Resisting the Devil

While preparing last week’s message from James 4:1-10, I came across some old jokes and anecdotes about resisting the devil that I had to share with you in today’s blog.

There was this one about Satan coming to a worship service:

I read the story of how during a worship service the devil walked in and marched down to the front of the Church. Everyone started screaming and running for the doors. Soon the building was empty except for one elderly gentleman. He sat calmly in his pew; seemingly oblivious to the fact the ultimate enemy was in his presence. Satan looked at him and said, “Do you know who I am?”

The old man replied, “Yep, sure do.”

Satan then asked, “Aren’t you afraid of me?”

“Nope, sure ain’t,” said the man.

The devil then said, “Don’t you know that I could cause you profound, horrifying, physical agony for all eternity?”

“Yep,” replied the man.

“Then why aren’t you afraid,” asked the devil.

The old man calmly replied, “Been married to your sister for over 48 years.”

Then I read this little piece about resisting the devil:

We must resist the devil in everything and in everyway and there can be no compromise. I think about a hunter that was bear hunting. He came upon this bear, raised his gun, and was about to pull the trigger when the bear said “Is it not better to talk than to shoot? What do you want? Let’s negotiate.”

Lowering his rifle, the hunter said, “I want a fur coat.”

“Good,” said the bear, “that is a negotiable question. I only want a full stomach, so let us negotiate a compromise.”

They sat down to negotiate, and after a while the bear walked away alone. The negotiations had been successful. The bear had a full stomach and the hunter had his fur coat.

Finally, there is this story:

There was a little old lady who never spoke ill of anyone. If she said anything about anybody, it was always good. A friend said to her one day, “I believe you would say something good even about the devil.”

“Well,” she said, “you certainly do have to admire his persistence.”