How many times have you seen that posted or received a message in social media with that warning?
I always chuckle to myself when I see those because it has such an odd and most likely unintended meaning to it. The first question that comes to my mind is “Who would be wanting to ‘hack’ you, the Chinese or Russian intelligence agencies? Are you really a national threat to them …or does your FB account really have top-secret data stored in it?
Or did you by chance, mistakenly click on an unknown link that some bored 15 year old created and sent out to see how many people he could aggravate one afternoon that would create some challenges with your page.
I’m revisiting this idea of the ‘devil attacking’ vs. the ‘devil tempting’ us.
A person drops off a bundle of clothes at a homeless shelter and drives a mile down the road and ends up with a flat tire. Some would suggest they were ‘attacked’ for doing a ‘good deed’. Others might just smile and say ‘not today, Devil’, …I’m not coming out to play’ suspecting a ‘test or temptation’. And maybe they just ran over a nail in the road because it’s just what happens when you drive an automobile regularly.
One nice thing about walking (or driving) with Jesus….He’s always there to give insight and get your through it.
I have ZERO doubt…that we are living in a time when God is wanting to ‘open our eyes’ to some truth in His word that has been ‘lost’ or buried…or even deceptively hidden. Maybe it’s just been oddly omitted from our pulpits?
Truth is an interesting thing. It can be painful at times. And amazingly, not everyone wants to hear it. Probably more than we’d care to speculate.
Yet Jesus tells us we can "know the truth and the truth shall set us free.” (John 8:32)
But for those who really tend to ‘avoid’ the truth…( I see some of you nodding your heads ‘yes’ because you have been frustrated trying to get someone dear to you to ‘see it’ and they refuse and it just compounds the pain and struggles they are enduring) …for them...there is even greater peril ahead.
Paul informs us in 2 Thess. 2:9-12 …maybe you should just turn there first and begin reading at the beginning of the chapter. He talks about letting no one deceive us and there will be a great ‘falling away’ and the ‘lawless one’ being revealed…and notice where this leads to in verse 10…those who are perishing will be deceived…and they perish ‘because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason GOD will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Wait…did we read that correctly? WHO…sends a strong delusion? And WHY does HE send it?
Because people just don’t want to hear the truth? Wow. What about…You?
Imagine this scenario, if you will.
You are finally building your ‘forever’ home dream-house. Multi-story...expansive, roomy, luxurious…no convenience denied. You pull up to the building site one day to check on its progress and there you see it is coming along quite nicely. Three stories tall…’in the dry’...beautiful windows glistening as it reflects the rays of the morning sun.
Your contractor comes over to share the moment of pride and excitement with you and then, before he gets back in his truck, offers up this piece of information: He saved you a lot of money on this home. When you inquire as to ‘how’, he smiles and says he skipped putting any rebar (steel reinforcement) in the concrete slab. Then he drives off with a wave.
…he did what?
If you are not quite sure of the implications of this piece of information, or ‘truth’, go ask someone who knows just a little about construction to explain. (or Google it)
This is no small dilemma you are facing. No…this is Huge. And it will require some deep soul searching and decision making.
What. Are. You. Going. To. Do. ?
I don’t want to sound like an alarmist or some fanatical extremist who has ‘gone off the range’. But I fear that while the “sleeping virgins-(church)” (Matt 25) were asleep…that the ‘enemy came and sowed tares’ (Matt 13:25) and at the ‘end of this age’ (Matt 13:40) that our foundations are going to be tested (Matt 7:24-27) by the same ‘floods’ Jesus warned us about in (Matt 24:38-39)
And the missing ‘rebar’ = some basic, foundational truths from the bible that…maybe we need to go back and re-examine. It can be painful and costly…to have to ‘de-construct’ certain ‘doctrines’ (maybe ‘strongholds’) that have resided in our hearts for a long time.
And I get it that talk like this makes people nervous. I also recognize with great freedom and peace, that all I can do is offer up scripture here…sharing it in all humility and love and pray that you will examine for yourselves if these things are true or not.
I have no plans to grow a long beard (basically because my wife is not a fan) nor don a garment of camel skin and run through the streets barefooted yelling ‘the end is near!’ That is not what this is about.
But whoever ‘has ears to hear’ …I know many have been pressing God with questions for a very long time…perhaps close to ‘throwing in the towel’ and abandoning their faith.
Many are hurting, struggling while seeking answers. They are suffering emotionally, mentally, and yes, even physically and spiritually.
They are like the woman Luke tells us about who had a serious bleeding issue for 12 years and ‘had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any’ (8:43) God told us that HIS people have been destroyed for a ‘lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6)
And in Luke 13, we read where a woman who had a ‘spirit of infirmity’ for eighteen years was bent over and could not straighten herself up …one day heard the voice of Jesus and “He called her to Him”…and she was ‘set free’. Of course this rattled the cages of the religious hierarchy and they were filled with indignation. Jesus rebukes them sternly asking them ‘should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, who Satan had bound…{and Jesus emphasizes with this remark: “THINK OF IT”} …for eighteen years…be loosed from this bond?”
Please note: 1) ‘Jesus called her to Him’. 2) She was a daughter of Abraham and 3) She had a spirit of infirmity…bound by Satan for 18 miserable years.
And Jesus set her free.
Oh Church…were we not commissioned AND empowered to carry out the exact same ministry that Jesus did…doing the same ‘works that He did and even greater works than these?’ ( John 14:12)
Is it possible that we got derailed somewhere along the way and ended up preaching ‘another (watered down) gospel and another Jesus’ ( 2 Cor 11:4) Did He not commission us to ‘preach The gospel…and heal the sick and cast out devils’? (Matt 10)
Is it possible that where we differ from Peter who looked on the lame beggar in Acts 3 and told him that ‘silver and gold have I none, but such as I do have, I give unto thee…” ... that we don’t have what Peter had? And the best we can do is offer them a ride in our nice church van where they can come and sit on a padded pew/chair and drink coffee and nibble on a donut while they enjoy a extravagant song service with lights and fog machines and a 30 minute talk from the bible?
We should be weeping…truly weeping.
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel on the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’. (Matt 9:35-38) - read the very next verse in Ch.10…that was just the beginning!
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. (Acts 10:38) [When did He stop doing this?]
“Jesus said to them: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” (Jn 20:21) “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. (Mk 16:20)
To those whom I’ve not scared off….I will be back tomorrow.
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