False Prophets and Those That Believe Them 2

Brothers and Sisters, I know there is no text this time. I will try to catch up sometime in the future. Until then, the video will give you the major points to my argument.

False Prophets and Those That Believe Them 1

Brothers and Sisters, thank you for visiting the Blog again.  I hope the words inspire you to cultivate good fruit in your lives.  Today, I was inspired by the word of God to explore a topic that has been on my mind to explore for a number of years.
I have read this particular passage several times and yet only today have I understood it this way.  The passage is 1 Kings 13:11-24.

11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen[a] which way the man of God went who came from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, 14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

And he said, “I am.”

15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”

16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17 For I have been told by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’”

18 He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He was lying to him.)

19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”

23 So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.

What struck me while I was reading was that the man of God who had just been used by God was so willing to believe the lying tongue of the false prophet.   He had heard from God already, yet he was still able to convince himself to go with the false prophet to eat and to drink.  How easy it was for this man of God's belly to become his God!   

Church, we are the body of Christ.  And just as a doctor performs surgery and cuts out the cancer so the cancer does not spread, it is time for us to clean up some things in the body.  It is past time for us to address some issues related to false teaching.  

There are two aspects at play here.  On the one hand we have the false prophet.  He was lying and he knew he was lying.  There are several so-called preachers who lie to their flocks every Sunday.  They distort the word of God to make it fit into their own world-view, instead of conforming their world-view to Christ.  

On the other hand we have the men and women of God who follow these false prophets.  These are they who are saved.  They love God.  They read the scriptures, yet they continually sit under false teaching.  They tithe into ministries that actually lead people to hell and damnation.  

Which one is worse?  I believe they are both shameful.  They are both sinful.  A liar cannot lie unless he has someone who is willing to believe his lie.  It is a symbiotic relationship between the false teacher and the misled. One cannot exist without the other.  Both exist in large numbers in the body of Christ.  

In subsequent posts, I will begin to expose both the false teachings and the critical role played by the congregations that sit and listen to them weekly.   Even forcing children to sit and listen to these falsehoods; indoctrinating them with lies.  

Brothers and Sisters it is easy to identify false teachings and false teachers.  If they preach something that runs contrary to the word of God, guess what?  They are false teachers.   

It is much harder to delve into the psychology of those who sit and receive the lies as their own.  It is here that I will begin with my next post.  I think it is critical to understand the men and women who say they love Christ, but sit and listen to His word get distorted every week.  

A Phone Call Story

In my previous post we talked about the Christian and the idea of being cool.  There are many more things to say about that, but we are going to look at another topic today.  I would contend that if a Christian could deal successfully navigate this particular area, it will allow them access a level of connection with God through the Holy Spirit that would allow for tremendous spiritual growth.  

Last year I was sitting in my office when I received a telephone call.  It was a lady who lived near the school where I work and she was upset about the marquee-saying that we were attracting the wrong students by putting our messages in English and Spanish.  She proceeded to tell me that the sign represented the reason your school had the wrong kinds of students.  Rage and defensiveness welled up in me and I unleashed on her a terrible lashing with my unbridled tongue.  I don't recall what I uttered, but it was by no means loving or God Honoring.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit who convicted me, after the anger subsided, to apologize to the woman.  Not as a function of my job, but as a function of my faith.  

The following day I searched through the numbers in my phone to no avail.  I could not tell which number was hers, so I was not able to give the apology I deeply wanted to give.  But God opened a door and she called back.  She apologized first, and she said she was a Christian and then I commented that I shared a like faith, and an equally like apology.  The proverbial weight was lifted from my shoulders.  I thank God that He is always so graceful.  

That anecdote, has a lot in it.  There was first a misunderstanding, followed by anger, then apology, forgiveness and reconciliation.  Each one of those things is important in the life of a Christian.  We should look at them all, but today we'll only address the root cause of the original misunderstanding---- PRIDE. 

Yes folks, pride.  My simple definition of pride is putting yourself above others.  Pride is the original sin, the sin that allowed Satan to rebel against God.  If our sin nature is a solar system, then Pride is the sun which all other sins revolve around.  

In my case, my pride made it impossible to listen with empathy to the lady on the phone.  It caused me to leap into a defense instead of calmly giving logical reasons for the marquee.  The truth is, I never understood her argument, and that led to a misunderstanding.  Proverbs 4:7 states that we need to get understanding.  

