Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Good morning! God has been good to us this week. We pulled my wife out of Atlantic Care, and went for a second opinion to Deborah Heart & Lung. Just in case you didn’t hear through the prayer chain, my wife Camille had a heart attack. As it turns out, Atlantic Care said they could not put in a stent, and would do a triple bypass. Deborah was able to put a stent in and released her to go home the next day. If she would have gotten the bypass, she would still have several more weeks of recuperating ahead of her. Grief and stress, besides the blockage, may have brought the heart attack on. And besides all this, I found out that Pastor Rick Wedemeyer is in the hospital, in a lot of pain, with cellulitis. What is going to happen next? Whatever it is, God knew it would happen before you, or I, or the world, ever was. The whole problem is that, “…your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour…” (1Peter 5:8).

He doesn’t know his time is near. He is so full of himself that he thinks he can still beat God. One of my favorite verses about the devil is Isaiah 14:16, and also 17, which says, “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?” Translation: compared to our God, satan, you ain’t squat!”

Another favorite verse about the devil is Revelation 20:10: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

Amen and Amen.

When the devil attacks us, what should we do? James has the answer.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).

Serve God. God has a plan for your life: do it! And while you are obeying God, you will find that the devil will almost always attack. 2Timothy 3:12 says, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” We need to take a stand against the devil. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” That word resist means to stand against, that is, oppose: – resist, withstand. If you are firmly planted in the Word of God, you can stand against the devil. God is right there in the midst of the situation. He will only let the devil go so far. Jesus told us that without Him, we could do nothing. So all we can do is stand on the Word of God and resist.

Remember John 16:33: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

What’s going to happen next? As the hymn goes…

Many things about tomorrow,

I don’t seem to understand.

But I know who holds tomorrow,

And I know who holds my hand!

Peace. (1Corinthians 15:57)