out there with dozens of different options from which to choose from is an assault on God’s design. It is also a direct contradiction to God’s assertion that He created human beings as male and female only (Genesis 1:27). Among other things, this particular assault is intended to generate doubt concerning the goodness and truthfulness of God in the minds of people who are struggling with questions regarding sex, sexuality and gender. It’s critical we remember Satan has been planting doubt concerning the goodness and truthfulness of God since the dawn of the human race (Genesis 3:1) 

Human beings were made for connection with God (Genesis 3:8). It’s inherent in our design. Because most in our culture have rejected the Creator gender identity and sexuality have become a strange form of religious expression for those who have spurned belief in God (Romans 1:24-32). This explains the peculiar post-modern practice of folks introducing themselves by stating their name, sexual orientation and gender identity. Sexuality and gender give their life meaning and is where they find their identity. 

This turn of events ought to break our hearts because it breaks God’s heart, It should not drive us to despair or hateful rhetoric. Rather, we should be overwhelmed with grief for a generation that has lost its way morally, spiritually and sexually. There are six practical things Christians can do to help lead our culture come back to a healthier understanding of sexuality and gender and back into right relationship with God. 

We must:

Love our neighbors- 

We should look for ways to love everyone, even those super messy people who freak us out a little bit. We must search for ways to engage people who are different from us. The engagement must be done in a spirit of both truth and love. It helps no one when we bend our beliefs to placate the culture. That being said, people need to know there is God who loves them beyond measure who wants to free them from the spiritual and sexual bondage they’ve gotten themselves into.   

Pray for revival-

It almost goes without saying our world has problems that cannot and will not be solved using human methods. We have fallen too far down the proverbial rabbit hole. We supernatural intervention. Stat. Prayer is the only way to get the intervention we need (Ephesians 6:18, 1st Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer has the power to transform unbelievers and give believers the spiritual power needed to love the lost and hurting. Christians are commanded to make a practice of praying for everyone all the time. If your church has a regularly scheduled prayer time, go and pray. If your church does not have a scheduled prayer time consider starting one in your home. Invite your friends and begin by praying for revival. When people truly get right with God their view of gender and sexuality will align with what the Bible says about these issues.  

Model healthy families-

It has never been more critical for Christians to have healthy, functional family units. The world needs to see families where men protect and nurture their wives and children and where women respect their husbands and make mothering children a priority.

Celebrate the differences between men and women-

God made men and women and different from each other. The diversity in the created order is a beautiful thing that deserves celebration because both men and women reflect the image of God in different ways (Genesis 1:27) Little boys should be told it’s a good and special thing to be a boy and little girls should be told it’s a beautiful thing to be made female. If we don’t the world will step in and tell them something different.

Stop being weird-

There are Christians who believe it is wrong for men to cook or do housework because it’s “not manly” and an “affront to God”.  Others believe that women should never work outside the home or attend college. There are still Christians who sincerely believe a woman should remain “under the authority “of her Father until she is married. These absurdly antiquated ideas are almost impossible to backup biblically without twisting Scripture and they make Christianity look really weird to non-Christians. Weird does nothing to further our cause.

Last but not least.

Christians must speak the truth with an attitude of love and grace. Admittedly, this is tricky and difficult. But it must be done. We simply have to find ways to engage people in hard conversations where we tell them the truth in loving tones and with a spirit of humility rather that self-righteousness (Ephesians 4:15). If we can do this we might have a shot of not just changing their minds on gender but also turning their hearts towards Jesus.