You all are thinking, where is he going with all of this.  Here it is.  Our pride gets in the way of us understanding others.  If we do not understand others we can never truly present the gospel of Christ in a way that they will understand.  We will never understand where to start.  Instead, we act from a defensive stance, attempting to defend our faith which never needs to be defended.  It only needs to be lovingly explained.  Our pride makes us loose site of the mission---to win souls.  

The remedy to our foolish pride is love and humility.  Neither of these things live in the flesh.  The antidote is to live in the spirit.  To crucify our flesh daily and be guided daily by the Holy Spirit.  This is only done through prayer, study, prayer and spending time in the word of God.  

Brothers and Sisters, this is my challenge to us: to root out pride wherever it may hide in our hearts and minds.  To go after it like a doctor goes after cancer cells.  To pray and read and study until we have allowed God to cleanse us that we may be used by Him.

Can a Christian Be Cool

Brothers and Sisters,

Far too many days have passed since I have last posted.  For that I do apologize.  It has been a long and difficult road back to the blog.  As my son said today, 'we only have one man to thank'.   That's right son.

As I was driving home today from my son's football game (they won 12-13, by the way) I heard a song on the radio about being one of the 'cool kids.'  And it struck me, hard, that my son, who is very cool to me; will never be one of the cool kids if he follows Christ.  And it struck me again, that I, myself, will never be one of the cool kids.

Cool kid is defined here as one who is popular, trendy, and well-liked by his or her peers.

My question, then, is can a Christian be cool?  Let's reason together.

If cool means that one is popular, then someone who is cool must subscribe to popular culture---right?   There may be someone, somewhere who doesn't dress like everyone else, listen to the popular radio station, use the popular slang, or watch the popular movies, who would be considered popular.  Maybe.  But, realistically, no.   To be popular, would mean for most Christians, to compromise our beliefs to be more like the world.  For instance; several 'so-called' Christian musicians borrow style and other elements from popular music and then use those elements in Christian gospel music to make their music more 'popular' or acceptable to the masses.

The Bible says:


Romans 12:2 ESV / 383 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Are not compromise and conformity similar ideas.  Wouldn't your 'cool kid' have to bend this very clear principle to 'fit in' with his or her peers?  

If cool means one who is trendy, then someone must follow the fashion, music, thinking of this world, correct?  Then it would certainly be true that if this world is sinful; then so is the music, fashion and thinking of the world, or at least parts of it.   Thus,  a 'cool kid' must consume some of what the enemy has laid before him or her to consume in order to be considered cool.  They must 'drink the Kool-Aid' in order to be part of the group.   Furthermore; in order to be a 'cool kid', would not a person have to consume said 'Kool-Aid in larger quantities than their peers in order to maintain their 'cool kid' status?  Not only that, wouldn't they have to enjoy and even introduce said Kool-Aid to other aspiring 'Cool Kids?'    

The Bible Says:

1 John 2:15-17 ESV / 107 helpful votes

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

What if cool means to be well-liked.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with being well-liked is it?  Plenty of Christian's are well-liked, right?  So, if this is what we mean by cool, it's ok.  Right?

Generally; people who are well-liked are also somewhat superficial, or shallow.  They are those who can discuss sports, or weather, or trivial matters, but they do not share their opinions, or even possess opinions on matters of importance.  They don't make judgments, or offend people with their speech or behavior.  Christians do not have the luxury of remaining neutral.  God has chosen for us where we stand on matters; we stand with Him.   So when the time comes; a Christian has to render the unpopular opinion, or abstain from the popular activity because their God compels them to do so.  Thus, even through the Christian may have a pleasant disposition, and be fun to be around, eventually the very act of being a Christian will put him or her at odds with their worldly peers.    

  

So, here is my answer, finally.  A Christian can be cool among other Christians.  A Christian cannot be cool in the world.   For being cool in the world means taking on many characteristics of the world.  This would not mean a person is not cool, this would mean a person is not a Christian.  I'm truly sorry, but I assure you brothers and sisters, that is the truth.

This topic may be of special interest in my Black Christian community.  As a card carrying member of this community I must acknowledge my own personal disgust of  a trait that is overwhelmingly present in our community.   It is the foolishness of Black parents that cover their children from head to toe in expensive name brand clothes and shoes (especially) in an effort to make the children both resemble and be more acceptable to the world.  

We are setting up value systems that:
1. are contrary to the word of God
2. are almost impossible to purge out
3. will take their focus away from God and put it on themselves creating self-centered thinking which is an enemy of the Christian walk