Defeating the Monster Within part two

WHAT KIND OF MONSTER WOULD DO THIS? THE SAME KIND THAT LIVES IN YOU AND ME. Get a cup of coffee or a Mountain Dew, we’ll be a while on this one.


The monster within has two goals: 1. to consume our potential, to take what we could have been and destroy it, and 2. to hurt the heart of God. You see the monster within originated with the ultimate monster: Satan himself.

Satan is referred to in the Bible as:

- a liar and the father of lies
- the adversary
- the accuser
- and a roaring lion that roams about seeking who he may devour

How does Satan “devour” a person? Well, in a way he does it through our own appetites.
Weird, huh?

Galatians 5:19-21 tells us how the monster within behaves and gives us an indicator of what he feeds on, it says:

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; [20] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions [21] and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Satan is a good detective.

He knows our tendencies. He knows our weaknesses. He knows the hell bait that will work best to stir up our monster within.

For example- my grandfathers and my father were substance abusers and a bit on the lawless side to say the least. The devil (AKA:Satan) saw this and took notes. When little big-headed Mark was born into the world, Satan already had a strategy for feeding my monster. He knew I would likely have a bent toward the wrong crowd just like my dad. He knew I’d be very susceptible to peer pressure. The snare was set.


One of my earliest memories was when I was like three. Little Jimmy and me lived next door to each other and our mom’s would hook us up for chill time once in a while. I only remember two things about Jimmy: 1. He had a sandbox, which was righteous for a three year old, and 2. The way he bled when I hit him the head with a toy, metal Greyhound bus. I didn’t get to chill with 'Jimmy Sandbox' anymore.

Three years old and I’m already committing felonious assault!

It gets worse.

I was like five years old and in kindergarten when I went on my first crime spree. James Hickey was my partner in crime. Mrs. Hyman was the sweet old gal next door. She was sweet alright, just not smart enough to lock her front door. It was only 1968 and the world had yet to experience my diabolic capabilities. How could she have known?

We walked up on the porch and peered through the screen door. I can’t really remember how it all unfolded; I just remember the awesome rush we were getting every time the brick made contact with her sterling silver tea pot. What the heck were we doing? Why were we doing it? I don’t know, but it was wrong and we wuz lovin’ it, until we got caught. Believe it or not, I think the thing that hurt most was knowing that Mrs. Hyman would never trust me again. Gimme a break lady! I was only five!!!

Darn! Already a thief and a destroyer at five!

This was great information for Satan. He could see the traits I had inherited. He knew what to feed my monster within.

Although, I was raised in a strict Freewill Baptist School and I was surrounded by decent kids whose parents were willing and able to cough up the bingos for private school, still, the seeds of wickedness were there.

By the time I was twelve I’d watched alcohol and violence rip our family apart and kill my granddad. So, me and my best friend Floyd made a pact: we would never use drugs, alcohol or nicotine. Then I met Bobby.

Bobby was the coolest of the cool. He could beat everybody up and date all the girls at one time; plus his mom and pop owned the neighborhood pinball shop and his older brothers were already established criminals. He was the unanimous king-pin of our adolescent underworld.

Knowing Bobby and being known by him was more important than grades, parents and even Floyd; and, Bobby always had monster food.

My monster within had a serious bent toward stealing, fighting and breaking rules. Good ol’ Bob had a menu that gratified all of the above.

It started with a cigarette in the seventh grade. I thought it was disgusting, but the monster within thought it was cool. It took a while but I got the knack of it; within three years, it was a two pack a day ball and chain.

I don’t know what horse urine tastes like but Budweiser must have the recipe. At fourteen I got my first taste in the form of a Bud Tall Boy. I had tasted it once before, when my dad put it in my baby bottle. I don’t remember that incident but I hope I puked on him. Regardless, the monster was pleased with the flavor, and again, the monster thought it was cool. By sixteen I was drinking a fifth of Jack Daniels every weekend.

Then there was the ‘spirit of ’76,’...1976. I walked into Bobby’s bedroom where the crowd had gathered and there he sat with what looked like a pile of dried crepe myrtle leaves and flowers in his lap. This was my first exposure to pot. Man, I’d heard all about this stuff and now here I was: just me and some pot hanging out together with the fellas. Bobby, being the great monster chef that he was, offered me a hit. Seeing this stuff was cool enough for me; but, I wasn’t quite ready to ingest it yet. I’d heard all the stories about what drugs could do. I thought if I took a puff I might think I was bald eagle and go jump off the high school or something. I mean this was it—the drugs I’d heard so much about, and my buddy Bobby actually had some of his own. How cool is that? But then again, how scary.

Bobby, being the wonderful host he was, proceeded to pack a joint into a little device called a “power hitter.” With the power hitter he could send billows of smoke into the air with a gentle squeeze. My other great friends and associates knew how much I really needed this medication so in their great love and concern they held me down while buddy Bob filled my face with smoke. Luckily, men have crotches and so I was able to free myself. All that to say, part of me knew I needed to get away from these guys...but the monster loved it.

At fourteen I actually inhaled for the first time. It scared the crap out of me. I got cotton mouth and really paranoid. Yet the monster demanded more. By the time I was sixteen I was smokin’ everyday and selling pot in order to finance my own habit. The monster wasn’t satisfied. No, he was hungry for LSD, cocaine, speed, more, more, more.

At nineteen-the monster was firmly in control. He had managed to sprout into quite the addict. If not for the prayers of people like my mom and Granny he would have consumed the remainder of my days and sent me to hell for not giving God a chance.

There I was, nineteen and a full blown Galatians 5:19-21 kinda guy. I was totally trapped, the monster was in control.

Then it hit me, the words I’d learned in that old Baptist school:

2 Cor. 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Yes! HOPE went off in my heart like a redneck shootin’ a hand-painted shotgun.

More scriptures came to mind, like:

John 3:16-17
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

“There’s a way out!,” I thought. “This is what those crazy Christian people mean about being saved!”

Yes, I needed to be saved. Saved from the monster within, the sinful side of me that had turned me into a burnt out, alcoholic, fornicator.

On November 23, 1982 I came home drunk, again. My girlfriend wasn’t pleased, again. Her threats had come to an end; she was moving out. With slurred speech and drunken swagger I pulled her into the bedroom and we knelt beside our bed. I told her pray something like this:

Dear Lord, I am a sinner. I have disobeyed you. I know you sent your Son Jesus to save me. I know He died on the cross for my disobedience and He rose again to prove He is the Son of God and He is able to live in and through me. Save me. Save us. We commit our lives to you. In Jesus name amen.

We’ve been married twenty-three years. God cleaned up our minds by giving us the power to say ‘no’ to monstrous appetites. His word proved true and indeed, we became “new creatures.” We became creatures who follow a different kind of diet:

John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

As we consumed Christ by reading the Bible and built our faith by listening to the Word of God being preached, our ability to fight off the monster grew. We realized that God had given us weapons, secrets and keys to defeating the sin nature and the Evil One. We’re by no means done with fighting of course. As a matter of fact we’ll be fighting the monster within until Jesus comes or we go. But the cool thing is: Jesus promises to never leave or forsake us. He’ll be there with us as long as we invite him to the fight.

WARNING:
Even after inviting Jesus into our life we can still fall to the monster within. He can still rob us of our potential. As was the case in the murder victim mentioned at the beginning of this saga. You see, Jesus requires us to have a daily, 24-7-365 walk with Him. He calls Himself the “bread of life” and the “living water” for a reason. We can’t live long without bread or water. Spiritually, we won’t live long without feeding the spirit within.

The Bible says:

Galatians 5:16
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Galatians 5:25
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Once a person invites Christ into the battle, he or she is “born again.” Those are the words of Jesus Himself in John 3:3.

John 3:3 says:
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

John 3:5-8
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. [6] Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. [7] You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'

Born of water means- born to your birth mother. Born of the Spirit means asking God to forgive you. It means, accepting what Christ did on the cross, believing that He rose again and that He will live in and through you. It’s beyond human explanation really. We’ll never figure that one out with our cranial blob. The point is, God draws us and if we’ll surrender, He’ll bring the miracle.

So, once you’ve become a Christian the goal is to WALK with God, to keep in step with the inner voice that prompts you to make right choices. You know, the one you used to ignore in favor of feeding the monster. Now, if we’ll feed our spirit on “bread” and “water” we’ll have the strength to do what we knew was right all along. That’s “keeping in step with the HIS Spirit.”

Falling out step with God is going to happen. We will stumble. But check this out:

Psalm 103:8-13
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
[9] He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
[10] he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
[11] For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
[12] as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
[13] As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;

He’ll pick you up. He’ll wait for you to catch up. Just get back in step!

The bottom line:

1. Invite Christ to the battle-ask Him to forgive your sins (monstrous living)
2. Walk with Christ daily- by consuming His word- read it for yourself!
3. Starve the beast! Feed the Spirit!

Whatever the monster is craving- deny him the taste. Get away from people, places and things that stir up your appetite for wrong. Much of the music, movies and other entertainment in our world today is monster food. It’s hard to watch a sex scene and not lust. It’s hard to listen to some bands and not be angry and depressed about life. GET AWAY from NEGATIVE people, places and things. GET around HOPEFUL people, places and things. Paul put is this way:

Philip. 4:8 (MSG)
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

JUST REMEMBER THIS:
You can’t take a pill and never be hungry again, neither can you say a magic prayer and make the monster go away. It’s a daily feeding that equips your spirit for the battle we are in. Yes, fighting sucks in a way, and I don’t really understand it all. But the fact is, the game is on and I know who wins in the end! So give me strength Lord Jesus to fight another day!

2 Cor. 2:14 says:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

Rev. 22:12 promises:
"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.


BE AT THE VERGE TONIGHT and WE’LL TURN YOU ON TO SOME WEAPONS FOR THE FIGHT!