Once upon a time there were three little Christians who lived at the edge of the forest. They built their houses on their knowledge of the word of God. The first little Christian did not have much knowledge of God's word so his house was made out of straw. When the devil came along, he knocked on the first little Christian's door and said, "Little Christian, little Christian, let me come in." Although this Christian did not have much knowledge of God's word, he recognized the devil and so he said "No, I will not let you come it." The devil laughed and quickly blew that little Christian's house down. He soon started down the road again when he saw the second little Christian's house which was made of sticks, because he knew a little more of God's word than the first little Christian. Yet, even the stick house could not stand long under the winds of change that the devil blew up, so it soon collapsed. The devil feeling very good about his old, bad self now walked along and saw the third little Christian's house. Even though this house was built with bricks, the devil thought that since the first two little Christians could not stand long against him, he would have no trouble destroying this house as well. So the devil marched right up to the door and knocked and demanded to be !et in. Of course this little Christian refused, and so the devil said, "I will blow your house down jv, st like I did the other two." The devil blew and blew, but because this house was anchored firinly to the word of God it withstood the devil. Of course, this is just a story based loosely upon the "Three Little Pigs," yet there is much that we can learn from these old stories.
We need to always remember that the devil is going about looking for Christians who are not very strong (1 Peter 5:8). Also, that the devil will use everything he can tohis advantage. In recent years the devil has used such things as decreased numbers in local congregations to bring about many changes. All of these changes are said to be able to restore or gain large numbers of people to worship services. We all want to see larger numbers of people at worship, but we need to get them there for the right reason. A very wise man once said that whatever it takes to get people to attend it will take more to keep them attending. So, if we use entertainment to get people to attend, it will take better and greater entertainment to keep them attending. The devil is smart and so he says, "Look at those large denominations who use instruments of music to get large crowds in and you can have them as well if you use instruments of music in worship, besides God did not tell you not to use instruments of music." "Look," he continues, "They use all the talents that God gave their women in their worship, leading in prayers, helping with communion and even preaching, you need to do the same, then you will have large numbers." So the devil blows the door down because another congregation did not stand firm on the WORD OF GOD!