dealing with a subtle foe

Some folks have this idea that the devil is a red man with horns and a pitch fork.  Some have been led to believe the devil is equal to God in power and they respect that.  The Bible which is our source of truth, says he is most subtle.  The word subtle means cunning or crafty.  He is pretty clever when it comes to deceiving the feeble minded.  Allow me to expose one of the devil’s greatest schemes.
 
Mathew 28:19 Go into all the world and make disciples of all men, baptize them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
 
The last thing Jesus said to the church before He returned to heaven was go all over the world and present the teachings of Christ.  The devil heard what Jesus said and immediately he hatched a plan to stop the disciples.  The devil knew that in order for the disciples to go into all the world they would need money.  Jesus called him a thief for a reason, he began to divert the funds the disciples needed to preach to other worldly accounts.  It requires a lot of money to go into all the world and preach the Gospel so the devil began to rob the church of the funds.  One of the devil’s tactics is to reassign priorities, man putting himself before God.
 
Mathew 6:33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His way of doing things, and all these things will be added to you.
 
The devil would have us to spend our lives seeking what we need and then give God any leftover time.  What is the conventional wisdom of the average Christian?  Work hard all week and give God one hour of your time Sunday.  Who do you suppose put the world on its schedule?  Let me give you a clue, it is the one who has you so busy working to survive that you have little or no time for God.  When you work hard for your pay check you become selective where you spend your money.  It is your money and you hate to spend it even on things you must have like a house, a car and food.  Every hard working man wants to keep his money as long as he can.
 
Malachi 3:10-11 Bring all your tithes into the storehouse saith the Lord, and I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out the blessing.  And I will rebuke the seed eater for your sakes.
 
Ten cents of every dollar we earn belongs to the Lord, it is the Lord’s tithe.  Statisticians tell us only twelve percent of Christians give God His tithes.  If every Christian gave God His tithe, the church could easily send missionaries into all the world.  Jesus is not coming back for His church until the Gospel is preached to every man!  When Jesus returns for us, the devil will be locked away in the pit of hell.  So, he has a very good reason for withholding the funds required to preach the Gospel to all nations.  The church wants Jesus to come for them but they are not hastening His return!.  The devil is so subtle he can make you believe that God will bless you in your disobedience.  God is so merciful He will never tire of feeding us the truth that can make us free.  I set before you this day blessing and curse, life and death, choose life that you and your family may prosper.

---