One of the biggest weapons the devil uses to ensnare us is what I call
the "me-me" attitude. And this is the next trap that my brother was
drawn into.
Now that my brother had been kicked out of his
church and fired from his paying job for his sex crimes with minors, how
would he support himself? Of course, he hadn’t thought about that
initially, and the only work he could land short-term was picking up
garbage.
I was actually proud of him when he took this
job. It was a humble job, and with it, it looked to me that he was
showing some remorse and working on trying to better himself.
Unfortunately, he only stayed with this job
for three months, then he quit. He informed our mom that he didn’t have
anywhere to go and no money, and she took him in to live with her. My
parents had owned the top two floors of an apartment building, and as
soon as he moved in, Jimmy took over the entire second floor. From this
"perch", he began bullying and threatening my mother. She was terrified
of him and gave him everything he demanded.
Our father had left our mother quite well off
when he died. She owned a number of buildings around town, and the rent
she earned from these buildings was more than enough to give her AND my
brother a comfortable life. It wasn’t enough for Jimmy, however. Once
situated in our mother’s apartment, he again began buying sex magazines
and visiting prostitutes. He spent so much of her money that there was
none left over for the bills. This meant that they had to begin selling
off the buildings. That was all right with Jimmy. Our father’s will
stated that he would receive 1/5 of the proceeds from any sales of
property. He would be rich! He even used her money to buy a house of
prostitutes.
Meanwhile, I was thousands of miles away in
Canada. I didn’t know what was happening or what Jimmy was doing.
Whenever I called home, they both said everything was just fine, and I
had no way of knowing just how far Jimmy had gone. I sensed something
was very wrong, but what could I do? I had no proof, and the entire
Atlantic Ocean lie between us. I committed the entire thing to prayer,
and I found great comfort in 2 Cor. 10:5: "We demolish arguments and
every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and
we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (NIV)
Unfortunately, Jimmy no longer read his Bible.
He laughed when I tried to share this with him. He considered himself
"king". He thought no one, not even God, could stop him. If only he had
paid attention to this verse. If only he had recognized that he had
become a slave to sin and the devil. If only he had reached out to the
freedom God had for him. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the need. He
didn’t care. He thought he was living for himself, but in reality, he
was living for the devil.
Don’t follow in the steps of the devil,
friends! Don’t live just for yourselves. Live the Jesus’ way, full of
love for God and for those around us! His way is a much better way!
I’m sad to say that my brother still had not
reached rock bottom…Please join us next Friday for God’s Armament, Part
14
Rob Chaffart