Satan’s Worst Nightmare Excerpt #3: Small Beginnings

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” Zechariah 4:10 NLT

“You Get What You Pay for.”

The “set” we used for the first year of the drama is not exactly something we look back on with pride. The Tuckers’ yard had a playhouse that we turned into the “gates of hell” without too much work. We decided the swing set in front of the playhouse would be the frame for the Empty Tomb. We took old sheets I had collected from a local nursing home, draped them over the bars, painted them with various shades of gray, and tried to make the Tuckers’ round picnic table look like the stone by rolling it on its side and wrapping it with the remainder of the sheets and spraying it with the last of the spray paint. (I’m afraid the only realistic thing about it was how heavy it was when the angel rolled it away.)

Since we were without a sound system, not to mention any performers who could project, especially outside, it was clearly going to be hard to get the point across. Our “sound system” was a boom box, and the volume of the “boom” depended largely on how windy it was on any given rehearsal day. Since most of the people involved in the drama were our children and some of their friends, getting them to listen carefully for their cues, helping them to remember what to do, and holding their attention was … “somewhat challenging…”

Who am I kidding? It was like herding squirrels.

Professional Help

We needed a mature actor to play the part of the devil, someone who could lip-sync “No One Believes in Me Anymore” and remember numerous stage directions. It also had to be someone who could tolerate working with young kids. Fortunately, my daughter Joanna’s father-in-law Tom was a very sweet guy as well as a seasoned actor with the local theater group, and he agreed to help us out. Surrounded by grade school kids, he resembled one of those charismatic adults that kids love to hang out with, which can be either endearing or creepy, depending upon who that person turns out to be. When it’s the devil, the image made quite a statement.

Deficiencies and Distractions

Rehearsals were sort of hit and miss. Since the children couldn’t drive themselves to the Tuckers’, they were dependent upon their parents, and so were we. So, attendance was irregular, at best.

Then there was the general environment of the rehearsals. October in Michigan isn’t exactly predictable, and young children are predictably unfocused. After I had finally succeeded in getting and holding their attention, a raindrop or two would elicit shrieks, and immediately several of them would want to run inside.

Then there were the bells.

Across the street from the Tuckers was a Lutheran church with bells that chimed every fifteen minutes and played a minute or two of hymns every hour on the hour. These bells drowned out my puny boom box and were enough to distract the children yet again. I remember wondering more than once what we had been thinking, and whose crazy idea was this anyway?

Meanwhile, In the Dining Room…

While I was working with the kids, Kelly Tucker gathered a group of women around her dining room table, where they filled the gallon Zip-loc bags with tracts and treats, and loaded hundreds of the bags into big plastic bins. The fellowship was sweet, I’m told. This was the group of women who had been meeting at least once a week to pray for months before the outreach. I would have loved to join them. But I was outside squirrel-herding, trying to shout over the church bells and children’s chatter, and praying the rain would hold off just one more hour…

Prayer: LORD, thank You that You are a God of small beginnings, second chances, and the grace to bless our efforts, however feeble. Thank You for keeping us humble by reminding us that we can do nothing on our own, and that today’s “disasters” are tomorrow’s memories that we will retell and laugh about again and again. Keep us in the center of Your will today, whatever that may look like. We love You, and we trust You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Satan’s Worst Nightmare preview #2: A Different Kind of Yard Display

“Resist the devil …” James 4:7

(Another excerpt from my new book, “Satan’s Worst Nightmare”)

Middle-Class Mission Field

The Tucker’s house, unlike ours, was located on a very busy street in a neighborhood of closely spaced houses and lots of children. Kelly described it as a “thoroughfare” for trick-or-treaters. Scores, if not hundreds, of young people and their parents traipsed down the sidewalks each Halloween Night, presenting a formidable mission field. But somehow, we felt that merely giving out tracts along with the candy was not enough to make the kind of bold statement we wanted to make that year.

With my theater background that included a semester or two of set design, I began envisioning how we might decorate the Tuckers’ yard in a way that was distinctly different from the others. As it was already October, we didn’t have much time, but never underestimate the creative energy of two unorthodox sisters on a mission.

Since yards full of tombstones seemed to be the thing, and since people stopped to read the clever sayings on them, we decided to provide a little surprise for those who stopped to read ours. We selected about a dozen verses from the Bible for our display, each following the theme of Resurrection and Jesus’ triumph over death and hell.

“He lives!”

“He is risen!”

“Oh death, where is your victory?”

“I know that my Redeemer lives.”

“‘I am the Resurrection and the Life.’ – Jesus”

“‘I was dead and am now alive, and I hold the keys to death and hell.’ – Jesus”

Kelly enjoyed sitting in her living room, sipping her morning coffee and watching the people walking their dogs or on their way to work or school. Glancing at the tombstones, they sometimes did a double-take, sometimes smiled, sometimes stopped to read every one, not realizing that on the other side of the window someone was praying for them. Although we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare that first year, ideas were brewing for subsequent years, and the multimedia outreach was to get bigger and more complex every year. But for that first year the yard itself was the show.

“Oops…!”

A decoration that was popular that year was the form of a witch on a broom with arms and legs splayed out, painfully straddling a tree or telephone pole after a head-on collision. Kelly relished the idea of poking fun at these allegedly “powerful” people.

I wanted to take it a step further. Why not portray the Devil himself getting tripped up? We made a kind of scarecrow, attached a devil mask to it, and laid it sprawled in the yard, its foot hung up on the tombstone it had apparently just tripped over – the tombstone that declared “Every knee shall bow,” with its counterpart next to it, adding, “…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Getting the Word Out

We decided to pass out tracts Halloween Night, not just one tract per person, but several. We ordered some comic book-style tracts that we thought were clever and appealing, and Kelly put them in gallon-sized Zip-loc bags, along with a large bag of Skittles. (No puny little treats from the Christians – and definitely no tracts in lieu of treats!) We decided to dress our darling daughters as angels and let them give out the bags, and the little girls were excited about being able to dress up. (The Tucker girls with their round faces, curls, and big eyes already resembled the cherubs in a Raphael painting.)

