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Faith. Purpose. Relavance. |
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Last month, I promised that we would be venturing into something different and something different can this message well turn out to be. Especially when you consider that this message deals with a rare issue. But whatever it is; familiar or remote, long or short, beautifully scripted, or shoddily put together, enjoyable or, (as it may turn out to be), unpalatable; do me a favor by committing yourself not just to reading to the very end but also to putting it to practice in your everyday life. I have written this piece because I have discovered that Satan has managed to deceive us Christians in almost every facet of our walk - thus always having us in his grip. There has always being a real enmity between man and Satan. From the time the serpent succeeded in deceiving man, Satan - and all that he represents: evil, death, destruction and godlessness - has never left our side. His malice becomes even more intense when we give our lives to Christ. He is always by our side, tempting us, taunting us, frustrating us, and in all just trying to make life terrible for us; such that by now we are very familiar with his wicked and unholy intentions. Everyday we bind and loose him, (it is no small irony, you have probably loosed him several time without thinking of what you where saying). We are not ignorant of his devises, (2Cor 2:11). But permit to burst your bubble; you are wrong -at least on one count. Arc enemy. Closest informant. Let me make a background explanation. In a conventional war, the line of attack is based: on two things- weaponry and strategy. Strategy is based on information received or known about the terrain and activities of the enemy. A conventional source of this information is usually gotten from people who are called informants. The Bible shows in Eph 6: 10-18 that we are in an ongoing war with a highly organized kingdom called The Kingdom of Darkness. As you would presume, we need the strategy, the prior background information on the enemy and his activities. So if I may ask, how informed are you about your enemy? The average Christian today is so knowledgeable about the devil that I begin to worry over the long-term consequence of this. Why? Because the main source of their information is coming right from, (are you ready for this?) the devil himself. The Angel of Lies. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, (2Cor. 11 :14). I once quoted this scripture to a sister and she told me that she had never seen that in the bible before. Now the serpent was more subtle and crafty than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made [Gen 3:1 AMP]. Subtle means: so slight as to be difficult to detect or describe; elusive. Behaving in a clever way usually indirect methods to achieve something. The devil used subtlety and craft to deceive the first man; and in his long running battle against the human race, that has been his chief weapon - Deception. Not fear, not temptation, but deception. And nowhere does that do more damage than in the kingdom of God. The devil was not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 NIV). These very revealing words were spoken by Jesus, no less. Yet this is one of the statements of the bible that I find Christians consistently ignoring. A Catalogue of Errors Why do I say that? Because despite the above statement, we keep allowing him to feed us with his information. A good example is from Demonology. Man is a very curious being and the devil knows that. That is why he is ever willing to enthrall us with insights into his deep, secret and mysterious kingdom. Do not let your enemy inform you of his positions. He would have booby-trapped them before hand. I once read a book by a deliverance minister that states that it was not Satan that God cast into hell at the first but some other collaborating angels, (you can find that in the bible book Of'?) well, he did not give any biblical reference. He actually claims that he got his materials from a hidden, mysterious library found in the kingdom of Satan, which he, (the Devil) tried to hide from mankind since the beginning of time. (I found this book among the books endorsed by a very respectable Christian organization). Beloved with outrageous doctrines like this you will agree that we are really losing the information side of this war. I have only expanded just one facet of how fat we have fed from his pot. Jesus Christ, our master and Lord says of the devil that: there is no truth in him. Yet we believe him, (the Devil) when he tells us that we do not need to preach the gospel because God already knows those who will go to heaven. There is no truth in him yet we allow him to give us a feeling of guilt over a particular sin that we have long confessed to God about. There is no truth in him yet we allow familiar spirits to take over our church services in the name of prophecies and words of knowledge that are either unbiblical or upset Divine protocol. There is no truth in him. That is why he exploits our yearning for the deep things of God to draw us into complicated, hyper-spiritual lifestyles that subtly takes us away from the simplicity that is in Christ, (2 Cor. 11 :2). There is no truth in him. Even in politics; the Father of Lies has got our eyes all covered. That is why we think that the much-hyped Road Map to Peace is the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. There is no truth in him yet he made us label Hitler, Caesar, Stalin and every other despot we see as the foretold Anti-Christ even though the bible indicates he is going to be the exact opposite of that at the first. There is no truth in him. Our bible studies dwell consistently on how the early Christians were persecuted; oblivious of the fact that probably more Christians are being persecuted and killed today than in any other time in history. There is no truth in him Yet we believe him when he tells us that the earth is over populated and that countless abortions we have every year are fully justified. He was a liar from the beginning. Stop being fed lies. Cultivate the habit of checking every information you receive in the light of scripture. Our Unfailing Weapon. Truth. That is the weapon that can liberate us from the deception of Satan. Not our intellect, not experience, not our library; no thing and no man can successfully exhaust the infinite number of ways1he Father of lies can catch us in his web of deception. Only the Truth can save. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32) The Truth is the Bible, Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth, (John 17: 17). The Truth is Jesus Christ; I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and TRUTH came by Jesus Christ, (John 1: 17). So my dear friend, are you still being deceived? Do you still doubt the existence of a Hell? Do you still trust the Theory of Evolution, in a Law OF Karma, in relative truth, etc? Falsehood in the end strikes like a viper; the repercussions are a broken heart and regretful eternity. If you are not born again, or you have you lost touch with the Truth then you need to be connected (back) to Him. God Bless.
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© 2003 Greg's Faith Web |
