NO MORE LIES!

Recently I have spent much time on the phone in an attempt to clear up a matter with one of our utility companies.  We were being charged for a service every week but soon realized that we were not actually receiving the service as promised. I am a very trusting person and I have had a difficult time comprehending why anyone would purposefully lie about something so obviously deceptive. Especially in dealing with a professional business, it is extremely exasperating when discovering you have been lied to and they refuse to admit any wrong doing.  

When this whole fiasco began, I just thought I had overlooked something in the situation and that this

company was telling me the truth.  After further investigating this aggravating dilemma over several weeks, my suspicions were confirmed.  We were not receiving the service every week that we were paying for and I was not crazy or mistaken as had been implied by this company. Although at times I really wanted to cry, my goal throughout the many phone conversations with their customer service department was to lovingly “speak the truth in love” and to be a calm and Christ like example.

I must honestly admit however I was slightly frustrated at this whole ordeal and had to confess my inner anger to the Lord.  Even though I realize that this was a minor ordeal in the grand scheme of life, I definitely did not like the feeling of being deceived and having it implied that their neglect was somehow my fault.  Thankfully now after a few months, it all seems to be resolved since we have switched to another company and have been enjoying the fact that we are now receiving the services we have paid for. Of course, I recognized right away that God had indeed allowed this whole situation to take place in my life to reemphasize the horrible effects that deception has on us.  I know He would want me to share with others what He’s been teaching me through this process. 

No one ever likes to be lied to but every one of us has been deceived by someone at some point in our lives.  We may even recall instances where we believed something to be truth only to find out later that we had been tricked.  No matter how serious the situation turned out to be, it is definitely not a good feeling to know that you have been taken advantage of.  Once we come to the realization that someone has lied to us and we’ve fallen for their deceptions, how does that seem to affect us?

1)  We tend to feel violated and used.  
2)  We realize that the one who deceived us may have NEVER had good intentions for us at all.
3)  We learn to be more watchful and purpose NOT to fall for any other schemes in the future.
4)  We put up our guard and purpose to stay as far away from that deceiver as we can.
5)  We warn those we love to be very careful not to ever trust the one who has deceived us.

When we've been purposefully deceived by strangers, acquaintances, friends, family members or even utility companies, there is always something far deeper taking place beneath the surface.  There is actually a more serious spiritual battle hidden beyond the obvious.  All around us every day we have spiritual warfare between the forces of good and evil battling for our lives.  Satan, the father of all lies knows he will lose the final war against God so he is trying every tactic under the sun in an attempt to bring as many people down with him as he can.  For those who have put their trust in Christ’s shed blood on the cross, our enemy can only but hope to get us distracted from making an impact for Christ’s kingdom while here on earth.  For this reason, believers must constantly be on guard to fight the battles we encounter every single day so that we will not become casualties of our enemy.

God lovingly warns us in John 10:10 of the MASTER deceiver whose plan for our life is destruction and death.  Satan is a thief whose only goal is to “steal, kill and destroy” believers and cause as many problems as he can for us.  Nothing has changed with the Devil and his intended path for us because He is pulling the very same destructive schemes on us today that he did with Adam and Eve.  In John 8:44, we are told that “…he is a liar and the father of lies.” God tells us that Satan is our enemy, he is the accuser, the slanderer, the deceiver and murderer.  We must take seriously the warning we are given in I Peter 5:8 to “Be sober, be vigilant because our enemy the devil roams around like a roaring lion, looking for those he may devour.”   

I have definitely seen people whom Satan has devoured.  I have personally witnessed the destruction that comes from choosing to believe the Enemy’s lies. Every one of us has experienced the heartache of our sinful choices and the destruction of the iniquities of those around us.  For many years, I made chose to believe SO many of Satan’s lies and I know without a doubt that my physical life would have ended early if God had not awoken me out of my spiritual slumber.  The enemy had specific plans for my demise and the destruction of my marriage and our family and believing his lies was playing right into his schemes. 

I’m thankful that God brought some serious trials into my life to get me to see the seriousness and reality of my sin so that I could confess it before it was too late! I was blinded by my sin, but when the blinders came off by comparing my heart’s condition to the TRUTH of God’s Word, I finally saw my sin for the ugliness that it was!  I'm done feeling used and cheated by someone who ONLY desires my destruction. I'm now more aware of all of the deceptions that the Evil one puts in my path.

