Forewarned, Forearmed-Satan Lays The Emphasis Upon Tomorrow

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 

We are Always Prone to put the accent there. 

It is very hard to grasp the True splendor of the present.

Today seems insignificant; tomorrow shall be the real day for us....

God Never speaks that way.

God's Bible Never speaks that way.

It tells us that the Present is divine, and lays the whole emphasis upon today: "NOW is the Accepted Time."

And the Holy Ghost is saying, Today.

And this is the Arch-Device of the Arch-Tempter...

In every life, for every start and every noble deed, God says, Today.

In every life for every start and every noble deed, the devil says, Tomorrow.

Is it conversion? Today, says God: Tomorrow, whispers Satan.  

Is it the breaking with that sin? Tomorrow.

Is it the starting on a higher level? Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, always tomorrow!

Till by tomorrow's road we are at Never-and the chance is gone, and the dream has vanished, and the hope is dead.

O friends, young men and women, be not ignorant of that device.

It will never be easier to come to Christ than now.

It will never be easier to make the start than now.

God says, Today, Tonight!

And God who says it is here to give the power that can save Now, and can cleanse Now, and can send you home Now with old things passed away and all things New in Jesus Christ.

~George H. Morrison

Forewarned, Forearmed-Satan Uses Tools!

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

It is one mark of practical genius to choose the right instruments to do its work.

A born administrator is a man who not only works hard himself, but has the skill of choosing the right men to be his assistants.

That is always a mark of practical capacity. 

And a true general shows his genius to command by the way in which he uses each branch of the service-cavalry, artillery, and infantry- for its proper work.

Every administrator must make use of agents; and he displays the greatest genius for administration who picks his agents with the greatest skill.

What a magnificent administrative genius that power must be that plots our ruin if we judge it by a test like that.

Could you conceive a finer choice of instruments than Satan makes when he is seeking to overthrow a human soul?

Out of a hundred gates into your hearts and mine, he passes by those that are barred and chooses one that will open at a touch.

His is the plan and his the whole device...

But he gets other hands and other hearts to do the work...

And the whole history of the tempted world, and the whole story of your tempted heart, tells the skillful genius of the choice.

Think of our Lord's experience...

First, in the wilderness Satan tempted Him. 

He came himself that time: he sent no messenger and used no agent.

It was a personal conflict between the Prince of Darkness and the Prince of Life.

But the next time the baffled tempter fell back upon this old device.

Next time he does not come in person: he comes in Simon Peter.

What, was it not a master-stroke of genius to reach at the heart of Jesus through the loyal heart of that disciple?

And when Jesus turns and detects Satan's voice in Peter's tongue and cries, "Get thee behind me, Satan, thou savourest not the things of God," He was not ignorant of his devices.

And do you think that device is disused today?

Has Satan's brain grown blunted in these latter times?

It is not the men who hate us and it is not the men and women we strongly dislike who tempt us most.

It is those we trust and those who love us best who often prove hell's aptest messengers.

If we but hated those who tempt us, life would become a very easy thing.

It is because we love and respect them so that for a thousand men and women life is hard.

Come, tempter, in thine own cursed shape, and any coward shall beat thee off.

But come through the loving heart of Simon Peter, and look through the loving eyes of Simon Peter, and speak through the loving lips of Simon Peter-and only Christ can make us strong to say, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

~George H. Morrison