Fans

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Acts 16:16-18

6Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

I have lived long enough to see many great evangelist, prophets, preachers and teachers run their course.  I am not inclined to be a fan of anyone, but some of my peers were.  I saw them buy books, by tapes and conference surf looking for that next blessing.  I watched them drop massive amounts of their money at the feet of someone they barely knew.  Seemed like they enjoyed themselves, so what is the harm.  When I examined this scripture, I saw it.  Here a young slave girl is walking behind Paul and saying the right thing and obviously enjoying herself, but she remained unchanged.  She still was a soothe-sayer.  She still was undone.  How many people are you just following because they make you feel good and not because the word they preach is making you better.

The Devil made me do it.

I am a firm believer that human beings blame much of life's mishaps on the devil.  As a matter of fact, most of the time, it is not Satan destroying your life.  It is the sum of unbridled passion and ill advice that seem to be our undoing.  We develop attractions to the very things that cause us pain.  When we hit our heads on that brick wall, there really is no one else to blame but us.  Well, if you are an evangelical christian you can always say that the devil made me do it.  I am sitting in my bed counting all the ways that I made decisions today and how they affected my life.  Tomorrow, their will be changes because I do have some say in what happens to me.  I hate giving up the power of directing my own life.  Sometimes, people have come to me looking for advice and what they really want is for me to make the decision.  Of course, I never do that.  You will stand on your own convictions because mine may not fit you.  By the same token, advice is advice.  I talk to my pastor a lot.  I like him, but he does not make my decisions for me.  I have learned that I can't hand my life to the cloth and sit back.  My pastor advices me spiritually, but he will not ever be given the power to make decisions for me.  I have to do that based on what is best for me.  At the end of the day, he won't be to blame for whatever I get into and that is the truth.