and he (Moses) said to them: “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.

Deuteronomy‬ ‭32:46-47‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

So I finished a busy week. I worked Monday to Saturday and by Sunday I was tired. A thought came in my head to do nothing but watch TikTok and lay in bed. My finger was even hovered over the APP. I hesitated, knowing that there was something I needed to do. In that hesitation, I glanced at C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters. A small whisper reminded me that I had just one more letter to read. So I did. Then I got to reading and praying, fully convicted.

You see, in the last Screwtape Letter, the writer, a demon, a beast, consumes its own nephew after the nephew failed to divert a soul from God. It talked about how anchored in its own realism and rejection of the temptation of Love (God) it was. How its own “love” was enjoyable because it was made from the benefit of consumption (eating, devouring, consuming for its own pleasure). Just how I was going to consume TikTok videos for my ease and enjoyment over spending time in Love (God).

In Deuteronomy 32 it talks about a perverse generation. A generation that turned its back on God. Yet at the end, it is revealed that not only is the chapter a judgement being casted on that generation, but it is also a warning. A warning to the future generations, to the future remnant, to us. Follow God, cling to His word. Don’t let it go and become the beasts of the perverse.

Beasts that are poisonous and without understanding. Beasts that feed upon each other and whatever else they can find because all they know is hunger, want, desire. All they know is vanity. They ignored God, lost (gave) their faith to the emptiness of vanity. Much like Screwtape in its own letters.

In seeking pleasure and desire, people became that which they seeked. They became beasts consumed by desire and living to feed their own ravenous desire as they grow in darkness. But darkness cannot survive on its own. So it seeks others, souls, to corrupt, to join it. It’s a subtle and continuous corruption. Something you and I may not even notice. A thought, a whisper, a look. As long as it has you, consumes you, it has maybe, it might live. If it corrupts one more, maybe it might be satisfied.

Truth is, it won’t. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God is God. He is the master of life, death, love, hope. He is Light. By definition, darkness is not possible without light (for darkness is the absence of light). God is needed for everything to survive and exist, from time to darkness.

And for those of you that wonder why God does not just destroy darkness. I have a question for you.

If your child became a beast of unfathomable depths; if your child cursed you, ignored you, replaced you, and ranaway from you, would you give up on your child? Sadly, some of us might. But not God. God loves us. He loves you. He will not abandon us to our own emptiness. In fact, He loves you enough to warn you, to warn us, that we do not have much time left.

The beasts know this, they are spreading. Invading, the minds of the people we know, the people we care for, the people we love. We do not have time to stray from God’s Word. For we cannot spread truth, love, God, without God. If you cannot make blueberry jam without blueberries, don’t try to spread God without God. Seek Him. Cling to Him. In everyday matters. Don’t let the beasts infect, or invade you.

You want to help, great!

You want to be better, awesome!

Now stop.

Cling to God.

Get to know Him. 

Love Him, need Him.

Stop ignoring Him.

Heed His warning.

Listen to Him.

Just listen.