DUPED 3

                                                 DUPED THREE

    Are you having a good walk with Jesus? Does He talk with you as the hymn suggests? I've had a number of people--some of faith, and some not--disappointingly tell me they'd like to hear from or talk to God. But, they were unsuccessful. At least they knew they weren't on a line with God. Matt. 7:7 tells us that if we seek, we  will find. Our problem is we are complacent if the issue does not immediately impact our lives. For example, a person gets really serious about praying and/or studying when they are seriously ill or injured. Otherwise, it's usually a more casual approach. Just going to church or a bible study doesn't give you an automatic connection. That experience only gets you the operator, not the person with whom you wish to converse. Complacency opens the
door for you to be unknowingly duped. Eventually the issue that has been cleverly hidden by Satan becomes an actual war as Satan presses an anticipated advantage.

    The lesson for us in the Old Testament is not just the discovery of the true God, but how lack of diligent worship and following the wrong leaders always leads to destruction. In the New Testament, we are given The Way to prevent disaster. It is our propensity to be too easily satisfied that puts us in jeopardy. Leaders in the church and in the carnal world deceive us as they pursue Satan's goals of lust for power and money. We may think we are good Christians, but each of us has personal desires that get in the way of preventing us from becoming Christ like. If we are diligent in following God and obeying Christ, we will realize mistakes. Christ told us how to  complete our call to converse with God. It's in scripture, verse by verse. Yes, that's in the bible, but it's also verse by verse, which "outs" all those pretenders who can't support their false issues with anything Christ taught.

    Many of you probably don't know about a popular tv program a while back. It was a police subject starring Sergeant Friday, who was Jack Webb in real life. The program was Dragnet, and Friday always told people, "The facts, ma'am, just the facts." My problem, and maybe yours, is we settle for issues or solutions that seem to be okay without learning all the facts. If we are complacent in an issue such as eternal life, how much more do we miss because we settle for a solution that really isn't a solution? We fall prey to politicians, preachers and media people who know very well how to carry out Satan's teaching. Make no mistake--Satan has some of the best public relation workers in the universe. The people who follow Satan's directions are richly rewarded here on earth. In the afterlife, not so much. 

    The directions to be able to hear God, and perhaps engage Him
in conversation, are scriptural. This process has to be true, because 
it is given us in Christ's own words. After you receive these verses of
directions, we'll go to the record (not a story, the actual record) of how
 we've been duped. We begin by going to Matt. 22. I refer to this
chapter often because it is so vital. Verse 37 makes it clear that our
commitment to God and Christ is total love with heart, body and soul.
That means there is no room for Satan to be present in us. However, God also knows we have the seed of sin, so Satan will continue to keep looking for our "soft spot." This is an ongoing and continuing war. It's difficult to stay strong. Christ knew we would always be tempted by at least one issue, and this is worse for men than women. It is the desire to "be somebody," to be superior to others in some way so we can have "pride;" you know, better in sports, smarter,  better looking, richer--even belonging to a better denomination of Christianity, or branch of Christianity, or other faith. People of other faiths can and do often worship the same God we do. They just haven't accepted Christ's offer of eternal life. Except for that, they can live an otherwise Godly life just as you can. This, of course, excludes people who only worship man originated principles.

    The second part of our directions is in verse 39, "You shall love your
neighbor as yourself." Americans who say they are Christians are not
only disobeying this clear directive, they are copying terrorist methods
of separation leading to murder. Self defense excuses a soldier from
murder when in action to defend his country, but is being used by some
people who are simply trigger happy. No one is duped by laws that
permit a threatened person to stand his ground. That's only common
sense. We need to go to the third part of our directions to be able to
make that personal connection to God. This step, like the Trinity, must
be followed. Otherwise, the best you can do is get a busy signal. God
does not waste time with people who can't learn to dial correctly.

    Our final step is found in all four gospels, although the explanation
in John chapter 13 requires you to carefully interpret the entire
warning. The final step in John is verse 34 as Jesus instructs them,
"And now a new commandment I give to you, that you love one 
another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another." This
may seem to be a stutter, because He repeats Himself. On this 
occasion, He is stressing the new commandment because He wants
these special people, His disciples, to understand they must serve
as the Lord's example to mankind. They will replace Him as God's
teacher, and they must be worthy. If we are Christians, we must follow
His instructions. THEY ARE THE REASON FOR HIS APPEARING AND
PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE. He taught the 10 plus one commandments,
nothing else. Can you truthfully say you have not and do not break any
of these? If you can't keep these 11, why would you add any issues
He didn't even mention? 