The local paper got wind of the “different” yard and sent a reporter and photographer to take pictures of the girls in costume, the Devil’s mishap, and the Good News tombstones. The resulting picture and article made it into several papers throughout Michigan, as I learned from friends as far west as Manistee and as far north as Traverse City.

The Big Night

Halloween Night we played festive worship music from a boom box on the porch. I had decided that the girls shouldn’t be the only ones having fun, and I donned some angel garb myself, grabbed a couple of swords from the Shakespeare unit I’d been teaching my English class, and stood guard at the front of the yard holding out the swords in the form of a Cross. People got into debates about whether I was real or a mannequin, and I had some fun winking at some of them when the others weren’t looking. My arms went to sleep a few times, but the entertainment value was well worth it.

Another Little Angel

At one point in the evening I noticed a little girl of about five who was walking among the tombstones, asking her father, “What does this one say, Daddy?” Her father didn’t seem nearly as enthralled as she was, and I could hear him dropping hints that there were other houses to hit up for treats. At one point, he said bluntly, “Come on honey, we need to go.” He clearly didn’t want to read any more tombstones.

At that point I stopped playing “Guess Whether I’m a Mannequin,” and offered to walk around with her, and her dad consented. As I read the scriptures to the wide-eyed little lady, I talked to her about what the verses meant. When her father finally insisted that she go visit some more houses, she still seemed reluctant to leave. And swords or no swords, this angel’s heart was melting.

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

All evening a steady stream of people stopped at the Tuckers’ to collect treats, read the Scriptures on the tombstones, smile at the cute little angels, take our literature, and of course, laugh at the devil.

We should have known we were walking onto a battlefield.

Prayer: Lord, You have given us the greatest news ever and called us to be Your messengers, to the ends of the earth. Send us where You want us to go, inspire us, and strengthen us, in Jesus’ name. Amen

Have We Learned Anything?

Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” I Peter 3:15

Every Christian I know (including myself) struggles with this verse.

Being prepared to discuss spiritual matters involves diligent study of Scripture, and we often neglect this important discipline. We’re distracted, we’re “too busy,” or we’re just plain lazy. It also helps to know how to approach a subject logically and be informed about recent discoveries.

Those of us who want to be “nice” all the time are often not prepared to speak up and “give an answer” about our faith. We freeze up, afraid we’re going to “offend” someone, as if offending is the cardinal sin of Mankind. (Whatever the world may tell you, it is not...)

Others of us fall short of gentleness and respect. We’re bold and ready at any time to speak up, whether or not the audience is ready to hear us. We fail to take into account the person’s background, where (s)he may be emotionally, or even what (s)he is interested in. Often, we forget to pray for wisdom and sensitivity, so we plow full speed ahead with our speech, forgetting that “They won’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

So, does anyone have all three of these qualities mastered? Probably not, but the person who seems to me to have come as close as anyone I know is the late Charlie Kirk.

Everyone, it seems, is talking about (ranting about, arguing about) Charlie. Whether or not I agree with absolutely everything he said (I doubt anyone does.), I do admire the way he lived out his faith in the way described in the opening verse.

*”Always being prepared” certainly involves doing one’s homework. Charlie never went to college, but he read hundreds of books and showed up prepare for an informed and intelligent discussion. He alluded to his knowledge of history, science, and statistics and used logic rather than emotional manipulation to persuade. He was ready to give a (valid) reason for the hope he had.

*He wasn’t lacking in courage to give an answer when asked about his faith; on the contrary, he went into environments where Christianity was met with disdain or downright hostility by the majority. (I wonder how many pastors would be willing to do that.) He didn’t avoid the other side, he reached out to them, engaging in civil discussion whenever allowed to do so.

*As for sharing the gospel with gentleness and respect, Charlie displayed the spiritual gift of self-control. In his Q & A sessions, most were polite in their questioning, some were rude, sarcastic, or unruly. But Charlie never (to my knowledge) lost his temper, yelled, or resorted to name calling or demonizing his opponents. He didn’t cut off, cancel, or shout down his opponents. In fact, anyone who disagreed with him was invited to the front of the line. (Kirk has been called a fascist, but I looked up the definition of “fascist,” and fascists do not give the mic to dissenters.)

The young man who shot him may or may not have had illusions of silencing him, but Charlie Kirk’s videos have gone viral. People who had never heard his name are listening to him share his beliefs, the most important being the way to God through Jesus Christ. What excites me is the number of people saying, “I’m an atheist, but today I bought my first Bible,” or “I stopped going to church years ago, but I’m going back this Sunday.” These comments are coming from all over the world. What Christian wouldn’t want to have that kind of impact?

Those of us who desire to evangelize our world can learn from watching and listening to him, whether we need more education, more heart, or more backbone.

Maybe you have criticism regarding some of the things Charlie did or didn’t say or the way he presented himself.

First, he wasn’t trying to present himself, he was trying to present Jesus.

Secondly, if you have a better way of doing it – by all means, get out and do it!

Prayer: Lord, we are so quick to judge others, whether out of irritation, pride, defensiveness, or envy. Take our eyes off the faults of others and onto You. We submit to You our own faults and thank You for forgiving us and giving us a fresh start every day. Help us to follow every good example in those who have gone before us and leave good examples for those who come after us, in Jesus’ name, amen.