{"id":188,"date":"2011-09-29T12:24:20","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T17:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=188"},"modified":"2011-09-29T12:25:01","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T17:25:01","slug":"the-sin-of-pride-and-satan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=188","title":{"rendered":"The Sin of Pride and Satan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael<\/o:o:o:o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n

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Rev 12: 7-12ab; <\/span>Jn 1: 47-51<\/o:o:o:o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n

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Dc. Larry Brockman<\/o:o:o:o:p><\/h2>\n

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The accuser of our brothers was cast out!\u00a0 <\/span>Have you ever really thought about that- about the accuser being the Devil, and being cast out?\u00a0 <\/span>And according to this account, it was because of the accusations that he was cast out.\u00a0 <\/span>Now to be sure, all of us humans can be accused of sin.\u00a0 <\/span>And Satan, a creature of God at the beginning, was highly regarded until this incident, when the accuser of man was cast out along with his minions of angels.\u00a0 <\/span>Why? <\/o:o:o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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Imagine for a moment that you are an angel created as a much more sophisticated being than mankind.\u00a0 <\/span>Then God creates these human creatures so much below you in intelligence and understanding and power and capability.\u00a0 <\/span>Not only that, they are limited in their existence to a single planet in a primitive physical world in a small galaxy in a huge universe.\u00a0 <\/span>And yet, even after their fall from the Garden of Eden, God plans to grant them access to heaven- the same as you.\u00a0 <\/span>So Satan, endowed with such superior powers, maybe only second to God before his fall, sees all man\u2019s shortcomings, reports them to God and accuses them of these shortcomings.\u00a0 <\/span>You are Satan the great accuser.\u00a0 <\/span>Now the name Satan means adversary.\u00a0 <\/span>So Satan not only accuses, but becomes our adversary.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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And that is what was wrong with Satan.\u00a0 <\/span>Satan was proud- he committed the sin of pride.\u00a0 <\/span>His pride made him an adversary of God\u2019s creation rather than an honest reporter.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s why Satan was cast out of heaven.\u00a0 <\/span>Simply put, Satan had a holier than thou attitude; he resented the imperfections of others; and it led him to a consuming attitude of superiority mixed with despise for mankind.\u00a0 <\/span>But God in His goodness had other \u201csheep\u201d in his flock besides angels; sheep that were not as capable as angels.\u00a0 <\/span>And God chose to love these other, less capable creatures too.\u00a0 <\/span>It was, and is, after all, God\u2019s business who He loves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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The question for us is this.\u00a0 <\/span>Does Satan\u2019s sin sound familiar?\u00a0 <\/span>Have you ever felt the way Satan feels about others.\u00a0 <\/span>Surely, there are people out there less capable, less fortunate, and less devoted to God than you; but we cannot have Satan\u2019s attitude about such people- an attitude of self-righteousness and despise for others.\u00a0 <\/span>Rather, we need to put on Christ\u2019s attitude- an attitude of acceptance of His fellow man no matter their station in life, color, intelligence, or looks; and for that matter, no matter their pattern of behavior.\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus, who is God, did not choose to be self-righteous and to despise mankind, but rather, to love us.\u00a0 <\/span>Certainly, we do not copy or support behavior that our conscience tells us is wrong.\u00a0 <\/span>When Jesus encountered sinners, he certainly did not support their sinful behavior, but He did not condemn them either.\u00a0 <\/span>Rather, he converted their hearts to repent and to follow His pattern of behavior.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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The Gospel story is all about Jesus choosing an ordinary man, Nathanael, from amongst a host of possible people.\u00a0 <\/span>Nathanael was chosen because Jesus saw his heart, not his appearance.\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus saw his heart, not his talents. \u00a0<\/span>And Jesus saw his heart, not his weaknesses.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s why He said of Nathanael- \u201cThere is no duplicity in him.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/o:o:o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael Rev 12: 7-12ab; Jn 1: 47-51 Dc. Larry Brockman \u00a0 The accuser of our brothers was cast out!\u00a0 Have you ever really thought about that- about the accuser being the Devil, and being cast out?\u00a0 And according to this account, it was because of the accusations that he was cast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[69,70,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}