    The instruction in John about the added commandment is also
given in the other three gospels. Check Matt. 22: 39 and 40; Mark
12: 28-31, and Luke 10:25 to 28. Don't stop with verse 28, but continue
through verse 37, and you will see what you are expected to do. Now,
we review your directions and what is necessary to actually 
communicate with God: obey the commandments and have an open
mind. The major problem now becomes the mind. If you complete the
obeying part, Satan will immediately---quick as a flash---try to get into
your mind. See John 13: 18 through 30. The piece of bread is the
symbol of sin. All traces of leavened bread must be removed from a
Jewish home before any Jewish holiday. All the disciples, of course,
were Jews, but didn't recognize Christ's explanation. Notice how
Jesus says in John 13:27, "What you do, do quickly." IMMEDIATELY,
Satan entered Judas. That's what happens when we're overconfident 
about our walk.

    Too often we dream up an excuse to disobey, and the most frequent
and common one is disobedience to the Ninth Commandment. We don't
realize we are guilty of false witness when we repeat unfounded gossip
or express an opinion not based on fact. The worst fall out from this
sin is created by passing the cause of our action off to something you
may claim Christ taught. You are doing Christ's work, you exclaim with
great satisfaction. This sin may be washed away with Christ's shed blood,
but if you don't repent, you are in trouble. The Apostle Paul warned us
about repeating the same sin over and over. You may cancel me out for
this bit of preaching, but I have to follow the Holy Spirit and tell it like
Christ told it. If you are demonstrating against abortion, gays, same sex
marriage or other life styles or faiths, you are not following Jesus Christ.
If you hate Muslims, you are hating millions of people innocent of doing
harm. Muslim extremists are no different than Christian extremists who
are ostracizing people of other color, faith or life styles, except these
sinners are only calling for killing and already accepting some killing.
This is happening in our mislabeled "Christian nation."

    This message may seem totally negative, but consider it is scriptural
and not opinion. It contains The Way to walk and talk with God.  We have
God's blessing to defend ourselves and to preach HIS WORD. We do not 
have His blessing to force others of any color, faith or life style to pass
discriminatory laws or rules. If you want to demonstrate or speak out
about issues, make certain you begin your presentation with the actual
verses of scripture from Christ. He instructed us to study both the Old
and New Testaments, but only told us to preach His Word as we go out
to fulfill the Great Commission. We may accept the advice given us in
other parts of both testaments, but this information is either corrective
or helpful for new Christians or cultural differences, or advice from other
inspired writers. We are not directed to preach Solomon's advice in
Proverbs because it is only wise advice. He was not a perfect man---only
Christ was perfection. Consider Solomon's life, where he had hundreds
of wives, concubines and horses, all in disobedience to Christ and God.

    No matter how intelligent you think you are, you will never be smart
enough to escape being duped. All the bible is inspired, and you can read
over the same collection of  passages many times without recognizing
the entire message. Anyone who thinks a few years of study or seminary
prepares a person for a preaching ministry is in serious error. You could
study scripture for a lifetime of 100 years and still come up short of the
glory of God. It is too easy to be complacent and accept popular opinion
and teaching. Pastors want to keep their jobs. Congregations want to
follow their opinions. To prove how Godly you are, the easiest thing to
do is point out a perceived sin in someone else. Your fellow Christian
and you then have at least a 2-1 majority. Satan knows brute strength--
either physical or mental--has the best chance of winning. He'll assist
you in "nailing" that sinner because it causes division.

    People of no expressed faith or other faiths see the circus some
Christians are perpetrating. They aren't stupid just because they aren't
Christians. Generally, they have come into contact with too many people
who claim to be Christians, or worse yet, they hear and see so many
proclaimed Christian leaders opposing much of Christ's Word. These
non Christians are not so stupid they can't see the real push behind
the Christians. The push is cost, power, separation and a neat but ugly
package labeled ME, ME, ME. Keep preaching what Christ didn't say,
friend, and then realize He will consider your verbal commitment. If it's
not from your heart, He will know it's what came out of your mouth.
Know what scripture says about that? James 3:8, warns, "But no man 
can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."

Rev. Walbear