Devoured By The Devil

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

Yesterday evening the speaker at our church talked about "problems in the church" and he was talking about how the devil can attack us in very obvious ways (ie. Persecution in the Middle East) and very subtle ways. He mentioned how the devil would obviously go for the more subtle way of breaking up the church and its purpose, however if that doesn't prove successful then he would go for the obvious. Then he said that if the subtle strategy works on God's people, there's no need for him to change strategies. Then he asked a rhetorical question: why is it that in North America we don't face severe persecution?

We must be lucky...or have the devil's subtle methods proven successful in distracting the Christian church from its purpose? What should the lack of opposition tell us? WE AREN'T TRYING HARD ENOUGH AS A CHURCH TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST AND MAKE DISCIPLES! Have our churches become corrupted? Have we lost sight of our purpose? Perhaps we've diverted from the ministry work and our churches became charities just like those non-christian charities around us. What's the point in helping the flesh if we're neglecting the spirit? Why can't we do both? Serve the needy and preach? What happened to us? Have we been devoured by the devil?