{"id":17446,"date":"2023-01-19T04:47:18","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T10:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=17446"},"modified":"2023-01-19T04:50:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T10:50:56","slug":"the-devil-made-me-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=17446","title":{"rendered":"The Devil Made Me Do It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am so grateful for my fans aka those who follow my daily blogs. It is humbling AND encouraging that God might have used the words I share to give out the get-up and go juice to kick-start your day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those fans aka friend sent this text: \u201cYou seem to have many great topics for your blog. In case you have an opening for a catchy title \u2013 what about something like \u2018Unclassified\u2019 or \u2018No Longer Classified\u2019. You can think of or be led to different ways to capitalize on the current \u2018Classified\u2019 documents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, Friend! I have given little thought to the classified documents found in President Trump\u2019s and President Biden\u2019s possession. Our elected officials must abide by laws and regulations put in place for times like these. They should be held accountable for their lack of responsibility. But lest I sound pious, I must own up to my shortcomings too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodness! It doesn\u2019t take but a glance at social media to see who is in trouble, who was caught in an act, who missed the mark, or who lost their way because of an incident that they\u2019d gladly take a \u201cdo-over\u201d if they could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Name-calling, finger pointing and tale-telling has been around in my life since I was in elementary school. The blame game has been around since Adam tried to put the blame on Eve, and Eve tried to put the blame on the serpent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just about everything in my life is UN-classified. I am bold and honest to the bone, and I admit my shortcomings to a fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back in the 1960s\/70s, a successful comedian named Flip Wilson coined the phrase \u201cThe devil made me do it\u201d in his Emmy Award-winning TV show. Flip would do something outrageous, then grin into the camera and say, \u201cThe devil made me do it.\u201d The audience would howl because everyone was in on the joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all knew that Flip was exploiting a bit of theology to avoid taking responsibility for his bad behavior. And we used it. All we had to do was say, “The devil made me do it,\u201d and we got off the hook with our parents, boss, teacher, or friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference is, it was crazy comedy when Flip did it. But not everyone is kidding about this. If we can blame someone else (or the devil), no one must take responsibility. But we know the enemy of our souls looks for a little crack in our heart\u2019s armor to rush in and \u201ckill, steal and destroy\u201d us and take control of our lives (John 10:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flip\u2019s devil-based theology includes an unstated message: \u201cWhen I’m a good girl (or boy), we can attribute our good acts directly to us and our sterling character. But if we behave in irresponsible ways, we can just blame it on the devil and not take responsibility for our actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s something we\u2019re ashamed of, wouldn’t it be nice to point across the room and say that guy made me do it. But isn’t it better to say: “I did it. I’m not proud of it, but I did it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the time sin entered this world, humanity’s first instinct has been to seek ways to shift the blame (Genesis 3:12\u201313). But hold on! We have a loving Father Who loves forgiving us when we own up to our mistakes and ask for forgiveness (1 John 1:9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not looking for a fall-guy to come along and take the blame for something I did. I purpose to own up to my mistakes. I want to hold myself to standards that God expects. I don\u2019t want to have to question: \u201cIs it okay if I do this or say that?\u201d I want to be that kid that honors her Father simply because HE SAID SO. I want to be holy because HE IS HOLY. And, when I succeed, I will say \u201cGod made me do it!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am so grateful for my fans aka those who follow my daily blogs. It is humbling AND encouraging that God might have used the words I share to give out the get-up and go juice to kick-start your day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! One of those fans aka friend sent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25654,25652,25653,25655],"tags":[25217,25660,1210,3844,1769,25657,25658,9606,25661,25662,3710,18305,40,159,18400,25659,9611,1261,25656],"class_list":["post-17446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classified","category-flip-wilson","category-the-devil-made-me-do-it","category-unclassified","tag-bad-behavior","tag-blame-game","tag-blog","tag-bold","tag-christian","tag-classified","tag-elected-officials","tag-flip-wilson","tag-god-made-me-do-it","tag-he-is-holy","tag-holy","tag-honest","tag-inspiration","tag-john-1010","tag-kill-steal-and-destroy","tag-lack-of-responsibility","tag-the-devil-made-me-do-it","tag-theology","tag-unclassified"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17453,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17446\/revisions\/17453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}