Pertinant Quote: "Going to church every Sunday makes you as much a Christian as going to McDonald's make you a Big Mac." ... Jen Jones, age 14-and-a-half.
  
Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth.
  
"We can't even keep them from living by faith in Christ, but we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.
  
"So, let them go to church, let them try to live their lives by faith in Christ, but steal their time, so they can't gain Spiritual rest in Jesus Christ.
  
"This is what I want you to do, Angels! Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
  
"How shall we do this?" shouted Satan's angels. "Teach us! We want to serve you by tricking and cheating man into serving you!"
  
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent un-numbered schemes to occupy their minds," Satan answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then, borrow, borrow, borrow.
  
"Convince the wives to go to work for long hours, and the husbands to work 6 or 7 days a week, 12-14 hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. AND ... As their family fragments, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work.
  
"Over-stimulate their minds so they cannot hear that still small voice of Jesus Christ. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, and to keep the TV, VCR, CDs and personal computers running constantly in their homes.

"And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world constantly plays music which runs contradictory to a life of faith in Christ. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.
  
"Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail -- sweepstakes, contests, mail order catalogs, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering, free products, services, and false hopes.
  
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. And don't even let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Instead, entice them with amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies.
  
"And when they meet for Spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small-talk so they go back home with troubled consciences and unsettled emotion.
  
"You can let them be involved in what they believe to be 'soul-winning' activities. But crowd their lives with so many good causes that they'll have no time to seek power from Christ. Let them carry on in empty conversations (Titus 3:9) about Pro-Life verses Pro-Choice; this false religion or denomination over that false religion or denomination; and let them hold ecuminical services during man-made holidays such as Easter and Christmas.
  
"Do all this, and soon they will be working in their own strength, instead of Christ's, sacrificing their health and family unity for the good of all their good Christian causes."
  
It was quite a convention in the end.
  
Satan's evil angels went eagerly to their assignments, causing so-called Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy ... and rush here and rush there, until the so-called Christians no longer knew Jesus Christ.
  
As make-believe Born Again Christians, they did things like obtain divorces from their wives and husbands; lived together with their boyfriends and girlfriends before getting married; disregarded God's Word; "wherefore God gave them up to uncleanliness, through the lusts of their own hearts (Romans 1:18-32)," because they did not desire God in their hearts -- and, Satan didn't win afterall. It was God who allowed them ruin in their own lives, since they despised God in their hearts.
  
And their pastors were powerless, not being true servants of God themselves (Romans 9:8 & 32). With sin in their hearts, Satan kept them all from ever entering the kingdom of heaven, and they weren't truly Born Again of the Spirit, even though they thought they were. They were just false Christians, who really didn't know Jesus Christ at all. Yes ...they certainly proclaimed, "Jesus Christ is Lord!" but they did not know Him, and Christ didn't know them either (Matthew 7:21-23).
  
Imagine that!
  
Has the devil been successful at his scheme in your so-called "Christian life?" You'd better believe it, if you still struggle with the burden of sin in your heart. Satan has you tricked and he has cheated you.
  
Let God's Word be the judge in your heart. "Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore (Psalm 86:ll-l2)."