Love Of The Truth

I want to share something that has been nagging me at the back of my mind lately.  I often ponder what would be so deceptive as to deceive the whole world?  As I watch the world implode around me with increasing velocity, certain scriptures keep coming to mind over and over.  I want to share some of those today.  This is a long one, so get comfortable, put on your tin-foil hat and join me, won't you?

The Bible tells us that before Jesus returns, all of humanity will be deceived:  "All who dwell on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." (Rev 13:8)

The Apostle Paul tells us why all of humanity will be deceived:  "..the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness." (2 Thess 2:9-12)

So, the first question we should ask ourselves is, "What is the truth?"  Well, for starters, if it's in the Bible, it's true.  A lot of us need to move past that point as Christians.  If you consider yourself a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, you must necessarily believe that the Book He has given to us to reveal Himself and the plan for salvation, and to serve as our universal and unequivocal standard of measurement is trustworthy and reliable.  The end. 

The next truth is that Jesus Christ is the creator of all things seen and unseen and He created it exactly the way the Bible tells us He did.  There is no mystery to Gen 1 & 2, it is what it is and, for all intents and purposes, can be taken at face value.  "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him." (Col 1:16)

And the most important truth of all is that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and eternal life.  There is no other way:

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

"For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," (1 Tim 2:5)

"For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor 3:11)

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6)

"For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2:9-11)

Yet the Bible clearly warns us that there will come a time where every person on this earth will be deceived, even those in Christ Jesus if it were possible: 

"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance." (Matt 24:24,25)

"And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world;" (Rev 12:9)

Satan's strategy is the same today as it was from the very beginning when he first deceived Eve in the Garden:  "The serpent said to the woman, 'You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,'" (Gen 3:4,5).

"You surely will not die!"-- she could have eternal life without God

"..you will be like God."-- she could evolve

What greater way to deceive human beings than to convince them that they are part of an evolutionary process that will progress them into higher states of being?

A massive portion of humanity has already fallen for the groundwork for this sort of great deception through the acceptance of evolution as an observable science, rather than a false hypothetical theory.  What greater way to deceive human beings than for one of these "evolved beings" to present itself to mankind, show signs and wonders through superior technology and convince the world that they must evolve because "You surely will not die!....you will be like God."  After all, we were made in His image weren't we?  Shouldn't we be like Him?  If this happened tomorrow, how many people on earth would fall for it hook, line and sinker? 

Yes, we were made in God's image, but God doesn't evolve and neither do we.  Scripture says, "Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings.." (Heb 13:8)

I can't tell you how many Christians I know that either believe in evolution or have tried to marry it with the Genesis account of creation.  I used to be one of them.  The black-and-white issue is that God expects us to believe His word.  Period.  When we try to approach His word through our own reasoning, we traverse into the area of building our house on the sand.  And sandy foundations will bring you neck-deep in deception.

Scripture says the beast who is coming is, "in accord with the activity of Satan" (2 Thess 2:9).  Something we need to keep in mind is that the devil isn't stupid and he's had thousands of years to orchestrate his magnum opus of deception to be carried out the last 3 1/2 years before Christ returns.  Two thousand years ago the Apostle Paul said, "the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way." (2 Thess 2:7).

So, is this how it's all going to play out?  I honestly have no idea.  The sole point I'm trying to make here, is that disregarding God's word is to set yourself up for deception.  God has given us His word so that we would not be deceived.  The problem is, most Christians do not take the time to read it.  I cannot stress to you how important it is for today's lukewarm Laodicean Christians to make up their minds whom they will serve, "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve." (Joshua 24:15).  

One thing I do know, is that the days ahead of us will only grow in deception.  The only hope we have against that deception is the love of truth in Jesus Christ.  If you haven't yet, please make up your mind today, right now, whom you will serve.  Make up your mind to love the truth that has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through God's word.  Repent of any double-mindedness.  Repent of holding back areas of your life from Christ's Lordship.  Submit to God, allowing His grace to pour out into every area of your life, making a wholesale change in your mind and your heart, resulting in a changed lifestyle that glorifies our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. 

"..they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness." (2 Thess 2:10,11)

Mastering The Moment

After my prayer time this morning, which consisted of my usual wrestling with God, He placed a word upon my heart that I want to share:

"Walk in what I've given you to master at this moment."

I wrestle with God.  A lot.  I try too hard, but that is only because I don't want to fail Him.  I've even heard Him tell me in my spirit..."You're trying too hard."  And I said, "But I want to try hard because I want to please you so badly."  I wrestle with Him.

I know that God sees my heart, but my own reasoning tells me that's not enough.  My reasoning tells me to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling..." (Phil 2:12).  My reasoning tries to align itself with God's word.  Which means I'm doing it backwards.  I'm approaching God's word through the lens of my own reasoning and that will always leave me frustrated.  Instead of trying to align my reasoning with God's word, I need to just leave out my own reasoning altogether because God's word can stand on Its own.  And when I let God's word stand on its own, I am able to focus on the other half of Phil 2:12 which continues on to say "...for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

And there you have it:  "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God Who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."  It is God Who is at work in me.  My job is to submit.  My job is to obey.  My job is to search His word and live accordingly.  My job is to get victory in the area of my life He has set in my heart to work on.

