JCSM's Weekly Devotions (click here to listen!)

"Know Your Enemy: Satan's Origin and Fall From Heaven"

Ezekiel 28:13-19  "You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper,
Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created.  'You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you. You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities, By the iniquity of your trading;
Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth In the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; You have become a horror, And shall be no more forever.'"

Isaiah 14:12-17  "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. Those who see you will gaze at you, And consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, Who made the world as a wilderness And destroyed its cities, Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’"

Insight: The scriptures tell us that Satan was a created being.  He was an angel in Heaven before he sinned and fell to Earth.  Recognize his power and draw closer to God, so He can protect You and bless you.  We all need God's strength because the enemy and his fallen angels always want to attack us.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us and lift us up.  Protect us from the enemy.  Praise You for being stronger and greater than all.  Remind us that Satan was created by You and that he is not as powerful as you.  Help us to draw close to You, repent from our sins, and to trust You.  Praise You for being worthy of our devotion and praise.  There is no other like You!  In Jesus' name, Amen."

"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind.  It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.

"No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people.  This is historically true.  From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation.

"The commission to Christopher Columbus .... [recited] that it is hoped that by God's assistance some of the continents and islands in the ocean will be discovered ...

"The first colonial grant made to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 .... and the grant authorizing him to enact statutes for the government of the proposed colony provided that they be not against the true Christian faith ...

"The first charter of Virginia, granted by King James I in 1606 .... commenced the grant in these words: '...in propagating of Christian Religion to such People as yet live in Darkness ...'

"Language of similar import may be found in the subsequent charters of that colony .... in 1609 and 1611; and the same is true of the various charters granted to the other colonies.  In language more or less emphatic is the establishment of the Christian religion declared to be one of the purposes of the grant.  The celebrated compact made by the Pilgrims in the Mayflower, 1620, recites: 'Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith ....  a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia...'

"The fundamental orders of Connecticut, under which a provisional government was instituted in 1638-1639, commence with this declaration: '.... And well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union .... there should be an orderly and decent government established according to God .... to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess .... of the said gospel [which] is now practiced amongst us.'

"In the charter of privileges granted by William Penn to the province of Pennsylvania, in 1701, it is recited: '.... no people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, if abridged of .... their religious profession and worship ...'

"Coming nearer to the present time, the Declaration of Independence recognizes the presence of the Divine in human affairs in these words:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights .... appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions .... And for the support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

"... We find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth .... because of a general recognition of this truth [that we are a Christian nation], the question has seldom been presented to the courts ...

"There is no dissonance in these declarations.  There is a universal language pervading them all, having one meaning; they affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation.  These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people." ¹

¹ February 29, 1892, decided and gave the court's opinion on the case Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 US 457-458, 465-471, 36 L ed 226, (submitted and argued January 7, 1892).   David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), pp. 47-51.  "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 6.  Gary DeMar, The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision, Inc., 1993), p. 21.

If you'd like to see more quotes from those that framed and founded America, please click here: http://jcsm.org/AmericasFounders/.

(This explanation came from "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained", by Jason Gastrich.  This book is on CD and gives over 4,000 answers to alleged Bible errors, regarding the entire Bible at http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.org.  There is also a 300 question workbook that accompanies the CD-ROM.)

Love your children equally.

The world is lost, but it's making good time.

If you read it correctly, the Bible is relevant for today.

God has to do what He has said He would do or He wouldn't be God and the Bible wouldn't be trustworthy.

We don't accept the Apocryphal books because the Jews never have and because Jesus never referred to them.

These quotes came from me, Raul Ries, and the Holy Spirit.

If you'd like to read more quotes, we have thousands in our archive!  Visit http://quotes.jcsm.org.  Plus, if you'd like to read a new quote every day, please go to http://jcsm.org/Wisdom.htm and bookmark it!