We often wonder why we see so many Christians that seem to be going off the ‘deep end’ and throwing away everything that is truly ‘good’ in their lives and exchanging it ONLY for heartache and destruction.  Satan makes that which is "good" look bad and everything that is "bad" seem inviting, which is part of the deception that we too often fall for.  The devastating consequences from our sin are not always quickly seen. Satan uses a SLOW progression into sin to wear away at our defenses.  He always begins the battle by tempting us subtle lies because we are more likely to fall for believing the “little” deceptions first which eventually lead us way further than we ever thought we would go.  The progression of sin is often slow and gradual.

IF we CHOOSE to:  

      1)  We LISTEN to the lie, (then sooner or later-)
2) We ENTERTAIN the lie in our mind, (sooner or later-)
3) We will eventually begin to BELIEVE the lie. (sooner or later-)
4) We will decide to ACT on the lie.

Once we act on the lie, we not only bring devastating consequences and pain to ourselves but to everyone else around us. There are always other innocent casualties from our sinful choices!  Countless children, spouses, parents, families and friends also suffer needlessly because of our selfish decisions that begin from us believing the lies Satan tells us.  We can all recall examples of this very deceptive process in our own lives and the lives of those we love.

No one likes to be lied to! As a Christian, which lies have you listened to? Which lies have you chosen to believe? Which lies have you acted on? We’ve been warned by the God of the Universe about how Satan wants to destroy us.  It’s our choice to either heed God’s warnings or choose a life full of heartache, pain and regret. If you feel used and deceived because you’ve fallen for the Enemy’s deceptions over and over, you must not lose hope.

 God always offers a new beginning and His mercies are brand new every single morning.  As long as we are still breathing, it’s NEVER too late for us to humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness from our sin. Please take it from someone who knows and has experienced God’s forgiveness so many times.  We CAN live a blessed life from here on out and replace and combat Satan’s lies with the truths of God’s Powerful Word. 

FAST FOOD

I’ve really been doing some research lately about the lack of nutritional value of some of the food our family eats. Sad to say, because of poor planning on my part in failing to bring nutritious food along with us when we are out running errands, we eat fast food way too often.  Although there are a few healthy choices at fast food restaurants now I’ve learned that most of the meals we get going through the drive thru may slowly be killing us because they aren't even real food. Unfortunately, there have been hundreds if not thousands of times over the years that we have grabbed some sort of fast meal on the go because of our hectic schedule.  Even though I’ve always known that fast food is not the best option for us to consume, the draw for me has been that we can get our meal quickly, consume it in the car and be on our way to accomplish more important tasks.

Although I’m now finally learning the dangers of trying to survive on too much fast food, I believe that for years some of my hesitation to visit a drive thru was plagued by my most perilous but memorable trips picking up a quick meal.  That particular day will go down in history as one of the most embarrassing moments of my entire life!  For this very reason, I know that God would definitely want me to share this special memory and what He has taught me with all of you.

Of course my husband was out of town at the time and the kids and I had just spent a couple of hours at the doctor’s office.  It was Prayer Meeting night at church and since I was the Pastor’s wife I felt slightly guilty about missing part of it even though it could not be helped.  We were doing our best however to hurry to get there, but we were all hungry so we decided to quickly run through the KFC drive thru on the way to church.  Our van had been acting a little funny that day, but that was to be expected as the odometer was nearing the 400,000 mile mark. 

As we sat in the drive thru waiting to receive our food, we began to smell some interesting odors coming from our van.  All of the sudden we heard a loud boom that sounded like an explosion and a huge cloud of black smoke began towering from the engine.  I thought the van was going to blow up right there in the drive thru!  All the kids and I quickly jumped out in fear that the whole thing was going to go up in flames.  I’m not very mechanical and I don’t know much about cars, but when you see a river of black oil pouring out all over the pavement, something must be wrong.  All of the KFC employees scurried out of the restaurant to see what was going on and expressed their need to immediately call the fire department. By this time, since we were on the main road in our small town, our situation was drawing some attention. 

As I mentioned before, my husband was traveling for business at the time. Feeling a little vulnerable and helpless having four young children, a baby and a van that had virtually exploded right in front of our eyes. I stood in tears in the drive thru as I attempted to find the positive besides the fact that we all escaped this catastrophe without harm.  This situation wouldn’t have been so horrible to me if it hadn’t occurred in such a public place, and the drive thru of all places. Needless to say, I had to interrupt Prayer Meeting to call one of the deacons of our church who was a talented mechanic.  We were so thankful that several guys from the church came to assist us, got a tow truck to haul off our beast and gave us all a ride safely home. 

