When Fear Meets Grace and Truth Meets Delusion

     Last Sunday’s message at 9:45 a.m. (see this link) reflected not only the events of the past two weeks and two months, but also two books I am currently reading, The Fear of the Lord by John Bevere and The End of America? by Jeff Kinley.

     In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul states that before the antichrist is revealed, there will be a rejection of the truth by unbelievers, followed by an “energy of delusion”, sent by none other than the Lord God Himself.

     Why would God “send” a strong delusion? That is a hard question to answer. When people reject truth after truth and continually reject it, the truth becomes an inoculation for the rejecters. They choose to believe a lie; therefore, when truth comes from God, it is like they have a vaccination against it and cannot receive it.

     When God’s truth becomes a lie to those who refuse, the more truth that is given, the stronger they are set firm in being deluded. “Don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is made up,” some seem to say.

     The truth is the death of George Floyd was WRONG, no matter who perpetrated it, but especially wrong when it came at the hands (and knee) of those sworn to “protect and serve”. The truth is we need to reform a flawed system of training that led to this and other deaths like it. Period.

     The truth is the death of millions of unborn babies is WRONG no matter who perpetrates it, but especially when perpetrated by mothers, fathers, doctors, lawmakers and judges. They all should protect and preserve lives, not destroy them. We don’t need to abolish all doctors and all parents because some kill the unborn.

     STOP. Ask yourself this: “Have I, even I, become inoculated to the TRUTH?” We, the church, can also be deceived. How do you feel when you hear a sermon on evangelism? On faithful tithing? On making disciples and being discipled? On loving others, especially those who are different than you, and those who even hate you? On being kind?

      Jesus told the parable about a Jewish man who was dying and found by the Good Samaritan, whom the dying man would have otherwise seen as his enemy. Meanwhile, the dying man’s own neighbors, the Levite and the priest, did not see that their own fellow Jewish man’s life mattered. But the Samaritan did.

     If I claim I am not a racist and I agree that I should love, pray for, bless and forgive “my enemies”, then certainly then I must practice the truth by loving, praying for, blessing and forgiving those whom I claim are NOT my enemies but indeed are of a different race, political party, or religious background.

     If we do not, you and I have been inoculated to the truth. If we believe or practice things that are not truth, we are deluded.

     Stop listening to lies, half-truths, false agendas and ungodly talk. “This is My beloved Son,” God says in Mark 9:7 and Luke 9:35, “Hear Him!” In John 10, Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (verses 27 and 10).

     The best way to know the difference between the truth and everything else is to become so attuned with the real deal, that all else is instantly recognized as from “the devil … (who) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it,” (John 8:44).