Embassy, by Sam Drake

This is a devotional that I gave at my job today. Since I'd already written it up, I figured I'd post it on here. Let me know what you think!

Acts 19:11-20, 1 Sam 28:3-19, John 6:60-69

The Bible is full of magic. I was raised, like a lot of you, in a modern age where we believed that magic didn’t exist. Really, nothing supernatural existed at all, except God. Maybe Angels, and probably Demons, but they were somewhere else. Magic potions and spells and ghosts weren’t real, anyone who said they could manipulate them was a liar. That’s not the world that the Bible describes. [Read Acts 19] We may put it all up to superstitious hokum, but the people of the past were not more or less magical than we are. The definition of Magic is that our relationship with the world can be described as a deal or a bargain, “If I do this, they must do that,” whoever they and that is. The ancients carried around little scrolls of magic to protect themselves, we carry around talismans, objects we believe will keep us safe or keep us from being noticed. My sister owns a gun, can’t use it. She feels safe knowing she owns it and it’s in the house. “If I keep a gun in the house, it will keep me safe.” That’s magical thinking. Magic potions and powders exist in our world, certainly. Maybe you all know about a potion that will help you forget, make you forget your anxieties and the shame you feel, make you feel warm and free you from your inhibitions, as long as you keep drinking it. Some people call it “Whiskey.” Maybe you know of a magic powder that makes you feel invincible, happy, like life’s worries and burdens can’t hold you down… until it wears off. People call that one “Cocaine.” Maybe you know a ritual, a place you can go to forget how lonely you are, feel desired and desirable, feel like the big man, as long as you have enough one dollar bills to keep the performers’ attention. A strip club is not so different from a pagan temple to Aphrodite, if we have eyes to see. Many times, we are tempted to magic when God says no. We ask God to take our burdens, and He doesn’t do it the way we want, so we go to the magic potion shop and buy ourselves an immediate solution. We ask God for a good partner, someone to take care of us and that we can take care of, but we get impatient, we decide that we know how to fix this. King Saul felt the same way, towards the end of his reign [in 1 Samuel.] See the problem with magic is not that it deceives us in to wasting our money. That’s a con. We all know cons when they’re happening to someone else, and we’d (hopefully) never go back to a con man when they’ve tricked us once. The liquor store always has customers though. The problem with magic isn’t that it doesn’t work, it’s that it does. At least, for a while. “Sin is pleasurable for a season,” and the hitch with magic is that it cannot last, and it leaves death in it’s wake. Jesus gives Life. Repeat it with me, “Jesus offers Life!” Sometimes we don’t understand how the Jesus way offers life. If we find God’s way confusing, that puts us in good company! [Read John] Notice that Peter, here, doesn’t say “I understand what you mean, Jesus. These other bozos may not, but I do!” He just says “Where else should we go? You alone have the words of life.” Trusting in Jesus is a learned activity. A lot of times, at the beginning, we think that we should follow Jesus because His magic is the best. That’s probably what a lot of Ephesians thought! Jesus offers freedom from magic, from having things our way. This can take a lot of getting used to. Whiskey will make you forget your worries, until it wears off. First it will take your freedom, making you a slave to it. Then it will take your mind, your ability to decide. Eventually, it will take your life. Cocaine, Lust, Meth, huffing tire fire fumes, whatever it is, it gives only death. We know this, instinctively. We are all told it by the Holy Spirit, living and active in this world. He testifies in our hearts that these things want our destruction. Jesus gives Life! Repeat! Jesus offers freedom, and life, outside our expectations. We may reach for cocaine to give us the energy to ignore our burdens, but Jesus tells us to cast our burdens on Him. We run from our past, Jesus redeems the past and future. We resent our loneliness, Jesus adopts us and makes us a member of His family. He does it so much better than we could imagine. He wants to do better for us than we could think to do for ourselves. Magic not only gives us death, it robs us of that greater thing that Jesus wants to do for us. Whether or not they had the right motivation, the people in Ephesus had the right idea. The first step to saying no to magic is to get it out of our lives, and to accept that good thing that God has for us. Maybe you’ve never said yes to God, maybe you need to say yes to God again today. This altar is open, and these people [raise hands] would love to pray with you later if you’re feeling shy.