I must admit for a few years after our KFC incident, I was slightly apprehensive of going thru drive thru's to pick up fast food.  I finally eased back into the practice once the trama of possible car explosions or fires had passed.  As I have been recently investigating the perilous consequences of consuming so much fast food, the more I started making the connection between how we eat our physical food with how we consume spiritual food.  Not only is it important for us to examine the nutritional quality of our meals, it is essential that we contemplate as Christians how we are feeding ourselves spiritually. 

We are definitely living in a society that simply wants a quick fix in every area of our lives.  Sadly, Christians have even adopted this fast food “drive thru” mentality when it comes to spending time with God.  We allow our schedules to become so full and are way too busy that we often fail to plan in cultivating the most important, fulfilling and enriching relationship we could ever hope to have.  Often we make the excuse that we don’t have much time to spend with God so we grab some fast spiritual food for a few minutes whenever we can fit it in to make our consciences feel better.  We can’t expect to survive, thrive and have a healthy strong relationship with our Savior if we only get our “quick fix” for a few minutes a day.  If we are truly panting and thirsting after God, we won’t be satisfied with fast spiritual food.  Many times we grab a quick spiritual snack and believe that it will sustain us but we don’t even realize that we will become so nutritionally deficient that we will eventually starve.

If we truly “know” God then we will be desperate to be consumed with learning more and more about Him. Just as in our earthly relationships, when we desire to have a deep relationship with someone, a few minutes here and there will not be sufficient in allowing us to really know them intimately.  How much time we spend with someone reveals how important they are to us.  

In Psalm 42:1 we see how David describes how we are to yearn for God, “As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after you O God.”  Are we filled with the joy of His presence as we soak in His majesty and glory through prayer and reading His Word?  Psalm 16:11 “…You will fill me with the joy of your presence…”  We will be blessed if we hunger and thirst after God and His ways.  We're also told in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled." 

If we claim to have a personal relationship with Christ and we do not hunger and thirst after righteousness and His Word then there is something wrong.  If we claim to be a child of God, yet we are not obsessed with knowing more about Him then we are in danger of drifting away spiritually into apathy. If we are content with spiritual fast food where we try to fit God in somewhere to ease our conscience, do we really value our relationship with Him? If we do not desperately seek Him and hunger and thirst after Him, do we really even “know” Him at all?

 Please understand that I was an apathetic and lukewarm Christian for many years. I spent a few minutes with God every day to check it off my spiritual “to do” list and call myself a good Christian. My unconfessed sin of bitterness, envy, and silent anger caused me to become lukewarm and careless in cultivating my relationship with the Lord.  I John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Him should himself also walk just as He (Jesus) walked.”  Sin blinds us and makes us stagnant and causes us to backslide spiritually.  We may simply “appear” to be healthy spiritually by going through the external motions by feeding ourselves spiritual fast food.  Until we confess the sin, our soul will not pant after God and we will never be filled with the joy of His presence.

Jesus Himself longed to spend time with His Father as we’re told in Mark 1:35, “Early in the morning while it is still dark, Jesus went to pray.”  I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t view His time with His Father like we do many times. Jesus was dedicated to His time of prayer and fellowship with God in making it His top priority by getting up while it was still dark outside.  He didn’t rely on spiritual fast food by hurrying through the time He spent communing with His Father so He could move on to more important tasks.  Too often, we have such a carnal attitude and outlook toward the time we spend with God.  Sadly, we fulfill a few minutes of fast devotions out of duty so we can get on with our day.  We may even at times allow excuses to steal that time away altogether.  

Since God got a hold of my heart several years ago, I have noticed a drastic change in how I view my time with my Savior every day.  I long to meet Him daily and look forward to Him teaching me all of the new discoveries He has for me to learn about Himself.  I’m not interested in any more spiritual fast food. I am not saying that we should never ever go through a drive thru whether physically or spiritually, there may be times when some food is better than no food.  Sometimes in an emergency situation we find ourselves thankful to grab any time we can with God, but that should be the exception not the norm.  If it is, our health will definitely begin to suffer.

Our Almighty Creator God and Savior desires for us to pant after Him.  He wants us to hunger and thirst after His ways.  We could spend hours and hours a day for the rest of our earthly lives searching God's precious Word and meeting Him in prayer and we would never even scratch the surface of who God really is. We could never begin to learn in our lifetime how much He truly loves us and be able to fathom ALL of the amazing things He has done for us.  God tells us in Deuteronomy 4:29, "...You will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul."

How about you, have you been content with grabbing a little spiritual fast food lately?  Do you wonder why you're not being filled with the joy of experiencing His awesome presence?  I pray that each of us will hunger and thirst to know Him more deeply and intimately. Life is too short to spend so much time in drive thru’s and trying to survive on fast food.