Get victory in the area of your life God has set in your heart to work on.  Submit to God in the areas that He is convicting you about.  Hearken to His voice of instruction, for it is He Who is at work in you.  Abide in Christ by keeping His commandments.  Meditate on His words, for in them you will find truth and life. 

Walk in what God has given you to master at this moment.

"From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.  Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path." (Ps 119:104,105)

"You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.... and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life." (John 5:38,40)

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." (John 15:6)

Submit, Repent, Surrender

We need to stop deceiving ourselves.  If you don't serve God in your home, in your marriage, in your church or in your community, then you are not going to serve Him in heaven.  We need to stop convincing ourselves that God is satisfied with the scraps of our lives.  Scraps of our time, scraps of our attention, scraps of worship, scraps of service and scraps of obedience.

The greatest commandment is, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength"...it is not "Love the Lord your God with whatever you have leftover from the rest of your day, or as long as it's not an inconvenience."

Put on your boxing gloves and bring it.  You may have to do it sick, crippled, depressed, overwhelmed or doubtful, but I can guarantee you one thing, God won't leave you in it.  God will surely meet you where you are, but He will NOT let you stay there.

Scripture says, "Submit to God, RESIST the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).  Submit, repent, surrender.  Be bold enough to ask God to show you the areas of your life that you need to clean up.  That takes courage, because we're afraid He's going to ask us to let go of some things that we don't want to.  And He will.  The question you have to ask yourself is, "Is He worth it?"

The Ship, The Storm

There is a ship, and there is a storm.  There are people on the ship.  Some are in the cabin, eating and drinking, talking, laughing, enjoying themselves.  Those who are in the cabin are completely unaware of the storm because they are focused on what they are doing inside the cabin.  They are focused on the ship, they are focused on the moment.

Some are on the deck of the ship, milling about.  Those who are on the deck see that the sky has already turned black, they are aware that the storm is close enough to smell the rain.  They are aware that the boat has begun to rock with the waves, but they are more focused on trying to steady their steps on the rocking boat, instead of seeking safety.  They are still focused on the ship, they are focused on the rocking.

Some have made it to the ship plank.  They know that the only way to survive the storm is to leave the ship, but they are still trying to decide whether or not it's worth the risk.  Some of them are holding their belongings in their arms, knowing that if they jump, they cannot bring anything with them.  They know that if they jump into the deep water they have to leave everything behind and they are not sure they are ready to do that yet.  They can see all those who have already jumped, down in the water, swimming diligently in the same direction, toward a single point out in the water, but they can't see what it is.

Some have made the jump.  They listened to the still, small voice that told them the only way to survive the storm was to leave the ship.  Their reasoning told them that jumping into the dark, churning waters to survive a storm was the opposite of what they should do.  Their flesh told them to take along a few mementos from the ship, surely they didn't have to leave everything behind?  But they listened neither to their reasoning nor their flesh.  Those who made the jump listened to the still, small voice and acted in obedience.

As soon as they jumped off the ship and their feet hit the water the ship began to fade and the sun began to rise on the horizon.  They were no longer in darkness and they could see Who had been standing out in the water, calling them off the ship all along. 

"For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be." (Matt 24:38,39)

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'" (Matt 16:24-26)

The Deep

There is a beauty that can be found when wrestling with God through some of the ugly parts of life. 

Could there possibly be a beauty found in suffering?  I think so, to a certain extent.  But you have to look for it.  Why would you want to look for beauty in the suffering of another human being?  Because if you belong to God, if you are saved in Jesus Christ, then He says He will never leave us nor forsake us.  Which means we must be able to find Him somewhere among the suffering.  He says so.

When you watch someone being eaten alive by cancer, you begin to desperately search for God among the suffering.  I can see a beauty in that, because it pulls you out into the deep water.  Many of us stay comfortable and safe along the shoreline, content with our shallow faith.  But when you are pulled out into the deep water, where your feet can no longer touch the ground, you are forced to reconcile whether you really, truly believe God is Who He says He is and whether He really, truly loves us like He says He does.

There is a beauty in our feebleness, there is a beauty in our weakness, because it demands someone stronger.  The irony of that, is that the One Who is stronger chose to immerse and encapsulate Himself into our weakness.  He experienced our weakness.  He experienced our death.  He is not a God to Whom you can say "But you don't understand..."  Because He does understand.  He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities and "...by His wounds we are healed."

Suffering is ugly and when I see someone suffer, I wrestle with God.  Most of the time I'm content to sit at His feet, my head bowed in reverence.  But when I encounter suffering I seek His face.  I want answers, I want Him to explain how He justifies something that seems unjustifiable.  And when I look up to seek His face, I see Him, way far out in the deep water.  Waiting.

"Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that made us whole was upon him, And by His wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4,5)

Hurt A Little

We get comfortable in our faith.
And one of the things I've learned is that If you are comfortable in your faith then you are not growing.  We should all be secure in our faith, but the problem with getting comfortable in our faith is that we tend to start just going through the motions.

When you first start exercising, you know that you are making progress because you're sweating a lot, and you're sore.  Your muscles actually strengthen and gain bulk by tearing.  When you're building muscle by exercising, you get little microscopic tears in your muscle fibers.  And it's through the repairing of those tears, that you gain more muscle fiber, almost like scar tissue building upon scar tissue.

So, to gain strength and muscle mass physically, you have to get uncomfortable.

You have to hurt a little

If you sit around and stay comfortable, you're not going to gain any strength or muscle mass.  If you sit around for too long, then you actually start to lose muscle mass.  Through inactivity, your muscles begin to physically atrophy.

This also happens to us spiritually when we have no real spiritual commitments that bring us out of our comfort zone.  We begin to atrophy spiritually.  To grow spiritually and to gain spiritual strength, you have to get uncomfortable, you have to be inconvenienced.

You have to hurt a little.

"So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12,13)

Loving The Unlovable

If you want to hear truths that need to be said but no one wants to hear, please feel free to continue reading my blog.  It's sorta my thing.  I look back over my life and see how God prepared me to say things that deep down inside, people know is the truth, but no one wants to be the one to say it.  Having said that, let me share one of those unpopular truths:  Hating Islam accomplishes nothing but division.  All the rhetoric about nuking them off the map, dipping bullets in bacon grease, or accusing them of having goats as girlfriends serves Christ in no way, shape or form, whatsoever.  As a matter of fact, it is an outright act of disobedience to the tenets of Christianity.

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15)

By the very mouth of our Savior and Lord, He says, "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matt 5:44,45).  Brothers and Sisters, we cannot allow the ungodly, misguided and barbaric acts of a nation that walks in darkness to keep us from obeying our Lord and Savior.  We cannot allow our disdain for their hatred of Christianity to keep us from sharing the Gospel with them, for they are the very ones who so desperately need it the most.  I am not preaching tolerance, I am not preaching unity, I am reminding Christians that Jesus instructed us:

 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned." (Mark 16:15)

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;" (Matt 28:19,20)

One of the countless things that set us apart from the world, that make us a peculiar people of God's own possession (1 Pet 2:9) is Jesus' instructions to us, "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Luke 6:27,28).  Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.  However, be intolerant of them by preaching the Gospel to them. 

"If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in His love." (John 15:10)
 

There are many Muslims condemning the acts of terror committed in the name of Islam, but we cannot unite ourselves with them where they are, lost in their false religion.  Jesus said He is the only way (John 14:6).  Therefore, we must unite THEM with OURSELVES where WE are, having come out of the darkness and into the light of Jesus Christ.  Oh sweet brothers and sisters, the temptation to jump on the train of anger and resentment is truly enticing.  We are a worldly nation built on chivalry, justice, pride and bravado.  Yet Christ calls us to be a spiritual nation, built on humility, mercy, compassion and truth, leaving the justice to God, "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.'" (Rom 12:19).  This is not to say we are not to defend ourselves, military retaliation based on defense is an unfortunate necessity.  However, there is a very fine line between righteous defense and punishing vengeance.

"Jesus replied, 'Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching. My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home with them.'" (John 14:23)

The world says to rage against your enemy, but we are not like the world, we are like Jesus.  Jesus did not rage against Rome when He came to earth to set the example of the ultimate image of humanity.  They spit in His face and He loved them to the end, "Jesus was saying, 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.'" (Luke 23:34).  Those in Islam that rage against Christians and Jews truly do not know what they are doing because they are ignorant of Christ and live in darkness.  That is how we must see them, for that is how Christ sees them. Christ looks upon them with a broken heart, full of mercy, longing to bring them into the light.  The eyes of Christ see them as a deceived people, in desperate need of the truth.  Jesus said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,'  for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matt 9:12,13).

This is not a popular message, but it needs to be said.  When we are tempted to rise up in anger and judge an entire people for their barbaric behavior, we must choose obedience to our Lord over our emotions.  Yes, we must stand our ground, yes, we must defend our ground but we must do so boldly shining the light of Christ into the ever-growing darkness of this present age.  We must not fear our enemy, but rather we must fear God enough to obey Him, even when we don't want to, even when it doesn't make sense.  "I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will warn you Whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:4,5). 

The simple fact of the matter is, hating someone for hating or hurting you won't bring them to Christ.  It's easy to hate someone for being hateful.  The hard thing is to love someone who is unlovable.  People come to Christ because they see a peace in us that they don't have in themselves.  People come to Christ because they see a light in us that shines regardless of how great the darkness is around us. 

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matt 5:16).

"And let your way of life be beautiful before all children of men, those who speak wicked words of you, that they may see your beautiful works and praise God when He appears." (1 Pet 2:12)

"And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love." (2 John 1:6)