Rector's Rambling for August 24th

Yes, evil does exist in the world. For the most part, we don’t think about this very often. I would hope that we spend more time in our lives praying, praising God, and focusing on His Will for us in our lives (both individually, as well as corporately as the Body of Christ—The Church).
But recently I have been reminded of the power of evil, and particularly the deceptions of the Evil One, Satan.
News of the shooting at a Church in Tennessee, and a person randomly attacking and killing a fellow passenger on a greyhound bus in Canada have brought this reality of evil to the media forefront. Of course, the secular media won’t name this ‘evil’, but I am convinced that that is its foundation.
The evil one is real, and he and his minions (the fallen angels, also known as demons or devils) seek to distort and destroy God’s created goodness, and convince us through lies and deception to do ‘our own thing’ and justify our sinfulness, rather than to cling to that which God has revealed to us as true and good through His Son Jesus Christ.
The Litany (Prayer Book p. 54) prays that we may be delivered from the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world would try to have us serve ourselves (Pride, Power, Greed), the flesh its fallen distorted passions (Lust, Gluttony, Sloth), and the devil and his fallen spirits keeping us away from prayer, church attendance, and true Christian spirituality (not the false nebulous ‘being spiritual’ that satan would have us substitute in its place. Evil may manifest itself in big ways (shooting up a church) or in ways that don’t make media headlines (convincing you that you don’t need to go the Church this week). But evil is evil, and THANKS BE TO GOD that we have access to Grace to be able to choose to repent and turn away from the enticements of the world, the flesh and the devil, and seek to love and serve Jesus Christ!