February 26, 2008 - Beware the Lion

The other weekend my Dad came down from Washington State.  Josie, my older sister, was in the All-State Choir so we spent all day Saturday in San Antonio and stayed at a hotel that night (to read more about that visit our group blog, Pennies From Heaven).  Sunday morning we drove about a half hour North-East of San Antonio to Bulverde, Texas for that is the home of Richard “Little Bear” Wheeler.  What?  You mean some of you haven’t heard of “Little Bear”?  In that case you’ll have to look him up.  If ever there was a man that made history interesting, he’s the one.  But more than that, he is a man of God, and it shows too. 

Anyway, my point is we drove to Bulverde to visit the church at which he preaches (Living Water Fellowhip) because we had wanted to for quite a while, and Dad was with us besides.  We were privileged to hear “Little Bear” preach (he takes turns with a couple other teachers I believe) and I thought the sermon was very much worth sharing with others.  Here is my lengthy overview of it:

Beware the Lion

Key verse: 1 Peter 5:8     “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour:”

Here “Little Bear” told us how much he likes the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and how he went all out and bought one of every version he could find, his favorite being the one where the first two pigs get grossly devoured by the ravenous wolf (he’s a hunter).  He cautioned us to build our house out of, or on, the Rock.  From there he started talking about wild pigs in Hawaii and how they are caught.  You start by basically getting them addicted to sweet corn in one area, the one day you set up one side of a gate.  The pigs will be a little wary at first but eventually they will get quite comfortable again.  A couple or few weeks later you’ll set up another side of the gate, and again the pigs addiction will overcome their watchfulness.  As the weeks pass you set up a third part of the gate and finally the fourth, but on this last section you’ll have an opening with a rope attached which you can pull from behind some camouflage to close it.  After the “wild” pigs have adjusted to going in and out the smaller door you can close them in one day.  At first they will be wild, more or less, but eventually, when they realize they cannot get out, they will go back to eating their corn.  And there you have your very own domesticated pigs.

The point of this long description being, LOOK OUT!!!  This is how the devil will try to catch you!  Don’t be a dumb pig and just fall for it, stay on guard at all times!

Romans 6:23     “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

(More about demons, devils, etc.)

Jude 1:6-7     “6And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance off eternal fire.”

Now, just to clarify, Satan will attack individual people himself, as with Job.  He leaves the rest of us to his devilish helpers.

“Little Bear” said when he took an acting class in college (or maybe it was high school, can’t remember) they were taught how to act drunk.  He said they told them the best way to act drunk is think that you’re not because that’s what drunk people think.  When someone is drunk they still think they are sober; they are deceiving themselves.  Harkening back to the first two words in 1 Peter 5:8 we are told to “be sober” and to “be vigilant”.  We must be extremely careful to make sure we truly are sober and are not deceiving ourselves into just thinking we are, like a drunken person.

One example he gave of a self-deceived man was Samson.  He thought, ‘Hey, I’m cool, I’ve got this whole philistine deal under control because I’m so strong.’  He thought he was sober-minded, but as we all know that was not the case.  Because Samson was neither sober nor vigilant his strength, his power from God was broken and he became one of the most pitiful stories we know.

Now, how do we become sober and vigilant?  Through prayer.

1 Thesselonians 5:6     “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” 

The word “adversary” literally means: anti and decay.  Peter actually became an adversary of Christ when he said he would fight anyone that tried to take his Lord.

Ephesians 6:12     “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the rulers o the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

The Devil uses his evil/nice strategy.

Matthew 24:43     “But know this, that if the Goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.”

In other words, thieves never come when you’re looking for them, they always come when you’re not prepared.

John 6:70     “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

1 Timothy 3:11     “Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.”

2 Timothy 3:3     “Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,”

The Latin word for devil is ‘diablos’.  Jesus called Judas a devil and when we slander, break truces, and accuse others falsely, people in the church can become devils as well.

“Little Bear” likes to give visuals so here he invited about 6 or 7 boys up and had them bend over in a line with their heads touching the back of the boy in front of them.  Then he laid a long red tablecloth over them and placed a skin of a mountain lion he had on top of that.  Now, the lion skin didn’t quite go from end to end but the boys measured approximately 9’8”.  That was the length of some real, man-eating lions in Africa; from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail.  A book was written and a movie was made by the same name about these lions called ‘Ghosts in the Darkness’.

I don’t remember if it was after “Little Bear” read this book or something else about mountain lions here in Texas but he described the different reactions between him and the friend that told him about it.  Since they live in Texas hill-country where mountain lions are known to wander they both sorta’ freaked out.  When he had to go out at night he strapped all his guns to him, held one in each hand and made plenty of noise.  His friend, on the other, would take a flashlight and his son, just to have the moral support of another human beside him.

James 5:14     “Is any sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:”

Of course, the initial fear of cougar attacks weakens over time, and eventually when either of them had to go out and see what was wrong with the generator they’d grab a flashlight and walk out no problem.

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