The role of the enemy.

     There are numerous types and kinds of enemies.  Cancer, your brother, boss, or even yourself.  The implication is that anyone or anything can be your enemy.  Food, clothing, cars or even yourself.  A common denominator is "yourself."  With the vast number of people invested in blaming elsewhere or justifying their being, it's hard to get people to see just how implicit they are in being their own worst enemy.  Should we be honest with ourselves we would also recognize that we teach younger generations to do the same thing.  With history full of "enemy" moments and defining points in the changes of whole nations, it's not hard to focus on elsewhere as the enemy.  We can even do that with our personal history.  In this relationship there has to be a victim and a victimizer.  We look at the various tyrants over history who have conquered lands and people with such violence and intent that whole people groups have vanished.  Nothing changes history, or the present, like having your homeland and home destroyed.  The accounts are all around us.  In the name of _______ (insert your favorite reason) mankind has taken evil and called it good as long as their agenda has been accomplished.
     No person who has lived on earth (except Jesus) escapes being guilty.  We are guilty with what we do and with what we don't do.  The Bible says we were born into a sinful nature and are guilty just by being a human byproduct of Adam and Eve.  So we enter into the world full of sin and as we grow we either continue to live in sin or....wait, we continue to live in sin.  This even applies to those who give their lives to Christ.  Don't think so?  Read the Bible.  "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  David, a man after God's own heart, lived a remarkable life full of submission to God and bring God's people to God through example.  Yet, he chose to have a soldier killed in order to take his wife as his own.  That would be the woman he impregnated when they had an affair.  All during a time when he was considered "a man after God's own heart."  Peter denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times after KNOWING that Jesus was God.  Now tel me, what chance do I have of being on the side of not guilty?  It's what we do with the guilt that matters.
     The Bible says that Satan roams the earth seeking out whom he will devour.  Satan doesn't just sample the buffet (we are a buffet to him), he devours the buffet.  That would be us.  Christian and non-Christian alike.  Though he has a penchant for the believers.  They seem to be tastier than the rest of the world.  In Psalm 51 David says "My sin is ever before me."  So is mine and yours.  Satan wants us to not only remember our sin but to continually be reminded of our sin.  For if he succeeds then we are ineffective witnesses of the grace of God.  In Psalm 55 God tells us that one of our worst enemies is the one who is our best friend and with "whom we had sweet fellowship."  There are ample agents of Satan ready to take us down.  From using our personal history as well as our current habits the pickings are many.  My enemies seem to have no end of accusations towards me.  Some are even correct.  The motive for taking Christians down is to develop within them the idea that they are no longer able or even entitled to do the work God has called us to do.  When we have become convinced of our unworthiness, we take a step back and Satan has won.  When we malign another believer Satan has won.  When we doubt the gracious work of the Cross of Christ in our lives, Satan has won.  Temporarily won for the Christian. 
     We know the end of the story because of God's word given to John in the book of Revelation.  God has already won the wars.  He has already defeated the enemy.  He has already sealed those in Christ in the Book of Life.  God wins.  Satan loses.  The question for us is whether or not we want to be the enemy of Satan or the enemy of God.  The role of the enemy is to attack and defeat.  The role of the believer is to submit to the God who so loved the world that he gave his son as a sin offering for all mankind who believe.  Satan lost.  He doesn't like that.  God won.  We like that.  Don't be your own enemy or anyone else's enemy.  Be Jesus to your world.