During this past Sunday's sermon, Pastor Sam suggested that we read (or, re-read) the C.S. Lewis classic, The Screwtape Letters.
The book is a fantastic rendering of the hierarchies and strategies used by the devil in order to lure people away from the rule and reign of Christ.
Over the past few days I've had the pleasure of re-reading the book. There were moments I had to cringe, and pray, as I saw glimpses of my own faults and challenges revealed in its pages. Thank God for His grace that leads us to repentance!
I also read the associated short story, Screwtape Proposes A Toast. It is a prophetic warning, a warning that sadly we've failed to heed over the past several decades. It is a reminder that the devil even uses religion as a means of deceiving, disgracing, and destroying people. I hope this short excerpt (below) will be an impetus for earnest prayer.
All said and done, my friends, it will be an ill day for us if what most humans means by "religion" ever vanishes from the Earth. It can still send us the truly delicious sins. The fine flower of unholiness can grow only in the close neighborhood of the Holy. Nowhere do we tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar. -Screwtape, from Screwtape Proposes A Toast by C.S. Lewis (Copyright 1961)
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