Monday, July 2, 2012

We've Been Duped!


We have been duped!!  You see satan is clever…he never would have made the headway in our churches that he has if he had just said, “you must compromise what the Word says!”  We would have fought tooth and nail but instead, he did the same thing he did in the Garden when he caused Eve to doubt with the words, “Did God really say??”  A call to purity today is met by screams of “Who are you to judge?”   The result is that often Christians are no different as a whole than those who have never heard His name.   There is not a clarion call to live holy lives…only a call to live as we think without anyone saying a word about it.   “Yes, Jesus accepts us as we are, but He loves us too much to let us stay that way!” Max Lucado.

Again this week, I have been amazed at what is acceptable to Christians.  I don’t want to get too specific but look at the movies people (yes Christian women) are flocking to.  Colossians 3 clearly states that once we take on the name of Christ, we are to “kill” or “Put to death” lust in our nature.  Lust is defined as: a sensual appetite that must be fed.  There was a time when we knew what was right and wrong as Christians…there was black and white and we were taught to live in purity.  If we slipped up (as most of us did!) it was done privately…then we felt guilty and confessed it. We weren’t proud of the slips but strived to live holier from then on.  Compare that to today…Lust is celebrated as freedom and anyone who doesn’t participate is “judging.”  Even as this is read, some of you are thinking I am judging.  I am not…I am grieving over a loss of purity and innocence.  The freedom that satan says he offers is really a trap that will one day come back and bite us. The voices calling for living godly lives are fading in the cacophony of the enemy’s lies.

The group Casting Crowns has summed up what my heart is feeling in their song,
 
 "Slow Fade"

Be careful little eyes what you see
It's the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go
For it's the little feet behind you that are sure to follow

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It's a slow fade, it's a slow fade

Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day

The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you're thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

Oh be careful little eyes what see
Oh be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh be careful little eyes what you see



So, what can be done? Believe me, I have had my share of sinful living and I know the traps that are at the end of that journey.  My deepest desire is for true freedom in Christ…He is all I need and has fulfilled all my desires.  He has proven faithful in my life. But, as we grow closer to Him we begin to see the things that grieve Him…we are to reach the unsaved…absolutely.  We are to reach out to those who don’t know Him and guide them to truth. When we don’t do that He is grieved, but he is also grieved when His bride (believers) live in sin with no remorse.  He grieves because He knows that we are being just as Eve was in the garden…doubting Him and desiring more than what He gives. King David said that he loved the laws of God because they were for his good…he understood what it meant to fall and the repercussions of that fall.  

May his prayer be ours: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. PS 139: 23-24

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