Deception's Farce

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.  They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition?  For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”  Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?  For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you.  For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’  In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents.  And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.  You hypocrites!  Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,  ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”  Matthew 15:1-9

If your first thought after reading this exchange between Jesus and his detractors was how Jesus never answered their question, you may have the same problem they did.  The Pharisees and Scribes were nitpickers, focusing like a laser-rocket on tiny details, rather than the larger picture.  But that was not their main problem; secretly, they were more committed to their agenda than getting at the truth.  Jesus had been teaching people how to love and honor God.  The critical committee was “concerned” the disciples might have a germ on their hands when eating.  To the uninformed listener, or someone who bought-into the Pharisees’ authority and credentials, it may have sounded like high-holy righteousness.  However, Jesus saw through their deceit; they were trying to find enough fault to pick him and his teachings apart.  Jesus rebuked them by showing their hypocrisy.

There is a particularly ludicrous form of that deceptive hypocrisy in the culture of the 21^st century.  It is the nit-picking (so-called) “spirituality” of those who have never truly knelt at the foot of the cross and experienced the forgiveness of Christ’s love.  Among the leaders of such are those who came close to the faith, but turned and walked-away.  Having a glimpse of salvation’s glory (and cost), they must self-validate their empty decision to reject the Lord of Glory by tearing his followers apart.  I have seen it too many times to miss this…the most vehement of those who would destroy the Kingdom’s grace in others are those who would never kneel to the Lordship of He who came to forgive and save.  Like the Pharisees, they say they serve the cause of good, but their hearts have fingers crossed behind their backs.

For You Today 

If you have recognized yourself in this, from either side of being guilty, or the target of the guilty, there is only one response…forgiveness.  Offer forgiveness freely if you’ve been attacked; pray for forgiveness if you’ve blundered enough to be the attacker.  Living a life of eternal truth is to destroy every last bit of hypocrisy that wants to eat your soul alive.  Anything less is a deceptive farce; it certainly isn’t worship!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Pretender

Thursday, January 12, 2023

I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.  You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all.  You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.  Galatians 1:6-7

That ancient descriptive about a wolf in sheep’s clothing is all about pretense, pretending to be something, in order to gain another’s favorable view.  The sharpened teeth of that gain is when the wolf eats the sheep that has given trust.  When Jesus sent his disciples out to spread the good news of salvation, he commissioned them with a cautionary bit of advice:

“Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.  Matthew 10:16

Wolves that pretend to be sheep is a caricature of those who would eat you alive if they can gain your trust.  And the chief tool used by spiritual wolves is the same as any other – the lie.

Apostle Paul was shocked at how the Galatian church had been turned by lies so quickly.  Human nature is fickle, and this is why studying and meditating on God’s Word (which is entirely unadulterated truth) is so important.  Internalizing the Word of Truth is a guard against the twisted claims of pretenders.  Consider these two bedrock necessities for the believer:

Truthful words stand the test of time, but lies are soon exposed.  Proverbs 12:19
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.  Psalm 119:11

The crux of the issue in the case of the Galatian churches was truth, twisted to suit bending these new believers away from the freedom and strength of the Gospel, in order to enslave them to follow these spurious teachers who would take them even further from Jesus’ way.  Our day has plenty of parallels:

·       Prosperity Lies – which attempt to make the Gospel a pyramid scheme, an easy entry into gaining wealth or power if you subscribe to the cult’s twisted version of God’s Word.

·       Healing Lies – focusing on physical well-being of the body as something that can be extorted from God’s power by twisting Scripture out of its context…making the focus all about our human bodies, which by definition are flesh that is passing-away (wouldn’t it be terrible to live in these aging,  sagging, weakening human skeletons forever?).

·       Sexual Lies – these days have no end.  In my youth (1950’s/60’s) the so-called sexual revolution “liberated” fornication (sexual activity between unmarried couples)…it became accepted, even lauded.  In the 1980’s same-sexuality relationships started to become normal.  A neverending barage of media and social campaigns culminated during the Obama era of legalizing same-sex marriage, flaunting man’s disdain for God’s commands.

·       Spiritual Lies – have the result of destroying long-standing faithfulness to godlinesss, and have even turned sanctuaries consecrated to worship of God into houses of human idolatry, “sanctifying” same-sex marriages.  The United Methodist Church, descendant of Wesley’s strong foundation in the Scriptural Word of Truth, is undergoing a complete devolution in this lie.

In our day the lie has gained a reputation for truth.  Sad.

For You Today  

Be a dove kind of sheep…but be different than the Galatian brand; be as shrewd as snakes.  Beware the pretending wolves in sheep’s clothing.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

The Third Day  and  Living in Sodom

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Yes...and No

Friday, December 16, 2022

Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’  Anything beyond this is from the evil one.  Matthew 5:37

Humpty Dumpty made his appearance as a riddle of the late 18^th century.  His presence has graced virtually every literary idea-push from Mother Goose fairy tales to edgy political satire.  Alice (of the Looking Glass in Wonderland) has a conversation with Dumpty, the talking egg:

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,' " Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't—till I tell you.   I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"

"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument'," Alice objected.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again.  "They've a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they're the proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole lot!  

Impenetrability!  That's what I say!"

The riddle of The Dumpty is much too dark for children, and therein lies the point; we can be as imperceptible as we wish, skewing the meaning (and therefore the intent) of our words.  Jesus says that’s too dark and evil for a believer.  A simple yes or no is clear, unmistakable, and wholesome.  And that is rather the Godly point.  To be any different than Thou shalt not, or thou shalt, when it comes to what thou dost…crosses the boundaries of love.  And, for Christ, that is the utmost concern…because it is the benchmark of Godly character.  To deceive, even with a so-called child’s riddle, is to be Satan’s offspring.

