First, remember when Jesus came the first time, He didn’t ‘fit’ with what the majority of those who were anticipating His coming expected either. God is kind of like that. If lots of folks ‘missed Him’ the first time, we should not get so confident that it could not happen again. We need to be careful here.
And Second, I’m not asking anyone to agree with what I’m presenting here. Rather, I’m presenting lots of ‘information’ from the bible for your consideration. Before you go into a common default setting to reject something from the word because it doesn’t fit within your framework of doctrine or beliefs, do this: Put it on shelf, so to speak and give it some time. If it’s truth, God will confirm it. You just don’t want to reject the word outright. That is not a good thing to do.
Speaking of getting ‘too big a bite to swallow’, how many remember hearing that phrase as a child when you served up way too much more food than you could possibly eat, and someone suggested your ‘eyes were bigger than your stomach’?
In your mind, you thought you could eat that big a portion because you seemed that hungry. I have discovered as my body ages, I have similar experiences when it comes to doing physical activity. I think I can put in a full day of hard work in the yard, especially when it’s hot; - it gets me every time now. I’m thinking I have the body of a much younger man but in reality, I slow down much quicker now well before the day is over. Such is life. Our mind and our body disagree often.
James warns us in his letter about being careful when it comes to being a hearer of the word. (1:22) He states that if we are just hearers only, and not ‘doers’ of what we hear or read, then we deceive ourselves. Did you catch that? Go read it again.
To be deceived means to believe something that is not true. Have you ever listened to an old classmate boast about their exploits ‘back in the day’, be it on the ball field or the classroom or any other area and you are thinking to yourself- ‘wait a minute, I was there and don’t remember it quite that way!’. Lots of folks should own that T-shirt that reads “The Older I Get, The Better I Was!”
I’ve heard it said that deceived people don’t know they are deceived. What one thinks or believes and what reality actually is, can be two different things. Need I only point to the polarization that has increased in our world and especially our country today regarding multiple topics? We are being flooded with so much information from so many sources that you can literally be buried in it all. Pick your topic: climate change, viruses and vaccines, political elections, border problems, etc.
Step back for a moment and consider this: Jesus told us in Matt. 24 that there would be widespread deception in the last days. Paul drops a ‘truth bomb’ on us in 2 Thess 2:9-12 where he basically says because people did not have a love for the truth, that God….will send a powerful delusion (lie) and folks will be condemned who found more pleasure in unrighteousness than they did in His truth. Go read for yourself.
It reminds me of that passage in Revelations 12:15 where the dragon was enraged and spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman (church/believers) that he might cause her to be “carried away by the flood.” Did Paul not suggest in the last days that people would be ‘carried away with every wind of doctrine’? (Eph 4:14)
I could be wrong, but I would suspect that countless believers today, spend more time in front of TV screens and computer screens, drinking from the fountains of 24/7 news outlets and YouTube, than they do drinking from God’s fountain. There is no way you can process that amount of information coming from the ‘air waves’.
Oh, and who is the ‘prince of the air’? (Eph 2:2)
Remember what God told Daniel in 12:4 “Seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase”. Daniel pressed God for more insight but was told “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” (12:8-10)
Folks…it’s time for a heart check. We are living in serious times. Every generation has experienced ‘serious times’. There has always been ‘wars and rumors of wars’ with people chasing this way and following that way. We are admonished to ‘fix our eyes on Jesus’ (Heb 12.2) and to “set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Col 3:2) There’s an old song that suggest when we do that, that the ‘things of the earth will grow strangely dim…’
John admonishes us: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. IF anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in him… for all that is in the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17) James says “Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (4:4)
I’m cutting this one shorter today. I’ll be honest with you…I was awakened earlier this morning than usual. I ‘thought’ I was going to be posting something else here today. I know my ‘editor’ had other plans. And I’m also going to challenge you with something I’ve not done here before. IF your heart is sincere and you truly long to draw closer to God, I feel confident in encouraging you to ask God to ‘confirm’ this message to you today in some form or fashion. I have a feeling He will speak loud and clear to you.
One of the most profoundly ironic questions ever asked in the history of mankind was when Pilate asked Jesus: “What is truth?”
Truth…was standing right in front of him. And he signed His death warrant and sent him to the cross. (John 18:38)
And the really sad element to this incident…Pilate gave the people a choice. They rejected truth and chose a robber. A thief. (40)
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