Grace and peace, believers.

The Bible says that as Christians we should guard our hearts with all diligence.  That means that we should be careful what we let come in through the senses (“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes”), because it is through the senses that Satan tempts us.

I don’t have to tell you that sex is probably Satan’s number one method of destroying a Christian’s testimony.  So Satan is going to use this weapon against the man of God.  This is especially true if you are on the front lines in this spiritual warfare.  According to Jack Chick, former Jesuit priest turned Christian evangelist, Alberto Rivera, said that a favorite technique of Rome to destroy a Christian preacher is to try and seduce him through a female Roman Catholic devotee.  The goal is for the girl to get the preacher to fall into an immoral and compromising relationship with the girl and then threaten to expose him unless he softens his stance on the Roman Catholic religion, or otherwise do as he is told. 

Satan has tried this on a number of occasions with me, but I have always had my guard up, wary of what was going on.  He has tried to get me to become a pedophile, by parading before me young teenage girls wearing incredibly little clothing.  One night, when I was riding my bike through the park on the way home from school, I just happened to run into an attractive woman jogging.  Mind you, it was around nine o’clock at night in St. Louis, and this woman is running through the park BY HERSELF.  I started talking to her and it wasn’t fifteen minutes when she alluded that she was available for a sexual liaison.  I pretended not to hear what she was saying and switched the conversation immediately to spiritual matters.  Although she was at first not interested, she started to confide in me that she was having spiritual problems.  About two weeks later, I led this woman to Christ.  [WHEW!]

Satan has even tried to entice me with homosexuality.  Once I was getting into my car after coming out of the movie theatre, when a young, slightly effeminate teenage boy walks up to me and asks me if I could give him a ride to the metro station.  I was reluctant at first, because these are dangerous times.  But I suddenly remembered when I was a young teenager bumming rides from people when I would go to parties way on the other side of town and would miss the last bus home.  So, I decided to give the boy a ride.  While we talked, however, I noted that he showed great interest in a particular subject that also interests me, but which is far too old-fashioned for a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boy in the twenty-first century.  

My antenna immediately went up.  I knew the boy had been given information about my interests that he could use to bring my guard down.  So I waited for the punchline.  We arrived shortly at the metro station, and I stopped in front and waited for him to open the door and get out.  But instead of getting out, he pointed out a place in the parking lot where I could park.  This confirmed my suspicions about him.  He was trying to set me up.  In no uncertain terms, I told this boy to get out of my car, as the only thing I agreed to do was give him a ride.  

Satan constantly tries to tempt me with sex.  I often say I would love to see a bird’s eye view of anyplace I happen to be standing, because it’s a safe bet that the area would have more scantily-clad women and girls per capita than any other part of town.  But Satan doesn’t just try to tempt me with live women.  He also tries to tempt me through the media.  The following is a photo of a billboard across the street from where I live.  This is the view as I walk onto the street from my apartment building:

This is a closer view:

To show you that this is no coincidence, this is my apartment from the billboard’s point of view (that’s my boy standing beside the path): 

As you can see, that billboard seems to be looking right at me.  Now, if you know anything about advertising, then you know that signs placed on a main thoroughfare are always directed towards the flow of traffic.   In that this sign is located about ten meters from an intersection, it would have made more sense to orient this ad in that direction.  But, take a look at the view one gets coming onto the street:

Right.  You aim a pretty girl at my apartment, but a pope at everyone else?  Uh-huh.  See how this works?

Sex sells.  So, to aim an ad like this in the direction of my apartment, where probably over 60 percent of the tenants are over forty, is a huge waste of time and money.  Unless, of course, there is another reason the ad was placed there. 

Now, if you have read the part of my testimony outlined in Chronology of Joy and God is in Control, then you know that I am under surveillance 24 hours a day.  You are too, the only difference is they let me know it.  Well, you will note that I took this photo on July 1st, and you can rest assured that everyone on my street knew it.  Well, look at what happened a few days later:

“But,” you say, “they might have just been changing the sign.”  Well notice that the rest of the pole has since been covered with a new ad, but the place where the sexy ad was is now blank.  And, in case you think anything has changed, I submit the following for your examination:

As you can see, I took this photo this morning, and nothing has changed.  

Now it could be that all this is merely a coincidence and has no meaning.  But if you were to walk one day in my shoes, you would quickly realize that where I’m concerned, there are no coincidences.  

This object lesson on spiritual warfare has been brought to you by Proverbs 4:23:

“Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” 

Guard your hearts, Saints.  Satan is on a mission.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man