If You Are

Wednesday night is family devotion night for us. Last night's passage to read and discuss was Luke 4: The Temptation of Jesus. Our two oldest read verses of equal length, while our youngest tried to be quiet. It was good - the passage lent itself to talking about things like fasting and temptation; however, most of our time was spent talking about the devil. I realize that sounds strange, but it's true.

One question that was asked was: How did Jesus know it was the devil? The question here arising out of identification (red suit, horns, pitchfork, etc.). Our reponse was, Well, I think Jesus knew; he's pretty smart, ya'know. That seemed to satisfy. We then asked the kids if they knew any other names that the devil is known by? They said, Satan and then couldn't think of anything else. Theologically astute father that I am, I added the descriptor of "deceiver" to the list. We discussed deception and what that means and again, it seemed to satisfy.

But my mind looped back to the original question of identification. How do we know the enemy when he/she/it comes? If the devil is all about deception, then I'm going to have to be a tip-toe to catch this, right?

Our "temptation" discussion with the kids had them giving examples of "watching t.v. shows you guys don't like" to "not cleaning up my room." As I thought about what I would add to that discussion, it became a little more difficult. How am I being tempted on a daily, if not hourly, basis? If the devil has even a smidgen of the power that we say he/she/it does, then the deception thrown at me is not going to be straight down the middle? Or is it? Or will it be different every time? Or is there a theme, if I look at my life, that seems to play out temptation-wise? There are a number of books out there on satan and his/her/its schemes; I'm not convinced those authors really know what they're talking about. Oh, some of it is solid; however, to say we've got the skinny on the deceiver sounds a little like we've been...well, deceived.

The one takeaway for me last night was that all of the deceiver's questions/ploys had to do with the conditional if you are. That's probably a good place to start looking and listening; anything that causes me to if my identity, who I am in Jesus. So...maybe the wisdom in not being deceived lies in being dang sure who Jesus says you are. And that can come via horns and a fork or blue eyes and blue jeans...