No One Will Deceive ME!
Ξ September 20th, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, Growing In The Lord |
Welcome back!
That statement rang through my head as I remembered something I had said years ago when I was first born again. How arrogant that statement sounds now. The words “do not be deceived” keep running through my mind. James, the disciple, wrote that same statement or one similar three times in just the first chapter of James alone. What is God talking about here? How easy is it to be deceived by someone? For anyone who has been in a relationship that went south, that should be a pretty easy question to answer. Yet, I used to think that it would be really hard for me to be deceived, which in itself is a deception. Can you see that?
When I was born again, things came very easy; my understanding was fresh and quite clear, at least to me. And I used to think it would be so incredibly simple to recognize the anti-christ–the man–but it is not as simple as it once seemed. Things are never completely as they seem in this world. Our God is unchangeable. All other things and people are subject to a change of one kind or another. All. Unless a person is thoroughly grounded in God’s Word, they can be deceived, sometimes quite easily. It is imperative that a person be taught God’s Word whether through sermons at church, through a visiting evangelist, on television (there are a number of good, Bible preaching ministries on air) or simply reading and studying your own Bible sitting at home.
Do you think it would be hard to deceive you? All right. The American media, and I am certain most other news media around the world, are quite obviously deceiving the public with their incredibly biased reporting. At times, they are so blatant with it that it is hard to understand why some people will continue to believe such drivel but they do believe it. Often, the public will believe simply because they see it on the television much like others will buy into some report just because it’s written and in front of their faces. Some people cannot be convinced that the media would lie to the American people. Come on!!! That is blatant deception.
We sometimes believe that we understand things that God says, which is true, but when we bend it to do what we want, it becomes a deception to ourselves. And we DO bend what God has in His Word to fit our own circumstances. Happens all the time. And in doing that, we deceive ourselves so easily. Only when we seek God’s face, get to know Him much better, know His Word very well and at least some part of what it means, do we stop deceiving ourselves. Growing stronger in the Word daily helps.
We need to take to heart what James says in Chapter 1, verses 17-26. To recap:
1) Don’t be deceived–the good gifts come only from God.
2) Don’t just sit and listen to the preachers and preaching without applying what you learn to yourself or you will be deceived.
3) You deceive yourself if you believe yourself to be religious but do not stop your tongue from saying evil things. (gossip, nasty comments toward people or about them, making people feel guilty)
You can cure all this by simply going to the Lord, getting to know Him, spending time with Him on a regular basis, reading and studying also on a regular basis. Now don’t just study when you “have time”. Make time to be in God’s Word so that you know what He has to say. The more you know, the less likely it is that you will be deceived by anyone. This is an evil world and the devil runs about to and fro trying to deceive even the elect. We do not have to be one of those.
