Lesson 255: "Black Ice"
Black ice is frozen water with very few air bubbles trapped inside making it transparent.It takes on the color of the material it lies atop of, often asphalt or highways, becoming a hazard to drivers.It is usually very slick compared to other roadway ice and is totally invisible and unexpected. If we do not observe the warning signs of the black ice, we will skid out of control. The devil too, is invisible and usually unexpected. Without observing God’s warning Words about Satan, our lives will skid out of control. Satan can spread “black ice” of deceit over everything in this world. After all he is the “prince of this world” (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11) and can transform himself to appear as the “angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14).
Paul wrote to the Corinth church members about a person who had caused sadness among them. They had become puffed up about their achievements and argued about everything and rebelled against Paul’s leadership. Paul defended his ministry and admonished the Christians to remember to whom they belonged (2 Cor. 13:5). Paul said the punishment the church had given the wayward person was enough. Now they must forgive him and comfort him to keep him from having too much sadness and giving up completely (2 Cor. 2:6). If they would forgive, then Paul would, in turn, forgive them so that Satan would not win anything from them (2 Cor. 2:11). Paul did not set himself up as the “ultimate forgiver” but was saying this for a “just in case” assurance to fight against the devil. This is one of the devil’s greatest “black ice” slip and slides! God says we must forgive others or He will not forgive us. The devil says we can never completely forgive, thus throwing us into the snare of “forgiveness by steps”. I will forgive “when”; I will forgive you “if”; I will forgive you “but”! Satan says to wait until all the bitterness is out of our hearts or we can never fully forgive a person that has wronged us. However, if we wait until all the bitterness is gone we may have waited to late and the devil has us in his trap, doing what he wants and that is not forgiving (2 Tim. 2:26). Remember that Satan, that old serpent, is an expert at changing the Scripture just a word or two to trip us up. Jesus said to do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matt. 7:12). The devil says to do unto others as they HAVE done unto you and he never “misuses” this verse to do good but brings to our mind all the bad things people have done to us.
Ephesians 6:10-18 was written so as to teach and remind us that we have to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power; putting on the full armor of God so that we can fight against the devil’s schemes. The devil whispers that we should be like David where this armor is concerned. King Saul put his own armor on David but David was not used to it so he took it all off (1 Sam. 17:38-45). He never finishes the “rest of the story” which is that David came against the giant in the name of the Lord Almighty and the Lord Almighty will go with us when facing our own personal giant. Satan will remind us that Samuel told King Saul; “the Lord has left you and has become your enemy” (1 Sam. 28:16), but he leaves out the part where this was because Saul did not obey the Lord (1 Sam. 28:18). He will use this verse to threaten us with God leaving because of every little slip in our lives. Jesus said; “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). Satan is a liar (John 8:44) but we can trust God to do what He promised (Heb. 10:23).
Every Christian who has or who will ever live will experience some kind of suffering. We must stand firm in our faith and after a short time God will make us strong and keep us from falling. Our enemy, Satan, will jump on us at the first sign of suffering, saying that God is punishing us and we cannot be forgiven. If we give in to him he will eat up our faith and bring our spirit as low as the dirt he crawls upon (1 Pet. 5:6-11). One of life’s greatest forms of suffering is being hurt by friends and/or family. Take it to God in prayer and do not try to avenge; “’it is mine to avenge, I will repay’, says the Lord”’ (Rom. 12:17-19). Do not sin in anger, be bitter or shout and yell insults to hurt others, thus grieving the Holy Spirit. All of these actions excite and elate the devil and he will defeat us through them (Eph. 4:26-32).
The devil will try to convince us that he and his demons do not exist; that he and evil spirits are figments of our imagination or fictional movie characters. If he can get us to believe this, then of course we will believe it is ok to watch all this wickedness, such as paranormal, physics, witches and etc. on television or the movies, thus filling our minds with devilish thoughts (1 Cor. 10:23-24). Long before movies and television, “the thoughts of human beings turned evil and God was sorry He made them” (Gen. 6:5-6). Let us strive not to make God sorry He made us! Another trick of the devil is to ruin us with too little or too much of a good thing. For instance if we are righteous Christians, he can cause us to be a self-righteous Christians (Rom. 12:3, Gal. 6:3). Self-righteousness can exist in Christians and in non-Christians alike. Satan loves non-Christians and will cause them to detest Christians but he will also cause the “better-than-thou” Christians to detest non-Christians. No one has ever brought an unbeliever to Christ through hate (1 John 3:1, 11, 18).
We must not let the devil alienate us from man because in the process we will become separated from God and His Church. Never question God’s unconditional love but do not make the mistake that because He IS love that every thing in our lives will be lovely and happy. There will be patches of “black ice”! There will be un-lovable people in our paths! We should take inventory of ourselves and see how lovable we truly are. We should ask ourselves how lovable we were before Jesus saved us. How lovable are we now that He should still love us? “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Remember that God chose us and made us holy! He loves us! We should show mercy to others, be kind, humble, gentle and patient to everyone we come across just because Jesus loved us first and enough to die for us! We need to get along with each other and forgive one who does wrong to us! Love is what holds us all together in unity (Col. 3:12-17).
At a distant, black ice is beautiful! The devil can make the world a beautiful place but we must keep our distance! If we keep “skating” on the devil’s black ice, we will slide right down into the lake of fire with him (Rev. 20:10, 14-15). “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End; to him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Rev. 21:6). Black ice will not quench our thirst!