It was Wednesday June 17th 2015 in Charleston, SC when a Satan-inspired racist named Dylann Roof shot and killed 9 members of the Emanuel AME Church. This was a horrible moment in recent history that reminded us just how evil this world can be. And then, just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, another mass church shooting occurs on Sunday November 5th of this year! It was at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, TX where a demonically possessed Devin Patrick Kelley took the lives of 26 people, ranging in the ages of a child still in the womb, up to someone 77 years old.

Sadly, it is evident that we live in a world where nothing is sacred. In most of our minds, the local church is supposed to be that one place you can go and not have to worry about being murdered. Yet we know this is not the case. We are reminded of other such events, like what happened in Birmingham Alabama at 16th Street Baptist Church on Sunday September 15th 1963, when some devilishly racist persons set off a bomb that killed four innocent little girls because of the color of their skin.

These heinous and unspeakable acts of terror are just one more reason why God’s word tells us to not love the world, neither the things in it, because it is passing away with its lusts. From 4 little girls in 1963, through 9 people in 2015, to 26 people less than a week ago, one thing is clear. Satan knows that he has a short time, so he is ramping up his use of godless people to carry out increasingly evil and despicable acts.

And why do I keep mentioning Satan, the Devil, and demons? I do so because I don’t plan to mention them much more in the rest of this episode, because they are hidden figures behind the scenes that primarily use human beings to do their dirty work. But know this: Just as the book of Job shows us, Satan had to first get permission from God to afflict Job, he cannot do anything to us that God doesn’t allow.

When He died on the cross and rose from the grave, the Lord defeated and defanged the Devil. So against us who truly trust in Jesus, the Devil has no power, but that which we give him through our sinful actions and thoughts. Yet, those who don’t believe in Jesus are already captives of Satan’s will, to do all sorts of things against God’s people. In this show, we will take a good look at the many things man can do to us in order to see and understand how and why they are nothing short of a call to be courageous in Christ.