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  I’ve heard it said for years: ‘Deceived people don’t know they are deceived.’ We read in Matt. 24 where Jesus met with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, where they had come to Him privately and asked Him about the ‘end of the age’, and what ‘signs’ might point to His ‘return’ (3). As Matthew records for us, the very first words out of His mouth were: “Take heed that no one deceives you.” (4) Anyone care to guess why Jesus might say such a thing? I’m pretty confident when I say that Jesus knows how easily…we can be deceived. I know that you know what that word means, but as a matter of record, let’s just put this out here in print- ‘to be deceived is to be tricked or misled into believing something that is untrue. This deceiving, or deception… is usually a result of someone deliberately withholding or distorting the truth for their own advantage. I would also have to add that deception can result unintentionally…when a person who is deceived themselves then pass on errant in...
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  I can certainly appreciate you wanting to give even ‘more heed’ to the words that Jesus spoke as we have recorded in the four gospels, and are printed in ‘red letters’ at that! But I would also caution you to avoid being too quick to dismiss all those ‘other letters in black’, that we have recorded in the various epistles written down by the likes of Paul, Peter, James and John. I heard a congressman make the statement last week that he was a “Matthew 25 Only Christian”…which made me chuckle. I’m sorry…but I don’t believe that is an ‘option’ for us; but to each their own. So let’s look at some of those words Jesus spoke, and I’d like to draw your attention to Luke 13:1-5, where a conversation is unfolding between Jesus and a gathering of folks wanting to understand why some unfortunate tragedies befell a number of people in the region. Many of us  often want to ask ‘why’…such things happen to people, so let's listen to the question Jesus asked them, twice…citing two differe...
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  You say you believe there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe…and they tremble. (James 2:19) I find myself circling back regularly to the passage in John’s gospel that sparked this blogging journey 5 years ago; and I still continue to draw fresh manna from it, nuggets of truth that continue to amaze me. I say ‘amaze’ because I still shake my head in wonder and even shame a times…as to how and why I never saw so much of this before. It’s found in the 8th chapter, beginning at vs. 31, where we are told that Jesus was talking to “those Jews who believed in Him’. Jews who believed… in, on, or simply ‘Him’ (depending on what translation you read). What does that even mean to you, that they ‘believed Jesus’? That’s when He points out to those who claim to ‘believe Him’…”IF…you abide or continue in My word, you are My disciples in deed.” Please circle ‘if’ in your Bible, if it isn’t already; because that is what ‘disciples’ to- they continue on in His word. Then Jesus ...
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  It was another one of those ‘defining moments’ that I mentioned in a post the other day, where I had a significant learning lesson to take in as I was ‘back in school’ learning what it meant to ‘abide in Jesus’. I was about a year and a half in from having that ‘personal awakening’ that I refer to here regularly; so this incident took place five years ago. My family was making their way out to South Carolina to spend some time with my brother and his crew at his lake home, which had been a gathering place for family reunions over the past two decades. I had actually flown out two days earlier to spend some time with my parents who lived close by, but would not be able to venture up to the lake house due to their age and physical limitations. By now, I had already settled in to a pattern of early morning risings to spend time in the word where I’d pour over more scripture. I had begun to fill up countless legal pads with notes, but mostly writing out particular verses that I be...
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  I’m not sure how you did with yesterday’s message, the one about the need to ‘examine ourselves’…but after I posted it I could hear an accusatory voice whisper to me “You’re making this too hard on people.” And it wasn’t God speaking to me. I was then reminded of that passage in John 6, where after Jesus had shared some deep truths with those in His audience, we are told that “many of His disciples, when they heard this said, ‘this is a hard saying, who can accept it’?” (60). These weren’t just peripheral followers waiting for the next miracle of fishes and loaves to fill their bellies either. They were ‘disciples’, or as many folks today would call them: ‘saved folks’. And Jesus knew in Himself that what He was telling them was not being well received (61). But He didn’t modify or dilute or back off from His message so as to appease the disgruntled group who were now second guessing what they had signed on for with this ‘following Jesus’ journey. Jesus was not one to tell pe...
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  So you read yesterday’s message and found yourself asking what the condition of your own ‘pump’ was in; and that’s not a bad thing to do. (2 Cor. 13:5) There are probably different ways of having it checked out, but let me share with you a statement I have heard on more than one occasion by people who I would tell you are ‘sincere believers’; and this might be a legitimate ‘marker’ of something being amiss in your own pump (spiritual heart). Over these past six years, this journey I have been on has had multiple markers, or what I would call ‘defining moments’, where tremendous lessons of truth were impressed upon me. I could write a book on those moments alone. But along the way, I’ve had many interesting conversations with multiple believers as I have tried to share with them what happened to me, and what I have come to discover from God’s word. This is the statement I have heard roll off the lips of those individuals: “I believe abiding in Jesus is important, but if I’m bein...
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  “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.” – God (Heb. 3:10; Ps. 95:10) Who might be ‘they’ He speaks of there? That would be ‘His people’ who often find themselves in unfortunate predicaments due to ‘bad intel’ (Hosea 4:6) There’s an interesting statement recorded in Deut. 2:3, where God told Moses: “You’ve been circling this mountain long enough; it’s time to turn northward.” You know…40 years is a long time to wander in a place that was never intended to be your place of settlement; especially in a land or region that was as inhospitable as the wilderness, the place Moses led God’s people through after their deliverance from the land of Egypt where they had lived as slaves for hundreds of years. If that 'circling the same mountain'... doesn’t describe the walk of many sincere Christians today who have continued to battle with sins (and their consequences) that ‘war against their soul’, I don’t know what does. Years ago, we owned an ’87 GM...
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