The Adversary (An Alien Encounter) The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love
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- Christianity
Twenty-six years ago, I was standing in line for Alien Encounter with my eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and nine-year-old son, Jon. Elizabeth was lecturing Jon on courage. Jon had been asking me, "Daddy, will I be OK?" He wanted my judgment. Elizabeth didn't think she needed it.
Alien Encounter was an animatronic "ride" at Disney World. They would strap you into a seat and feed you a story. The president of XS Industries explained that he would now beam himself into the room from the other side of the Galaxy and materialize in the transportation module in the front of everyone. A startled technician suddenly yelled, "I've locked onto another planet in our transmission path… Oh no, It's an alien! It's carnivorous!" A dragon-like creature appeared to materialize in the glass tube in front of us.
In that moment , I look at Jon. He looks at me. I smile. He's OK. He knows it's a lie.
I look at Elizabeth. She won't look at me. She's looking at the thing in the tube.
Suddenly there's a supposed power outage. "Get the alien back in the tube before it eats somebody!" yells the technician. Then we each feel a puff of warm moist air on our neck. Some warm fluid drips on our faces. We hear the sound of something feeding on something. And Elizabeth screams, "We have to get out of here... NOW!"
I looked at Elizabeth and started screaming, "Elizabeth! Look at me! It's not real! It's not real!" But she wouldn't look at me. She was trapped in a lie. The puff of air was real. The warm water was real. The plastic shaped like a beast in a tube was real. But the lie was not real. And yet, lies can kill, and people who believe lies often do kill. Nightmares are not real, but they are very real for the one who is dreaming the nightmare and so is trapped in their own lies.
1 Peter 2:11, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh." The flesh always desires to exalt itself. Maybe this whole world is like Alien Encounter, except that we're the aliens, for this world — or at least the world we perceive — is not our home. And we need the Word of our Father to wake us from the illusion that it is.
1 Peter 5:5, "Be clothed with humility toward one another. Be humbled... having cast all your cares on him for he cares for you. Wake up. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in the faith."
Along with my wife, over the last 30 years, I've prayed with many people struggling with demons and witnessed our Lord's victory over evil. In at least four of these people, something other than that person has often taken over their body, spoken to me, and I to it, while that person later had no recollection of what had happened. In two of those people, over the course of many years, the thing that spoke, claimed to be Satan (the devil), and Jesus confirmed that this was so.
People have often said, "Don't share those stories. They shrink the church. People think you're mentally ill. And they freak us out." Yep. I totally get that. But Peter just wrote "Wake up! Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. Resist him." It's hard to resist him firm in your faith if you don't believe he exists. And he does. But maybe, in a weird way, he — the Evil One — also doesn't?
Evil is a problem, philosophically and existentially. How could the Truth make a lie? How could the Good make evil? How could the Light make dark? How could the sun make a shadow? Well, it can't. And yet, perhaps, the sun could make the earth, then shine on the earth, and cast a shadow called "night." Perhaps the moon, which is normally a "faithful witness" to the sun, could occasionally eclipse the sun and thereby cast a shadow. Perhaps God could make man, and man — Adam — would cast a shadow... at least until Adam and all things were filled with light, and there would be no more shadow. When Jesus bore our sins on the tree, the sky grew black. And yet, it reve
Twenty-six years ago, I was standing in line for Alien Encounter with my eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and nine-year-old son, Jon. Elizabeth was lecturing Jon on courage. Jon had been asking me, "Daddy, will I be OK?" He wanted my judgment. Elizabeth didn't think she needed it.
Alien Encounter was an animatronic "ride" at Disney World. They would strap you into a seat and feed you a story. The president of XS Industries explained that he would now beam himself into the room from the other side of the Galaxy and materialize in the transportation module in the front of everyone. A startled technician suddenly yelled, "I've locked onto another planet in our transmission path… Oh no, It's an alien! It's carnivorous!" A dragon-like creature appeared to materialize in the glass tube in front of us.
In that moment , I look at Jon. He looks at me. I smile. He's OK. He knows it's a lie.
I look at Elizabeth. She won't look at me. She's looking at the thing in the tube.
Suddenly there's a supposed power outage. "Get the alien back in the tube before it eats somebody!" yells the technician. Then we each feel a puff of warm moist air on our neck. Some warm fluid drips on our faces. We hear the sound of something feeding on something. And Elizabeth screams, "We have to get out of here... NOW!"
I looked at Elizabeth and started screaming, "Elizabeth! Look at me! It's not real! It's not real!" But she wouldn't look at me. She was trapped in a lie. The puff of air was real. The warm water was real. The plastic shaped like a beast in a tube was real. But the lie was not real. And yet, lies can kill, and people who believe lies often do kill. Nightmares are not real, but they are very real for the one who is dreaming the nightmare and so is trapped in their own lies.
1 Peter 2:11, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh." The flesh always desires to exalt itself. Maybe this whole world is like Alien Encounter, except that we're the aliens, for this world — or at least the world we perceive — is not our home. And we need the Word of our Father to wake us from the illusion that it is.
1 Peter 5:5, "Be clothed with humility toward one another. Be humbled... having cast all your cares on him for he cares for you. Wake up. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in the faith."
Along with my wife, over the last 30 years, I've prayed with many people struggling with demons and witnessed our Lord's victory over evil. In at least four of these people, something other than that person has often taken over their body, spoken to me, and I to it, while that person later had no recollection of what had happened. In two of those people, over the course of many years, the thing that spoke, claimed to be Satan (the devil), and Jesus confirmed that this was so.
People have often said, "Don't share those stories. They shrink the church. People think you're mentally ill. And they freak us out." Yep. I totally get that. But Peter just wrote "Wake up! Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. Resist him." It's hard to resist him firm in your faith if you don't believe he exists. And he does. But maybe, in a weird way, he — the Evil One — also doesn't?
Evil is a problem, philosophically and existentially. How could the Truth make a lie? How could the Good make evil? How could the Light make dark? How could the sun make a shadow? Well, it can't. And yet, perhaps, the sun could make the earth, then shine on the earth, and cast a shadow called "night." Perhaps the moon, which is normally a "faithful witness" to the sun, could occasionally eclipse the sun and thereby cast a shadow. Perhaps God could make man, and man — Adam — would cast a shadow... at least until Adam and all things were filled with light, and there would be no more shadow. When Jesus bore our sins on the tree, the sky grew black. And yet, it reve