So now what

In chess it's called, taken "en passant," and it means that one pawn takes the other for refusing to fight- so in chess, you either fight, or, if the situation is right, you get taken; you lose. Now the interesting part of that rule is that circumstances have to be just so-so. What scares me about life, and especially about the Christian life, is that many of those who claim they love Jesus are being taken out, "en passant," for refusing to fight. Yet that's not the only comparable situation between life and chess and Christianity- "oh," you ask, "you mean there are more?" It might just be...

When you reach a certain point in the game, it becomes impossible for either party to win, this is called, a draw. This is Satan's favorite ploy- C.S. Lewis, whom I did much of my background study for a Th.D. about; wrote an amazing book called "The Screwtape Letters". In this work "Screwtape (along with his trusted scribe Toadpipe) holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts more as a mentor than a supervisor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter; almost every letter ends with the signature, "Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape." In the body of the thirty-one letters which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in his Patient, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine."
In a draw- neither side wins- it is, however, a fight, and since it cannot be won, it continues on- as in the chess game, the players can often agree to play again. So it is in Satan's favorite ploy amidst Christian's- "let's get them to fight each other, that way, they certainly won't be fighting us." In order to accomplish this Satan uses his best tactic- our egotistical sense of self.

It is interesting, isn't it, that the first thing that we really see in the training of the disciples, is Jesus saying that if they are going to follow him they are going to have to learn to, deny themself. Jesus in the Aramaic Bible put it this way: 16:24. Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"Whoever wishes to follow me,
...curse your being and pick up your cross and follow me.

You may be used to hearing put this way: Mat 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

They are very closely aligned, which tells me the translation is relatively accurate- Matthew I believe was there with Christ, physically when He said this. It's one of the fundamental precepts upon which all discipleship of Christ rests, so it makes a sort of bizarre sense that Satan would choose to attack a Christian at precisely this point, what about you, does he try to get at you, here?