Evil Spirits

we know that an idol is nothing in the world (1 Corinthians 8.4)

Yesterday I related my recent Macumba sacrifice clay pot stealing episode and my ensuing sickness. Are the two incidents related? I seriously doubt it. Here are my three reasons why.

1. 1. Idols are Nothings!
2. 2. God is Everything!
3. 3. God cares for me!

1. Idols are nothing! - Notice what Paul tells the Corinthian believers in 1 Corinthians 8:

4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

The word nothing that Paul uses 18 times in 1 Corinthians alone means… nothing. By that I don’t mean that it means nothing it means something. Are you confused? Nothing means exactly that, nothing!

What is a nothing? It is like a Black Hole. Scientists sucked the theory of Black Holes right out of their collective thumbs. Black Holes are imaginary. They are like the idols of Corinth that Paul was talking about. They don’t exist.

Paul told the Corinthians not to worry about little “g” gods. They can’t hurt you. You don’t offend them when you don’t make offerings to them. Meat offered to nothing is not affected. “Nothing” will chase you if you steal their clay pots. The second reason not to be afraid of evil spirits is,

2. God is Everything– God is the antithesis of nothing. As empty as “nothing” is, God is that complete, full and glorious. I just now counted how many times in the Old Testament God says something like this, “… and they shall know that I am LORD.” He repeats it SEVENTY SEVEN times! Over and over and over again He seems to be on an never ending crusade to show Israel and the rest of the universe that He alone is sovereign God. He is THE only one to be trusted. He is the Owner, Creator and Sustainer of everything. All glory belongs to Him alone.

As the Children of Israel stood ready to enter the Promised Land that their parents had forsaken Moses reiterated the Law that God had given to him forty years earlier. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter four we find these words describing God’s place in their, and our, worship system:

know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. (39)

There are no other gods. Our Father is alone in this category. He has no equal, never has had and never will have. Not only is He the only God, God is Everything. Paul makes this known in 1 Corinthians 15.28

And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

God is all in all. That means that He is Everything. Without Him nothing exists. And that brings me to the third reason for my confidence against evil spirits.

3. God cares for me! - He has all power and He cares for His own. The psalmist put it this way in Psalm 121:

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

I am bought and paid for and I have the Holy Spirit of the Only God living in me to prove it. So do your worst you bad boy evil spirits. You all can eat your slimy little wretched hearts out. You have no power over me. God is caring for me to the nth degree, as mom used to say. What’s an nth? It is a very very tiny or very large measurement that means all of me is covered by my God’s intricate and immense care.