Month: August 2026

He drinks the blood of his victims. He only comes out at night because sunlight would destroy him. He sleeps in a coffin. He fears garlic.

Nearly everyone knows we are describing Dracula.

Ever since Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the countless movies, television shows, and books that followed, the familiar image of the vampire has become part of popular culture. Fewer people realize there was also a historical Vlad Dracula, better known as Vlad the Impaler. Whether Bram Stoker intentionally based his vampire on Vlad remains debated by historians. But one thing is certain: over time, the fictional Dracula became inseparably linked in the public imagination with the historical Vlad.

A real historical figure became surrounded by stories until many people could no longer distinguish the man from the myth. It made me wonder. Has something similar happened with Satan? Ask almost anyone to describe the devil and you’ll probably hear the same answer. Red skin. Horns. A pointed tail. A pitchfork. The ruler of hell.

But where does the Bible actually describe Satan that way? It doesn’t. Much of that familiar image comes from centuries of artwork, folklore, literature, and popular culture. Much of that familiar image comes from centuries of artwork, folklore, literature, and popular culture rather than from the pages of Scripture.

The biblical description is far more unsettling. The apostle Paul wrote:

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:14 (ESV)

That is almost the opposite of the image most of us carry in our minds. The Bible does not tell us to expect Satan to appear as an obvious monster. It warns us that he can appear attractive. Convincing. Reasonable. Even spiritual.

His first recorded words in Scripture were not threats. They were a question.

“Did God actually say…?”
Genesis 3:1 (ESV)

He did not begin by denying God. He simply encouraged Eve to question God’s Word. That strategy has never changed. Peter therefore warns us:

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)

Satan is not a cartoon character. He is a real adversary. His greatest weapon is not terror. It is deception.

Dracula is only fiction. No one expects him to exist. Yet the familiar image of Dracula has become so fixed in our minds that we instantly recognize the cape, the fangs, and the coffin.

The danger is that we may have done something similar with Satan. If we spend our lives looking for horns, a tail, and a pitchfork, we may never recognize the adversary the Bible actually describes.

Scripture never tells us to watch for a monster. It tells us to beware of one who disguises himself as an angel of light. The greatest deception is not convincing us that Satan exists. It is convincing us that we already know what he looks like. Like Dracula, a familiar image has become fixed in our minds. Unlike Dracula, getting this one wrong has eternal consequences.

That is why our understanding of Satan must never come from folklore, medieval artwork, horror movies, or popular imagination. It must come from the Word of God.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #Dracula #2Corinthians11:14 #Satan

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“Dad, what were you dreaming about last night?”

My wife and daughter asked me an unusual question. We were on vacation, the first since I had retired the previous month. We all shared the same hotel room and, exhausted after a day of sightseeing, I fell asleep first.

When I woke up, they were smiling.

“You were talking in your sleep,” my wife said.

“What was I saying?”

“You kept saying, ‘No… I have it!'”

I actually remembered the dream.

“I was back in my pathology laboratory. We were having a surprise government inspection, and I couldn’t find the documents they were asking for.”

We all laughed.

“Apparently,” I said, “even in retirement I can’t leave my practice behind.”

The more I thought about it, the more I realized my dream wasn’t really about an inspection. It was about nearly five decades of responsibility. Deadlines. Regulations. Diagnoses. Running a laboratory. Making decisions that affected patients’ lives. Those responsibilities ended when I retired. The habits didn’t.

I’ve since spoken with other retired physicians who have had similar experiences. Friends who retired from law, engineering, construction, and other professions have told me much the same thing. After carrying responsibility for so many years, it takes time for the mind to let it go.

Perhaps our spiritual lives are similar. We often think God needs to teach us how to work. Sometimes He has to teach us how to stop working—to trust that His kingdom continues even when our work is finished. That isn’t easy.

We like to think everything depends on us. Yet Scripture reminds us that even while we sleep, God is still at work. He never takes a day off. He never misses a deadline. He never forgets what needs to be done.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Psalm 127:2 (ESV)

Maybe retirement is one of God’s final lessons—not simply teaching us how to finish well, but teaching us how to rest well.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod 

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how quickly our world is changing. When I was growing up, the idea of talking to a computer and having it answer complex questions belonged in science fiction. Today, artificial intelligence can do just that. Medicine continues to advance at an astonishing pace. Scientists can edit genes. Technology has transformed nearly every part of our daily lives.

With so much changing around us, it’s natural to wonder whether our understanding of right and wrong should change as well. After all, the Bible was written thousands of years ago. It doesn’t mention artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, or many of the questions that dominate today’s headlines.

So how do we know whether God’s Word still speaks to our generation? As I reflected on that question, my mind kept returning to something Isaiah wrote centuries ago:

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
Isaiah 40:8 (ESV)

Isaiah understood something that every generation eventually discovers. Everything around us changes. Nations rise and fall. Ideas that seem unquestionable today are often replaced tomorrow. Even science, wonderful as it is, keeps moving forward because we are always learning something new.

But Isaiah says there is one thing that does not change. God’s Word. That doesn’t mean the Bible answers every modern question by name. It doesn’t. Instead, it gives us something even more important. It reveals who God is. It tells us who we are. It explains why our world is broken and what God’s purpose is for His creation. Those truths become the foundation from which we approach questions the biblical writers never specifically addressed.

During my years as a dermatopathologist, residents would sometimes ask how I made a difficult diagnosis. There was no shortcut. You couldn’t begin with the diagnosis you hoped was correct and then search for evidence to support it. You had to let the evidence speak for itself. 

I’ve come to believe we should read the Bible the same way. Too often we begin with our opinions and ask Scripture to confirm them. A better question is this: “What was God saying when He inspired these words?” That requires patience. It requires humility. It requires a willingness to admit that I may have misunderstood something. It also requires trusting that God has spoken clearly enough for us to know Him and to follow Him.

Some of the most difficult conversations in the church today revolve around subjects that sincere Christians disagree about. Human sexuality is one example. The roles of men and women in the church are another. There are many others.

Before asking, “What does the Bible say about this issue?” perhaps we should ask an even more basic question: How should we read the Bible in the first place? Should we assume that every command was intended only for the culture in which it was written? Or should we ask whether that teaching reflects an unchanging truth about God and His design for humanity?

Those aren’t easy questions, and thoughtful Christians have wrestled with them for centuries. What encourages me is the example of the Bereans. When Paul came to Berea, they didn’t reject his teaching because it challenged what they already believed. But they didn’t accept it blindly either. They opened the Scriptures. They searched. They examined. They wanted to know what God had actually said (Acts 17:11).

That has always been my hope for this blog. Not that you would simply agree with me. Not that I would always be right. But that together we would keep opening God’s Word with humble hearts, asking Him to teach us.

The world will continue to change. New questions will arise. Future generations will face ethical issues we can’t even imagine today. But if Isaiah is right—and I believe he is—our confidence is not in keeping up with every cultural change. Our confidence is in the God whose Word does not change.

My prayer is simple. Lord, keep me from reading my ideas into Your Word. Instead, help me hear what You have already said.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #isaiah40:8 #Acts17:11 #whentheworldchanges #doesgodswordchange

 

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