ON
THINKING ABOUT ‘SATAN’ -There are two equal and opposite
errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their
existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in
them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail [both positions] with
the same delight. [1]
JESUS AND SCRIPTURE - Jesus responded to the Scripture’s admonitions
regarding God’s purpose for life and the call to worship and serve God. In the
specific situations that would follow he would halve to work out the shape of his
obedience to these admonitions. Christian ethics does not come prepackaged. The call is
not to adherence to a list of rules and regulations but to faithfulness to the call and
purposes of God. [2]
MARTIN LUTHER: The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts
of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.
DIVINE DESIGN FROM WORMWOOD THE DEMON’S PERSPECTIVE - He [God] really does want
to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself--creatures whose
life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has
absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can
finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He
wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over . . . [3]
What’s your all-time, most-longed-for food, most mouth-watering food? How
would you have fared had a truckload of the stuff been offered you in exchange for being a
tad disobedient to what God wanted for you?
What are the rhythms of the temptations of Christ that seem to form patterns of
experience in our lives? (You’ll need to review the baptismal piece in Luke 3:21-22
which seems to be connected.)
Please see the homily posted for this week based on this passage.
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[1] CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, first chapter.
[2] The New Interpreter’s Bible IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), page 101.
[3] The Screwtape Letters, page 38.
