Going to Jesus

Daily Thoughts

 Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:

• Collection

  Thoughts for the Morning Thoughts for the Evening Random Thoughts

• Month

  January February March April May June July August September October November December

• Day

  08-01 The Original Death Penalty 08-02 The Gods, Part One: Nothing 08-03 The Gods, Part Two: Demons 08-04 The Gods, Part Three: Satan 08-05 The Gods, Part Four: Judging 08-06 Repentance: Come Or Go? 08-07 Hopeless 08-08 The Requirement Of Life 08-09 Going Outside The Kingdom For Help 08-10 What Happens at the New Birth 08-11 At the Moment of My New Birth 08-12 Confessing Christ, Part One: The Law And The Spirit 08-13 Confessing Christ, Part Two: The Messiah Of The Flesh 08-14 Confessing Christ, Part Three: Two Witnesses 08-15 Reconciled By His Death 08-16 Saving Grace 08-17 A Testimony Of Coming Out 08-18 Breaking The Rules 08-19 Being Shaped 08-20 One Bullock 08-21 Turned Over To Self 08-22 Servant of Servants 08-23 Elijah And John 08-24 No Secret Return 08-25 Hardness Of Heart 08-26 The Question, Part One: Minerva 08-27 The Question, Part Two: The Answer 08-28 The Question, Part Three: Religion Without The Holy Ghost 08-29 God’s 4-H Club 08-30 Who Is Lost? 08-31 The Names Of The Sheep

 

Thought for the Evening
8-21

Turned Over To Self

From a sermon by Pastor John

If some people were turned over to Satan, he would improve them.

Satan dresses well. Ezekiel said that Satan is “perfect in beauty.” He is a liar, yes, but he is also courteous, helpful, and witty. He is knowledgeable, and he values education. He hates people who are consumed with lust or are so self-willed that he cannot control them. Self-proclaimed “devil worshipers” are a joke to him. His ministers wear three-piece suits, or beautiful, impressive ministerial vestments.

If a member of a street gang were turned over to Satan, the Devil would make him get a job and buy some decent clothes. He would make him do something useful and earn enough money to gain some status in the community. What good to Satan is a man who has no status and influence in the community at large? If rebellious high-school drops-outs were to be turned over to Satan, Satan would send them back to school and demand that they do well. He wants earthly successes for his kingdom, not earthly failures.

The Bible tells us that Satan wants to be like God (Isa. 14). He has witnessed God’s divine order in heaven and has walked amid God’s glory and beauty. That is the kind of kingdom he wants (though he can never have it), and he wants people who can help him achieve at least a semblance of it here on earth. He despises dirty, lazy, self-indulgent people. They bring him no glory at all. They are useless to Satan.

It is in this respect that I say that if God were to turn some people over to Satan, he would improve them. As far as earthly wisdom, wealth, status, and cleanliness are concerned, men do worse for themselves if God turns them over to their own lusts than if he turns them over to Satan’s. If the Devil had those people in his control, he would chase them away from their worthless ways and make something out of them that he can use.