April 27, 2017

Greetings My Friend, It is easy for me to believe just about anything anyone wants to tell me, I want to believe all people want to be honest and straight forward so I have a tendency to take people at their word. While I was reading the Bible this morning I learned yet again that I need to test everything with the truth and for me the "truth" is the Bible. I want align my life with God's ways so I often perk up with what teachers of the Word tell me. At one point I took what I was taught as the truth and rarely picked up the Bible, today though I read the Word daily. I prefer to go through the Bible in a year and I usually do a Bible study on the side, right now I do the study with Junior which is a quarterly we have for our Sunday school class. Since I have been reading the Bible for going on 20 years now I have found times where what I have been reading does not match what is being taught. The Apostle Paul was teaching about this type of a problem, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." I have heard teachers on the radio that had one small fact right and just about everything else was so off the mark of what the Bible teaches that I was astounded. I remember one Bible study where they were teaching about King David and it said that Saul was his father which Saul does call him his son but that was a reference to his affection for David. That affection lasted only a short while and the Saul began to seek to kill David. Often times when Saul was confronted with David's righteous treatment of the king Saul then would refer to David as his son. David's real father was Jesse. That was my first encounter with mistreatment of God's Word. I also am learning when a true believer mixes up their information such as I never get Cain and Able sorted out as to the brother who killed the other one. Generally I will mention that when discussing the passage. If needed I am willing to go to the Bible and read the account so I can name the right name to the brother I am discussing. Some false teaching I see online is if you pass along a post with a Bible reference then you will be blessed or another one which states if you deny Jesus with man and they want you to pass that around it is for false reasons not lining up with the Word of God. Passing a status around does not show my love for Jesus anymore than passing along a cute picture of a baby does. My love for Jesus comes in how I live my life, how I care for people and how I offer the hope I have in Jesus. By reaching out to others in love God knows the intention of my heart, not by passing something around. In fact I generally refuse to pass those things on. I prefer to pass actual Scripture passages that offer hope, or a prayer that speaks things from the heart. I want to offer the encouragement of a Savior who willingly came down from heaven and died for my sins along. I know more fully when I am being mislead these days and I either state the facts as I read them in the Word and begin a discussion or ignore those things all together. I also will pass along the updates that say that God does not do those things like you will receive money if you pass along a post. The more I read my Bible and live my life as I am being taught by God the more I am able to know when I am being deceived by those that have impure motives. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet