Satan - Bad to the Bone

The devil made me do it" was a popular catch phrase used by comedian Flip Wilson and his alter ego "Geraldine" in the 1970s. No matter what the situation - the devil was responsible for it. We often see good and evil depicted wrestling on one's shoulders - one in red urging someone to go ahead and do whatever while the one in white sitting certainly and squarely on the right shoulder working their conscience over.

When you say "Satan" most people tend to think angry ugly looking red guy sporting horns, hooves, bad teeth, long tail and jabbing at us with his pitchfork. Sin is ugly....ah but it's also so attractive and addictive. That's his jam. Greed, lust, jealousy, just one more drink, gamble some money you don't have - he's your man. In actuality the result of sin is ugly but what tempts one is attractive bait or else there would be no power in temptation...Bruce Springsteen sings in Pink Cadillac:

"There's always somebody tempting somebody into doing something they know is wrong

Well they tempt you, man with silver

And, they tempt you, sir with gold

And, they tempt you with the pleasures

That the flesh does surely hold"

Lucifer was a beautiful and favored angel. He wasn't content...he wanted more...He wanted to be God...after a revolt he was cast from Heaven as a fallen angel...Satan. The battle of good and evil. The ultimate rumble. Let's recap...a vain, greedy, unappreciative, pretentious narcissist with a God complex. Sounds like a bad guy to me.

We are given free will....we choose and being human we often make the wrong choice ... Did the devil make us do it? Nah...remember, we have free will. There is a constant spiritual battle raging around us. Again, is Satan a bad guy? Absolutely....he is the prince of darkness. Those souls lost to eternal damnation...he reigns over them without mercy, for he has no capacity for it. He is the ultimate bad guy.

When I think of the war for mankind's soul that has been raging since the beginning of time....how does it play out? I have to agree with Reverend Billy Graham, "I have

read the last page of the Bible. It is all going to turn out all right."