The Devil Made Me Do It!!!

GADGET - Don't blame demons for human nature

(scene: a courtroom or bare stage with podium)
(note: all characters wear black)
NEWBY -- (enters looking around, sings) Hello. Is anybody here? Boss? Are you here?
BOSS -- (enters opposite) Yeah, I'm here. Did you bring the gadget?
NEWBY -- (removes TV remote control from pocket) Yeah, it's right here. (looks around) Where is everybody?
BOSS -- Who were you expecting?
NEWBY -- The press core. I thought sure the success of my new device (waves remote control) would draw the news media like flies.
BOSS -- Sorry, kid, there ain't going to be no press here.
NEWBY -- Well, I think I know why. You called the press conference here in the court house instead of city hall. City hall would have been a better place for a press conference.
BOSS -- What makes you think this is a press conference?
NEWBY -- To announce my promotion. Isn't that what this is all about? To announce my promotion because of my new invention?
BOSS -- Ah, no.
NEWBY -- (not listening) Because I thought sure that with the success of this amazing new invention I was sure to get promoted to Demon First-Class or even Demon Supervisor.
JUDGE -- (enters wearing black robe, crosses to podium)
BOSS -- Ah, no.
NEWBY -- Then what are we doing here?!
JUDGE -- (pounds gavel) This court will come to order.
NEWBY -- Is someone on trial here?
BOSS -- (puts finger to lips)
JUDGE -- Is the prisoner present?
BOSS -- Yes, Your Honour.
NEWBY -- (looks around, whispers) Where?!
JUDGE -- The charge is misrepresentation and fraud. How does the defendant plead?
BOSS -- (nods at Newby, motions toward Judge) How do you plead?
NEWBY -- Me?! (shouts) I'm on trial?!
JUDGE -- (pounds gavel) Order in the court.
NEWBY -- What am I being charged with?!
BOSS -- I thought we covered that. Didn't we cover that?
JUDGE -- We covered that. How do you plead?
NEWBY -- I'm being charged with misrepresentation and fraud?!
BOSS -- I'm sorry, Your Honour, the defendant is a little slow on the uptake.
NEWBY -- I know what this is about! This is about (points at Boss) you being afraid that I will be promoted and that YOU will be out of a job!
JUDGE -- (pounds gavel) Order in the court.
NEWBY -- I'm sorry, Your Honour. But this is an ambush! I was under the impression that I was coming here today for a press conference about my new invention. (shows TV remote)
JUDGE -- So, you admit that the gadget belongs to you.
NEWBY -- Well, of course.
BOSS -- The prosecution offers (takes remote, gives it to Judge) the gadget in evidence as people's item number one.
JUDGE -- And you admit to weilding this gadget in front of Christians?
NEWBY -- Well, of course. I designed this "GADGET" to be used against Christians to keep them from being useful to God.
JUDGE -- And how does it do that?
BOSS -- Correction, Your Honour, the question should be "How does the gadget ALLEGEDLY do that?"
JUDGE -- Alright, how does this gadget ALLEGEDLY keep Christians from being useful to God?
NEWBY -- Well, when a Christian is about to do something useful to God, the demon aims the device at the Christian and pushes one of the buttons.
JUDGE -- Let the record show that the buttons are labeled (reads) "selfishness", "ambition", "busyness", "resentment", "fear"....
BOSS -- ...The prosecution will stipulate that the gadget is appropriately labeled.
JUDGE -- Very well, as you were saying, the demon pushes the appropriate button and the Christian... does what?
NEWBY -- Well, the Christian then becomes selfish or busy or resentful or whatever and ceases to be useful to God.
JUDGE -- Sounds ingenious to me.
BOSS -- IF the gadget actually works.
JUDGE -- So, you're alleging this gadget...
NEWBY -- ...I prefer to call it a device...
JUDGE -- This device doesn't work as advertised?
BOSS -- I'm alleging that the GADGET doesn't work at all!
JUDGE -- And how do you know that?
BOSS -- Open the battery compartment.
JUDGE -- Very well....(begins prying at latch)
NEWBY -- Ah, you really shouldn't. Only an authorized service agent of the manufacturer should service the device or the warrantee will be voided.
JUDGE -- (shows empty battery compartment) No wonder you didn't want me to open this gadget....
NEWBY -- ...I prefer to call it the device, Your Honour?
JUDGE -- There are no batteries in it!
NEWBY -- I wonder how that happened. (scans floor, edges toward exit) I'm sure the batteries must have fallen out somewhere.
JUDGE -- Seize the prisoner!
BOSS -- (grabs Newby by the elbow) Oh no you don't!
NEWBY -- Listen, Your Honour, I can explain!
JUDGE -- I'm sure you can. But you won't.
NEWBY -- I won't?
JUDGE -- Not in my courtroom. This court finds the defendant guilty as charged of misrepresentation and fraud in the devious use of an inanimate object to make Christians think that demons have control over such human sins as selfishness, ambition, resentment, busyness, and all the others. The sins cannot be controlled by demons, but are part of man's own fallen nature! We will now proceed with the penalty phase of the trial.
NEWBY -- Oh oh.
BOSS -- The prosecution recommends an early trip to the lake of fire, Your Honour.
NEWBY -- Isn't that a little harsh?!
JUDGE -- (pounds gavel) Order in the court.
NEWBY -- I'm sorry, Your Honour. I'll take whatever punishment the court is willing to give me.
JUDGE -- I hereby promote the defendant to Demon First Class.
BOSS -- You what?!
NEWBY -- A promotion?!
JUDGE -- I think the prosecution has forgotten that the business of us demons is misrepresentation and fraud. If we can make the Christians think we have ANY real control over their lives, they're rendered powerless to do the work of God. This court is dismissed. (pounds gavel, exits arm in arm with Newby) Let's hold a press conference!
BOSS -- What about me? (follows) What kind of world is it if there's no room for an honest demon?!
-Bob Snook-

Many people use the phrase "the devil made me do it". This i simply not true!!! The devil can't make us do nothing! He can try to deceive us or trick us but he cannot control our behaviour and our choices. Those things we are responsible for. We are not robot!!! God has given us the freedom of choice!!! Therefore we choose sin for ourselves and no one can make that choice for us!!!

Genesis 3 (NKJV)
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

The devil deceived Eve but not Adam. And it wasn’t til after Adam sinned that they knew that they were naked. So if it was the devils fault that they sinned then he would have had to have deceived Adam as well. They choose to do this just like we choose to sin everyday! But just like Adam and Eve needed to be saved by the blood of the lamb … we too need to be saved by His blood. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

John 3:14-21 (NKJV)
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”