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Trek 2008 - Cone of Silence
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Trek 2008 – Cone of Silence
By Cheryle M. Touchton
The Pocket Full of Quarters Lady
The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Mark 4:14-16 NIV
Are you a fan of Get Smart? Get Smart was a television show (1965-1969) about a bumbling lovable Secret Agent – Maxwell Smart - otherwise known as Agent 86. The recent Get Smart movie starring the hilarious Steve Carell made me laugh so hard that I attracted the attention of those sitting near me. My only regret was that I saw it alone and wished I had someone to laugh with. When Agent 86 wanted to communicate with his Chief, he insisted on using the technologically defective device called the Cone of Silence, despite the fact that everyone reminded him it didn’t work. The ironies of the Cone of Silence was that when the device lowered over their head, the Chief and Agent 86 couldn’t hear each other but the people around them could hear everything.
I meet people on the street that I believe Satan has under a Cone of Silence. He hovers around them, blinding them to the truth of Jesus Christ and the word of God. Others can hear them talking and see the truth about them but like Agent 86 and the Chief, these poor baffled souls haven’t a clue that Satan’s Cone of Silence is keeping them from the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-23) that is available to them through Jesus.
In Washington DC, a woman and her toddler child wheeled up on a bicycle to the booth I was standing in.
“I know all about Christianity,” she angrily said. “I grew up Catholic. I’ve rejected all forms of religion because it insults me that any of them think they have The truth. How dare they?”
Her child went to crying and she turned around and snapped, “What’s wrong with you?
“If Jesus really were the truth, would you want to know it?” I asked quietly.
“No!” she said. “The very idea that there is one truth is ridiculous. I’ve got to go. He’s just going to keep crying if I don’t ride.”
She rode off leaving me wondering why she had stopped at an obviously Christian booth.
Another young man, formally active in a Christian church said, “I’d rather go to hell than spend eternity with a God that would send people to hell.”
I shuddered at his words and while I tried explaining that my God of grace sends no one to hell and that people ended up in hell by their own choice, my words fell on deaf ears. The painful part of that conversation was that this young man hangs out with people who know what a “sincere” Christian he used to be and his philosophies regarding Christianity have credibility with them. The irony is that his influence may be helping people reject Christianity and thereby ending up spending an eternity in hell.
Lately, this Cone of Silence has become so obvious to me, that when I know I’m going into a conversation with someone under that evil cone, I’ve started rebuking the power of Satan over them. I can’t make an individual listen or respond to the truth but the scripture says we do have the power to rebuke Satan. If I can get him to lift the cone for a second, the words Christ may find a home in the hearts of the lost and continue to prick until these words find their way in.
The other thing I’ve started to realize is that Christians and non-Christians find themselves under this Cone of Silence. I see it in churches, in the middle of conflict that is splitting the Bride of Christ wide open. I see it in Christian marriages, where each partner is fighting for their own way and rights. I see it with Christian parents and teenagers when they are screaming the “truth” at each other, only to have it fall on deaf ears. While Satan can’t have a Christian’s eternity, he does seem to have some sneaky power over our lives here on earth if we let sin separate us from Christ. Perhaps Satan fights for a Christian’s peace on earth because that is the only thing he can snatch from them.
It is easy for me to tell when Satan is snatching the seeds of truth from me and trying to put me under a Cone of Silence. My first clue is that I lose the fruits of the spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I begin obsessing about how to solve a problem, change a mind, or get my way. I have trouble going to sleep as my various plots for solving my dilemmas or my imagined personal slights race through my brain.
So what do I do when I’m under Satan’s attack? I have surrounded myself with people who hold me accountable to the manifestation of the fruits of the spirit in my life. Sometimes I recognize the attack and sometimes others that I trust recognize it and point it out. When it is brought to my attention, I stomp my foot at Satan and rebuke his power over me. Because I am a child of Christ, the only power he has is what I allow. I understand why Satan wants others and me under a Cone of Silence but have complete confidence that that my direct line to the tender forgiving voice and peace of Christ can be reestablished at any moment.
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Cheryle M. Touchton is the Director of Pocket Full of Change Ministries. For more information or to schedule a speaker for an event, go to www.pocketfullofchange.org or call Gail Golden at 904 316-5462.
This ministry exists because people like you are called to help fund the work of the kingdom. To help keep the Pocket Full of Quarters Lady on the road as a traveling missionary, send your tax deductible contribution to Pocket Full of Change Ministries, POB 51205, Jacksonville Beach, Florida 32240.
© Pocket Full of Change Ministries
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