There's a snake in church!

Things were interesting at Primera Iglesia Bautista Libre this evening! I was getting ready for service and went into the sanctuary to turn the lights on. I turned them on on the stage and started to walk to the back where the rest of the switches are. I had only taken one step when I saw a 2 to 2 1/2 foot snake at my feet.

I immediately jumped back on stage with heart pounding. I stared at it for a minute to make sure I had actually seen it. There it was, black with a mottled yellow back. So I went back to the closet to get a trash can and broom to capture the snake and get it out of the sanctuary.

Surprise! When I came back, it was gone! I scoured the church for 45 minutes from front to back and could not find it anywhere. I can only guess it squeezed through a crack in the door or something. However I still had to notify the people for safety, and how they laughed. A few people were kind of scared to sit there, but most of them just made jokes about my imagination. :)

The Bible introduces satan in the form of a serpent in Genesis. As I came home this evening I couldn't help but draw the parallels in my mind.

I never imagined I would find a snake in the church so I wasn't watching for it. How often do we think of the possibility of demonic presences slipping among the pews of the church? Yet the Bible tells us that satan is always going about looking for an opportunity to devour. How many times have we stepped into danger because we never thought to watch?

It becomes increasingly difficult to convince the world in which we live that the devil exists. The people could laugh at me because there was no evidence of the snake. How many in the world or even in church laugh because they can't see the evil influence of darkness? Yet there he is, hating God, hating the church, hating us, until at last his judgement comes at the end of time.

Is there a snake in church? Sure. But "greater is He that is in us that he that is in the world"