Tuesday the 5th

Mark 13: ⁵Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁶Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many.

 

Many will come claiming I am He……I would say that some are already here claiming that they are He, and I would also say that they are out very busy trying to deceive many! This was not an idle warning, or an off the cuff remark that Christ made, it was a warning, and a prophesy. A message of things to come. We do have to be on guard…..we do have to pay attention to what is being said, and taught. We simply cannot allow ourselves to be programmed on Sunday “because the Pastor said so” to live in such a way is to worship the Pastor, and not the Lord. Back before reformation you could not find a Bible printed in a language that the masses could understand, or read. They depended on the church to tell them how to live. The reformation occurred, and thanks to Luther, and the Gutenberg press, the printed word of God was read by each and every person that could read. It is amazing to me how we have come almost full circle. We now seem to be back at a point in society where we want to just be told…..we no longer read for ourselves, we no longer learn for ourselves, as a result we run dangerously close to no longer thinking for ourselves. Christ’s bond with each of us is on a very basic, and very personal level, why would we leave it to one person in our lives to tell us what the Lord wants us to know? Please do not misunderstand, I am not bashing all Pastors, Ministers, or those that would profess the Word of God, I do that myself on Sunday. What I am saying is if we are to heed the warning that Christ gave us in this scripture, then it will take effort, not of one a group, not of one denomination, but it will take effort on each of our parts. The Word of God has been twisted, distorted, and misused for sometime. We have men, and women who are followed that teach many things that just are not correct. They take a verse here, and butt it up against a scripture there, and turn the Word of God into a perversion of the truth. So how will you know? How will you be able to tell if someone is trying to deceive you? Christ is telling us that it is going to happen, how will you prepare? You have to arm yourself with the Sword of truth, which is the Word of God. That Word can be found in the Bible. You can read it, you can understand it, as a matter of fact if you will approach reading the Bible with an open heart to the Lord, you will find that the Holy Spirit, will guide you and direct you. The best time you can spend with the Lord is the time spent with a Bible open in your hands. If you never learned math, you would not be successful in finance, if you had never learned English, you would never reach any lever of success.  You learned these things not because you went to school, but because you studied, you spent time learning. The teacher guided, but you did the work. Why would we thing that our Spiritual life would be any different? If one teacher had taught you that 2 + 2 = 5, and you never worked that problem on your own, you would have found yourself deceived, and it would have made your life difficult. The Lord might spend some time with you on Sunday, but what about Monday – Saturday? How will He reach you? How will He confirm His truths, How will he reach out to you? Open the book! You will find a wealth of truth that you can share with those around you….and you should share it freely. Tax men, fishermen, tent makers, these men followed and listened to the words of Christ, they learned how he lived first hand, and they helped changed the world. What is your role? Will you be an active participant, vetting the truth from the chaff, or will you rely on another man to feed you what is yours; given to you by the grace of God, purchased by the blood of Christ? Read the Word, be the change, do not allow yourself to be deceived.

 

 

God Bless,

Brian Thetford

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www.thenewcovenantchurch.com

 

www.theworkweekwithchrist.blogspot.com