Topic: Evil

En Cristo somos uno con toda la carne y la sangre, y por lo tanto nuestra lucha no es contra ningunas personas, sino contra los espíritus y los principados y los potestades que dividirían a la gente y les harían enemigos.

We only reliably recognise and combat evil by listening to Jesus and taking his wisdom into our hearts.

Satan casts out satan all the time in our divisive attempts to protect ourselves by demonising and expelling others.

Lent is a time to walk knowingly into the wilderness, to face the Accuser and the wild beasts that emerge when we live out our identity as God’s children.

Jesus urges us to take stock, to recognise the sicknesses which warp us and the demons which colonise our hearts and our minds, to renounce them so that we become free to minister to one another, and to proclaim the good news in our words and our lives.

God saves us by changing our hearts, but one of the great temptations for the church is to try to turn that back into a system of exclusion and control.

Unquestioning allegiances to family and nation keep us bound to satanic systems, but Jesus binds the satan and breaks us free to be the new family of God.

In Christ we are set free from all that would oppress us in order that we might be free to live in gracious and life-giving service of God and others.

Though we get caught up in violent rivalries like Herod, God breaks through with the promise of a new kingdom where all are honoured.

Jesus sends the Holy Spirit as a Defence Counsel to defend us against the demonic accusations that trouble and disempower us.

Demonic temptations do not usually look demonic, but are usually a subtle undermining of our sense of who we are that cause us to grasp for quick fixes.

Jesus reveals that God is a God of abundance who will lovingly provide plenty for all, but the common perception of scarcity easily corrupts us and leads to treachery and abuse.