Courage and the meaning of fatherhood. One of the best minute and a half speeches of all time. From the 1960 movie The Magnificent Seven

One of my freshman English classes at college was taught by a Marine Corp officer, combat veteran of Vietnam. The only text book I remember from that class was the book The Exorcist by William Blatty. The Exorcist is a book about demonic possession and the attempted exorcism of the young girl who was possessed. It is a novel based on a true story.

The book was read aloud in class and we were to read at home also. We discussed the book endlessly through out the semester. The movie came out that year and it was an assignment. The teacher took a roll call outside the theatre and we sat together. The movie, the book, the whole thing gave me the creeps. I couldn’t tell you what we were supposed to have learned, but I never forgot the class.

Among Americans, 50% believe that Satan is a living fallen being created by God. About 50% believe Satan is just a symbol of evil. Those percentages depend on which survey you want to read. If we are to believe Jesus was who he says he was and then he talks to Satan in the Bible in several situations, don’t you think we should believe in Satan?

Several years ago I was watching a sermon online from a well known pastor from a mega church in the Midwest. He said, “We have surveyed our membership and a third of you believe in Satan, a third of you don’t and a third of you don’t know what to think and I am not sure either.”

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis was a conversation between two demons. Screwtape tells Wormwood that the most effective thing he can do to bring souls to hell is to convince people that Satan does not exist.

Job 1: 6-7 There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered, “From going to and fro on the earth.”

1 John 5:19 We know that we are from God and the world lies in the power of the evil one.

1 Peter 5:8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

My friend Ellina Lesnik lives in Ukraine. We hosted Ellina and her husband and three girls this past summer at our home for a 4th of July party. Ellina and her husband have since gone back to Ukraine and are helping to feed hungry people working with Samaritans Purse. Both of them are Christians working to bring the bread of life and bread of heaven to people all over the unoccupied areas of the Ukraine. Reading her emails and facebook posts the struggle and suffering they go through are unimaginable.

She told me this past summer she had written a book titled ‘My Imperfect Marriage’. She opens up her own marriage and the marriage of her own mother and father and shares the abuse, neglect, struggle they have had. Then each chapter of the book tells about a particular marriage in the Bible, of which there are 22, and relates it to her and her parents marriage.

The following is a portion of the introduction:

I promise you that this book is free of sugary perfection, empty romance, and superficial advice. We will talk about difficult family issues, hopeless situations, dead ends, wounded destinies and really bad marriages.

My purpose is to show you, dear reader, that God does not work in perfect marriages, but in ordinary ones. Sometimes even the worst ones. And there is always a lot of hope in His action!

This book has been written to live out in the real world, in real marriages, to give you hope, to encourage you, and to strengthen you as a couple.

If you do nothing but read the introduction to the book and the first chapter you will be encouraged in your own marriage.

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NBC story on Sergiy and Ellina in Ukraine

Luke 13: 6-9 (King James Version) Till I shall dig about it and dung it.

Dung it means manure. This fig tree has no fruit so they are ready to cut it down. The gardener says lets give it one more chance to be fruitful.

Are you bearing fruit in your life? Are you useful to God the Father? He will give you another chance to be fruitful. But first he may put manure around you.

How many times have you heard someone say, “My life is full of crap” or something similar? Crap being another name for manure. Well maybe God is just fertilizing you and expecting some new growth from you, that will then bear fruit.