Whoever wrote the screenplay for The Matrix wasn’t that far fetched from the reality of the war going on between God and Satan.  See, we as humans are sinful and live blindly according to the Matrix — Satan and sin.  Satan runs society.  As long as we don’t know that there is such a thing as the “Matrix” or Satan, the ruler of this realm, we cast disparaging looks and critical judgments on those who believe otherwise, Morpheus — Christians.  Like Morpheus did for Neo, someone in the life of this Christian said let me help you see the true world and reality.  So, I chose the red pill…the truth.  I read the Bible and accepted God’s Grace through His Son, Jesus Christ.  And I was set free and saw the true world for the first time.  With new eyes, I saw the horrors of this world.  

As I began to understand and acclimate myself to this new sense of reality, I became fully aware that Satan & his demons have been using me and other souls in a futile attempt to hurt and destroy God.

But I am no longer prisoner to Satan’s whim, because Jesus’s grace & sacrifice created “the red pill” the way out of Satan’s clutches and into the loving arms of My Father.  The place God had intended for me and all human kind to be.

By accepting this gift from God, we are transformed from a slave to sin into a soldier & child of righteousness for God.  Do we deserve such freedom, such grace, such redemption?  No.  For our species is soiled with the stench of sin, betrayal, & unholiness.  Since the fall of man, we have continued to breed filth, sin, and dispair.  We are not as God intended.  But because of His incredible love for us, He sent His only Son, Jesus, who is also God, Himself, to be the ultimate sacrifice to cleanse the stain of sin from our race.    It’s like washing clothes.  To get a white shirt that has been soiled and marred to the point it isn’t even white anymore back to its original glory, you can’t use filthy water with diluted soap!  No, you need the strongest form of bleach, the purest and hottest water available to restore that bad boy.  But that’s not all it takes to get a white shirt clean.  It takes some elbow grease.  It must be vigorously rubbed, worked and beaten in order to get the stains to loosen up and come out. 

We are God’ dirtest load of laundry!  Jesus is the bleach and the hot pure water.  We are loaded with sin.  We ooze it from every pore.  The only thing to wash out sin is the sinless power and nature of Christ.  He’s done the bleaching now it’s time for the wash, spin, rinse, and repeat cycles.

Hebrews 12:12 says “Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but rather, painful; afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” 

Being rid of the sin that infiltrates our lives is not going to be fun or easy.  And why should it?  Jesus was tortured and crucified.  Our natural, human, sinful reaction is going to be to bock at correction.  But, just as it says here in Hebrews, we will yield peaceable, righteous fruit because of it. 

Hebrews talks about constantly working on yourself as a Christian.  A soldier doesn’t stop working out or studying the enemy once he has finished bootcamp.  No!  He is constantly sharpening his skills and knowledge so that he is ready for battle at a moment’s notice!! 

Are you ready?  Are you a threat to Satan and his way of life?

Is your faith, armor, and knowledge strong enough in God?  Could you go to battle for God today?

Or are you just a baby…helpless and vulnerable?  Not ready for solid foods yet?  You cannot willfully be against growing into the full-fledged Christian warrior God has made you to be. 

Measure yourself.  How much of a threat are you?

“A spiritual enemy in our time is privatization of personal faith.  For too many so-called ‘committed Christians’ their relationship with Jesus is like an extramarrital affair.  It’s a secret relationship.  The love affair is real but hidden from the public eye…the tradegy for those individuals is that undisclosed personal faith eventually produces and inner sense of psychological illegitimacy.”

It’s not just a children’s song… “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”

Time and time again people have asked me, “Who is the ’silent infiltrator’?” and “Should I be wary of the ’silent infiltrator’?”  Well the answer to these questions is very simple but some intellectuals have severe difficulty embracing the facts.  The silent infiltrator is satan, his demons, and sin.  And “yes!”, you should be wary of the silent infiltrator!  Now, here’s where intellectuals (by the way, I’m no slouch when it comes to academic prowess just so you don’t think I’m some schmuck redneck with no basis of academic reality) want to convince you that sin is not sin but rather a disease or an illness.  They term it “anti-social behavior.”  Basically, saying it’s not your fault that you lie, cheat, steal, kill, maim, blaspheme, etc.  You’re just sick.  You can’t be blamed for the choices you make.  Bologna!

Sin is sin!  Plan and simple.  We know it well.  In fact, it permeates ever cell, molecule, and atom of our anatomy.  An analogy that comes to mind is that of a smoke filled bar.  You go into a bar for a little while with some friends.  The smell of smoke smacks you in the face when you enter the room.  But after a while you stop smelling it.  You get used to it.  But when you get home, you reak of it!  It’s in your hair, your clothes, your jacket, up your nostrils, on your purse, on your shoes, every piece of clothing you were wearing!  And if you go to bed without taking a full on scalding hot shower, you wake up with your bed linens covered in it from your hair and your actual being.  The stench is EVERYWHERE!  And now, not only do you have to wash the clothes you were wearing the night before, but you also have to wash your pjs and all your bed linens just to rid yourself of the smell. 

 Sin is like that smoke.  It permeates every aspect of our lives.  But, similar to getting used to the smell in the bar, we don’t notice the sin.  It’s just what is acceptable.  Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, we have inherited a sinful nature.  So, technically, we are born with it.  We are bound to it.  But unlike the smell of smoke, there is nothing we can or could ever do to cleanse ourselves from sin.  No amount of scrubbing or good works or being a good person can rid ourselves of sin.  We reak of it.

But, there is good news!  God because He is the opposite of sin sent His Son, Jesus to us as Himself on Earth to sacrifice Him for our transgressions.  In order that we might be able to be with Him eternally.  The only way that we as humans could ever be set free from satan’s bonds of sin was for God, as Jesus who was/is sinless, to take our place with all of our sins — past, present and future — on His shoulders in sacrifice.  But being God, He was not bound by death, which is a human consequence, and triumphed over satan and death to restore us to our intended purposes under God.

But here’s the kicker!  The Grace of God is a gift.  And a gift is only useful if you open it and use it.  That’s what it means to be a Christian.  It means to simply recognize that Jesus did this amazing thing for us, all of us, and because of that recognition, you ask for the Holy Spirit (God, here with us) to come upon you and release you from your sinful nature.  It’s kind of like the Matrix.  Take the blue pill or the red pill.  If you take the red pill, if you accept the Saving Grace of Jesus, you will be freed from your bondages of sin and be able to see the true reality of just how sinful and bleek life here on earth is.  Living in the matrix as a pawn was easy and fun.  Living in reality is a war — a struggle.  That’s what it’s like to be a Christian.  Christians are warriors who are in the world but not of the world.  Because we as Christians are free from satan’s ties, we are his number 1 target.  He’s sending his demons and everything he can after us because we are dangerous to him.  So, just like the early Christians had to do, we must be aware that they are everywhere.