Friday, March 19, 2021

THE DANGER OF FALSEHOOD

God's people need to learn to fear and hate lies.

We live in days of great deception. Believers need to know how seriously God takes falsehood and deception. We seem to think some little lies are okay. They are not. It no longer seems to be a big deal to post a list of things on social media about a politician or public figure you fear or dislike, some of which you cannot verify. Falsehoods are demonic. In John 8:44-46 Jesus spoke pointedly about this to the religious leaders of His day

 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Years ago my wife and I went with a group on a mission trip. Some of us arrived in the destination country without our luggage. A man among us was fluent in the language of that country. He went up to the airline counter and spoke to the frustrated person working there. He came back and told us that he told the person a lie to get them to hurry up and find our bags. Later he told about lying to the people of the church where he was working to get them to respond to God. That gave me the creeps. Do you think God approves of that sort of thing? Do you think it would help to bring about God’s will?

The weekend after the attack on the U.S. Capitol a respected Christian leader wrote a blog on how wrong the attack was. Someone replied saying he had heard from a friend who lives in D.C. who said, “Don’t believe what you see on T.V. There was no riot. There was no attack. There was no break in.” To believe that, you have to believe the conspiracy included every news outlet, conservative, liberal, and extremist. It would have to include every person in congress including Trump supporters. It would have to include the families of both police and insurgents who were injured or killed in the break in. It would even have to include insurrectionists who were already posting selfies of themselves in the capitol building.

Many of us are guilty of repeating things we read on social media. If we had stopped to think about many of them we would know they were lies. The Soviets said, truth was whatever they said it was. Are we moving in that direction? In these days believers need to know that we do not determine truth by whether it is spoken by a politician that we support or one we oppose. Our witness to the world is at stake here, not to mention the next generation of Americans. Even more serious is our standing with a holy God. Lies are of the devil and we need to run from them. This does not mean that we should stop opposing or endorsing political views. But we will defeat our purposes and alienate ourselves from God if we condone falsehoods in any form. I have addressed this to Christians. I needed to start somewhere, but I fear the viability of our form of government may depend upon an entire nation committing ourselves to absolute honesty.

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Friday, March 5, 2021

DEALING WITH THE SIN OF RAVI

I am shocked and grieved at the revelation of the sin of Ravi Zacharias. Ravi was a hero of mine. His demeanor and his teaching had a great influence on my life. I am aware that all of us are broken. We all sin. I am also convinced that what Ravi taught and demonstrated was from God despite the sexual sin that overtook him. But I need to say that so far believing these things has not relieved my grief at all.

The fact that Ravi was evidently involved in these things while he was being used by God flies in the face of nearly everything I believe and have taught about Christian ministry. For many years I have said holiness is the goal of ministry. True and lasting effect in ministry is in the hands of God. Rather than success, we are to seek holiness which depends entirely on our relationship with God.

Several trustworthy people have written or been interviewed about this. I would like to hear what some of them have to say. But I need to seek a personal word from God on the issue before I think about what others have to say. As I have prayed about this, God has faithfully spoken to me. There is still much that I don't have worked out, and some of what I have to say may not deal directly with the issue, but I share these things with you because I have received some peace from them.

The first truth that I can apply to myself comes from John 9:4

John 9:1-4 read,

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.’”

God's glory is the purpose of our lives. God can receive glory from whatever we see happening around us. There are at least three facets to living for the glory of God. They are waiting, watching, and working. We seldom see any good while we are in the midst of tragedy. But Paul’s statement that God works all things together for good in Romans 8:28, includes sin and its terrible effects. If you could have quoted such a verse to one of the disciples at the cross, they would not have understood. They needed to wait for His glory to be revealed.

We also need to watch for God to reveal His glory. If we do not learn to watch and pray we will miss some of the most wonderful things that God does in our lives and on the earth. 

And Jesus clearly said we must do the work that God sent Him to do. God’s work does not begin with our initiative. In John 8:28 Jesus said He did nothing on His own authority. To do the work of God we must spend time with Him learning to hear His voice.

Jesus said we must join Him in His work while it is day. I strongly suspect that we are coming into the terrible times prophesied for the last days. Even if I am mistaken, God and my doctors have been telling me my time is short. I need to keep my head down and do the work given by God to my Lord and through Him to me. 

I have come to see that even though Ravi's sin dishonors God and that his world wide ministry is likely to collapse, God will yet use these things to bring glory to His name.


http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://theanchorofthesoul.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/


Website

http://daveswatch.com/


YouTube

https://goo.gl/PyzU

Amazon Author Central page.