Satan Loves A Clean House

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Scripture

 So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there.

~Luke 11:25-26, NLT

Quote

“Satan loves to find the house swept and garnished, but empty. Morality without Christ is but a clean house prepared for a worse guest.”

~Thomas Watson

My Thoughts

I hate to confess this, but I have never understood Luke 11:21-28. When I read it yesterday, I thought to myself, why don’t you dig a little deeper and see if others can help you understand. John Calvin was the first to pop up and as soon as I read his comments, I knew what I had missed. The strong man is Satan; the stronger man is Jesus who has the power to cast out Satan. This entire passage is in the context of Jesus casting out demons. Satan, the strong man, held us captive. Hebrews chapter two gives us some helpful insight: Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could He die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could He {the stronger man} set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

Turning over a new leaf, reforming yourself will not hinder Satan. He loves a clean house. He can do much more damage with a hypocrite inside the church as with a drunk on the street. The devil uses our temperment. Some folks inherently are patient; others have an iron will. Once they set their mind to do something, they do it. So a person can start attending church, live by the Ten Commandments, even teach the Bible and not know Jesus. He or she can be a faithful admirer of Jesus but live by virtue of their own will and strength and never surrendered their will to His. Folks we are talking about good moral people and most of them do not miss a Sunday. They can give a preacher nightmares because they are clean as a whistle but empty as a gun barel. But the tendency is not to stay empty. It may be a different set of demons, but the demons return and the last state is worse than the first. Do you realize how much damage self-righteous people do to a church?

Repentance or reform without Christ is not enough. You are a prime target for Satan when you clean up your life without giving submission to Christ. You have not confessed your utter depravity and you have not surrendered your life to Jesus. The LORD said through Isaiah the prophet, Who can snatch the plunder of war from the hands of a warrior? Who can demand that a tyrant let his captives go? Satan is the tyrant, the strong man who will enslave you, but PTL Jesus is stronger than Satan. The LORD promised Israel, “The captives of warriors will be released, and the plunder of tyrants will be retrieved. For I will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children.” Thank God for Jesus our strong Man, our warrior King. He will deliver us from temptation and save us from the evil one.

Extra

Due to fact that I can not do physical labor I had to improvise.

My new one row planter is a combination. I took an old spray tank frame and attacked the garden planter that Buddy and Vickie game me a couple of years ago and it worked. I could not get my back up camera working so I had to turn so I could watch the planter. We planted 8 rows of crowder peas. Then the LORD blessed us with a good rain about 2 hours after we planted the peas. TYJ!

Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.

Extra/Extra

49er Luncheon Friday at 11:30

Twelve Degrees of Scriptural Giving

  • Begrudgingly—those who give under compulsion {2 Cor.9:7}
  • Occassionally—Those who give to special causes but not on a consistent basis
  • Sparingly—Those who give as little as possible {2 Cor. 9:6)
  • Systematically—Those who give on a regular basis {1 Cor. 16:1}
  • Cheerfully—Those who really enjoy giving {2 Cor. 9:7}
  • Sincerely—Those who give because they are motivated by love {2 Cor. 8:8}
  • Bountifully—Those who choose to err on the side of generosity. They had rather give too much as not enough {2 Cor. 9:6}
  • Sacrifically—Those who give more than they can afford or beyond their ability. They have to deprive themselves of something in order to give.
  • Spiritually—Those who give whatever the LORD instructs them to give{2 Cor. 8:5}
  • Graciously—Those who give like Jesus {2 Cor. 8:9} Jesus never tithed, He gave 100 percent.

Story behind the Twelve Degrees…I was visiting at St. Vicents in Birmingham. I was in the waiting room while some one was having surgery. I saw the tract lying on the table and I picked it up and read. At least half of my list came from that Catholic tract

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