8-15-2016

Good Morning All!!          

    Genesis 3:13; “Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

    Have you ever been deceived?  Have you ever had someone purposely mislead you with a malicious intent?  I would guess most of us have not.  We have not had someone truly set out to deceive and lie to us in order for that other person to have some form of gain.  There has never been an insurance scam run.  There has never been a promise of money for you if you would send them some money to help.  There has never been a phone call from a “grandchild” needing you to wire them some money.  No one has ever said that the car was only driven by a little old lady to church and back.  Maybe we have been deceived; it sounds more like it all the time.

    These are only a few of the frauds and lies out there.  Some are even more ingenious.  The one that always gets me is the one that tells you that your computer has a virus so you should download this new program and then that new program is the virus.  That one caught me a couple of times.  Perhaps we live a life that is full of lies and deceptions.  That is what the devil really does; he fills the world with lies and deceptions.

    Jesus called the devil, “the Father of all lies” and if we take time to really think about it; the devil is very good at what he does.  Perhaps the greatest lie that the devil tells is the one where he convinces people that he is not even real and he certainly is harmless.  So his lies about “don’t worry about me, I won’t hurt you” go on unchallenged.  How many times has he told that lie and how many times was it believed? 

    As Christians we are sometimes confused about the devil.  We know he has been defeated; Jesus did that on the cross.  He can’t grab you and control you like he used to but he can still talk to you, whisper to you and still deceive you.  He looks for those who he may devour.  Those whom he may devour are those to whom he first deceives.  That is how he works.  He sets out to deceive first, after that it is easier for him.

    Think of some of his deceptions.  I recently talked to someone who felt lonely often.  I asked them if they ever called a friend to go to a movie or out to lunch.  Did they ever invite someone over for coffee?  They answered “no”.  I told them to call and see if someone would go to a movie with them and see how it would go. Yet all that time the devil had convinced them that nobody liked them.  We can be easily deceived because the devil always hits our greatest weakness.  He is good that way.

     Our only hope is to realize that Jesus died for us and that is the whole truth. God’s love for us is displayed in this fashion.  We know that truth and we should hold to that truth and always cling to the cross when we feel despair.

Dear Father, keep us from the lies of the devil.  Give us hope to cling to you.  Be with those who are especially susceptible to those lies and give them strength.  In Jesus’ name, amen      

God’s Peace

Pastor Bret