Busy, busy, busy

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening
address to his evil angels, he said,

"We can't keep the Christians from going to church.
We can't keep them from reading their Bibles & knowing
the Truth. We can't even keep them from conservative
values. But we can do something else. We can keep them
from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ.
If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over
them is broken."

"So let them go to church, let them have their
conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they
can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ."

"This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them
from gaining hold of their Savior & maintaining that
vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?",  shouted his angels.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life & invent
un-numbered schemes to occupy their minds", he answered.
"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then,  borrow,  borrow,
borrow. Convince the wives to go to work & the husbands to
work 6 or 7 days a week, 10-12 hrs. a day, so they can
afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time
with their children. As their family fragments, soon,
their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of
work."

"Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that
still small voice. Entice them to play the radio or
cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV,
the VCR, & their CD's going constantly in their homes.
And see to it that every store & restaurant in the
world plays music constantly. This will jam their
minds & break that union with Christ.  Fill their
coffee tables with magazines & newspapers. Pound their
minds with the news 24 hrs. a day. Invade their driving
moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with
junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, & every
kind of newsletter & promotional offering, free products,
services, & false hopes."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have
them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted
& unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out
in nature. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events,
concerts & movies instead. And when they meet for spiritual
fellowship, involve them in gossip & small talk so that
they leave with troubled consciences & unsettled emotion."

"Let them be involved in soul-winning. But crowd their
lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek
power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own
strength, sacrificing their health & family unity for the
good of the cause."

It was quite a convention in the end.

And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments
causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy
& rush here & there.

Has the devil been successful at his scheme?
You be the judge.



I'm not sure I like the term "evil angels"...I wanted
to change it to read "demons" but this is the way it
was written, so I left it. I'm not sure who wrote this, but I
read it yesterday and thought it was good. How true is it?
How often do we get caught up in our "busyness"? I remember
a time when my children were young and playing fall soccer.
Too often we had games or practices on Sunday and couldn't
even make it to church. Finally we made a decision, as
parents, that church had to be more important than soccer
and we managed to work the soccer schedule around it.

Now as empty nesters our schedule isn't as busy. Yet, we
still find things to do to fill it up. My favorite days
lately are spent at home, resting and relaxing in God's
peace, and trying to make my home into the haven of
tranquility I long for it to be. Yet it seems like so
many days I just HAVE to get out of the house and go DO
something. The walls close in on me and I feel like I'm
going to lose my mind. The mailbox is full of flyers for
this and sale papers for that. Everywhere you go music
is blaring. It's a barrage on my senses! Yesterday at Cash
and Carry the music was so loud I could barely think. At
Cash and Carry! I found myself being angry when we left
the store, for really no reason at all. I took that
anger out on my husband by getting frustrated with him
over something totally insignificant.

Remember the song by Carly Simon,
Haven't got time for the pain? One of the lines in
that song says "turn down the noise in my mind"...
that's what I'm trying to do, turn down the noise in
my mind so that I can hear that still, small voice and
have that intimate connection with my God and savior.