how do you deal with Christians that see "a devil" under every rock?

[Lesa Cox]

I have know people who "see" Satan as the source of all things bad and confusing". If something does not "look right," they say it has a devil or a demon...it is automaticly branded as "of the Devil."
I have found that i am just intolerant of that kind of ignorance especially when someone is judging how another person looks. If they are differant or eclectic they must be of the devil.
How do you deal with these "harbringers of doom" that are always warring with the devil instead of just resting in Gods Love?

[Ginny Pamplin]

awwww...thank you Lesa...
Lesa Cox said:

omg that is sooo good, pray for the devil cause he needs it the most. LOVE it..
Jenny is indeed a wise woman. i have seen her go through so much ..bad stuff.. and come out shining on the other end because of her attitude of love and christ.

[Ginny Pamplin]

hah! character! yep...that's me!

Keren-Tea said:

Yes she seems a very admirable character. My mother is that way too...very resilient through her faith and her nature.

Lesa Cox said:

omg that is sooo good, pray for the devil cause he needs it the most. LOVE it..
Jenny is indeed a wise woman. i have seen her go through so much ..bad stuff.. and come out shining on the other end because of her attitude of love and christ.

[Ginny Pamplin]

now, that sounds like my kind of warfare!

Ruth Nesloney said:

You're right, Paula, I do read the Bible to say that there is an adversary, the devil, who we struggle against. I think where so many people miss it is by giving this adversary way too much power. He is a creation of God, an angel who fell. We read in Job that he has no power over us that God does not allow.
I don't so much run across people who see the demonic in the actions of others as those who try to blame every problem in their lives on the devil. I have found that if I look for God in the difficult times, He will often show me that the problem is within me. I think our own flesh, selfishness, is more often a stumbling block than that ole devil.
And these days, my "warfare" is going to my Father and resting in the shadow of His wings, and seeking a deeper place in Him. As I move closer to the Light, the darkness is always pushed back.


Paula said:

I'll be honest and say that I'm not clear where I stand on the whole topic. People do take it to the extreme. If one sees that all things good come from God, would the converse not be true? All bad things come from the evil one. Define 'good' and 'bad'. Just because someone thinks something is bad, does not necessarily make it so. There has been much good to come from that which has been deemed bad. To make a judgment on appearances (i.e. someone being different) is, IMO, in itself 'bad'. People said Jesus had a demon.
I do believe that the devil is real - although maybe not as he has been defined for the most part. There's too much in the Bible to not believe it. Although, off the top of my head, do we see much of him in the OT, apart from the garden and in Job? There are probably some references in the Psalms to the enemy - but can't recall right off if that refers to people or the evil one, but I lean towards thinking that the reference is to people. But in the stories, I don't remember references to him, in spite of all the bad that happened. I've never thought of that before. Ginny has a wonderful way to handle such situations. I don't have much association with 'church folk' so I don't run into this anymore.

[Ginny Pamplin]

Ruth is most wise and most brave...I feel discerment(wisdom) is being able to look things in the eye and call them by their right names...courage is being able to do that with the face in the mirror. Grace is the gift that allows us to be so brave and so wise(discerning) because we know that there is nothing that can stop our King from His passionate pursuit of our perfection and ultimate accomplishment of His Heart's Desire: a pure and spotless Bride. So, we can let go of our need to judge others, and of our need to have pretentions about ourselves. They are all illusions, anyway, that become strangely dim in the Light of His Glory and Grace.Lesa Cox said:

Ruth that was just awesome.. you said:

I have found that if I look for God in the difficult times, He will often show me that the problem is within me. I think our own flesh, selfishness, is more often a stumbling block than that ole devil.
Oh wow how true.Very good point..!!

[Paula]

Lesa, I was reading back over this and what you say is so true!

Lesa Cox said:

i have found that people, oftentimes, are afraid of what they cannot understand. If they fear it, therefore it must be bad.

I have experienced that personally many times - fear leading to believing something is bad. Fear binds us.

i have found if you look past the "scary" all people are wanting validation and love. Very few are psychopaths...
the scariest ones to me are the judgmental Christians.

Perfect love casts out all fear.

[John Felkins]

ignore them