Genghis
Khan was a brilliant military leader who united the Mongol tribes and created a
fearsome army with himself at its head. He ruled an empire that stretched
across Asia, from the wintry woods of Ukraine to the Eastern shores of Korea. An
empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the
Roman Empire.
In 1207, his men swept across the Gobi Desert to
attack China, but they were halted at the walled city of Voloha. Here the
hard-riding Mongols discovered that their cavalry tactics were virtually
useless in attacking a heavily fortified city. There seemed to be no way to defeat
the city from the outside.
Khan
offered to end the siege in exchange for an unusual tribute: one thousand cats
and ten thousand sparrows. The request
was unusual but rather a cheap price for security and seemingly benign, so they
decided to comply.
It turned out to be a terrible choice.
Shortly
after they delivered the tribute, Kahn ordered his men to tie puffs of cotton
to the animals’ tails, and then set the cotton on fire. The frightened
creatures fled back to their city. A thousand fires seemed to break out
everywhere at the same time, and the citizens of Volohai rushed to fight them.
At that moment, the Mongols attacked and Volohai fell and soon China would as
well.
Satan
works the same way:
He
doesn’t seem to ask for much. Give him things that seem small, unimportant: Just a bit of your time, a piece of your
pocketbook, a snippet of your morality. What
harm could it be if we let him influence your entertainment, or convince you to
make your child’s education in math and science more important than their Biblical
one, or remove God from a tiny aspect of your life? Harmless gossip. Just one drink.
A skipped worship service. A few meaningless sparrows. A few insignificant cats.
And
here we are still putting out the fires.
so that no
advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
2nd
Corinthians 2:11
Satan can’t defeat us from the outside. However,
He can burn us out from the inside. But only if we allow his influence in. The
battle for our soul doesn’t occur on a desert battlefield or in a castle on a
hill but in our heart and minds. Satan is constantly trying to implant the smallest
of ideas he can ignite.
So be aware. Stand Firm. Don’t listen to the
liar no matter how little the lies seem to be.
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