In our contemporary culture truth, unvarnished and untarnished, is just as uncomplicated (and uncommon) as it’s always been.  From interpreting economic forecasts to explaining a new law’s intent and purpose, politicians have danced with truth as you would dance with molecules of Coronavirus, just as far from being pinned with your words as possible.  The shade of darkness of Sir Humpty’s word-penetrability is directly proportionate to what’s at stake for the dissembler.

The most telling illustration of this in my memory is from 1998, when the Grand Jury asked President Bill Clinton if there was any improper relationship between himself and staffer Monica Lewinsky.  The president’s Dumpty moment surfaced when he responded:  It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.[1]

For You Today  

For anyone with a reasonably-sized vocabulary, it is always a temptation to hide-behind a word wall.  Jesus, ever the master at punching-through deceptive walls, is never taken unawares by any attempt to cover the truth.  Following Him means you will let your ‘yes’ and ‘no’ stand on nothing less, or more.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

   Of State Dinners and Spies and Diverse - and Dying

Images:  Title Via Wikimedia Commons   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Bill Clinton and the Meaning of “Is”

The Cost of Deception

 

Friday, July 8, 2022

O Lord, I give my life to you.  I trust in you, my God!  Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat.  No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others.  Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow.  Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me.  All day long I put my hope in you.  

Psalm 25:1-5

A member of the governing board of a church convinced the board to ask the pastor to resign.  The pastor responded to the board at the next meeting that God had called him to this church, and he did not sense his work was yet finished, so he would not resign.  The board member quickly replied:  Well, God may have brought you here, but we’re getting shed of you! 

Some stuff that is said may sound good.  Sometimes church leaders, pastors, board chairs, committees and members say things that may express what the majority of a group thinks, but that does not always mean they’ve found God’s will.  Sometimes they’ve only found a way to rationalize a decision that allows them to ignore God’s will, while still keeping the appearance that they’re spiritual.  The real issue is greed or control.  You can do that if you’re willing to parade lies as truth.  But there is a cost to doing it; the contention between the governing board and pastor of that church was 35 years ago. The churchbuilding is still standing today, but it is used for a community center now.[1]

Deception has always been common to the human condition.  Adam and Eve imagined to avoid contact with God after sinning.  Their son, Cain, tried to deflect God’s question about what Cain had done to his brother, Abel.  And, so-on throughout human history. 

In today’s culture the deception dance around truth has become something of an epidemic.  In business and politics you have the cliché expectant behavior, as in:  How can you tell if a politician is lying?  Answer:  His lips are moving.  But that which is cliché in the obvious public targets is now commonplace in families, friends, and even church.  

From whence cometh this devaluing of truth?  According to Jesus, it is the Prince of Darkness who pushes this behavior.  When the Pharisees were debating with Jesus about heritage and privilege, their obtuse attitude needed a little rebuking. 

For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning.  He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.  

John 8:44

Writing about this constant war between truth and deception many hundreds of years prior to the “conversation” Jesus had with the Pharisees, King David came to a conclusion that, no matter the cost, he would be led by truth, not lies.  It was not easy for David to make this switch from the lies and deception that had blackened his soul.  He had a history of convincing himself it was OK to steal another man’s wife, and conspire to kill her husband, and then cover it up, drawing others into the plot.  Truth would be a hard sell.  But his prayer in Psalm 25 was also a commitment:  All day long I put my hope in you.

For You Today

Today’s choices will include that inconvenient fork in the road:  truth or deception.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts on Rocky Road Devotions. 

To dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text:  Faith Finding the Path to Do Right and Lenten Walk - Part 2

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] From a previous post, Parading Lies as Truth

Ambushed Again

 

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss.  But Jesus said, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”  When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, “Lord, should we fight?  We brought the swords!”  Luke 22:47b-49

If you’ve ever gotten ambushed by a friend you understand something of the sorrow Judas brought to the garden that night.  An ambush is when there exists an unfair advantage.  Because the discussion, skirmish, event, or whatever has been planned, without one side being given opportunity to consider and prepare, makes the playing field unlevel.

When betrayal is plied by the hand of a friend, it may be the harshest form of deception possible.  I have been blind-sided by betrayal before: 

     ·       A co-worker who smiled at me every day, but secretly spread rumors

     ·       A staff member’s wife who stoked those rumors

None of that is nearly like what the Son of God endured at the hands of those he came to save and befriend.

Wile E. Coyote has been trying to ambush the Road Runner for decades.  He never seems to get it, that his plans are doomed.  But that’s a cartoon, right?  That doesn’t happen in real life, does it?  Sometimes the bad guy wins, eh?

Well, it wouldn’t hurt to ask Judas.  Judas was planning to ambush Jesus for awhile.  He decided, researched, and executed his plan.  What Judas left out of his contingency plans was the God-thing.  Jesus knew what was in Judas’ heart. So it came as no surprise to Jesus that Judas was going to turn.  Whatever Judas hoped to achieve fell flatter than unleavened bread.

But, you’d say, didn’t Judas’ plan work? 

Didn’t they execute Jesus? 

Didn’t Judas get the price he asked? 

Of course it looked like Judas came out on top…at first. 

     ·       Jesus got taken away by soldiers, then out of the tomb by the resurrecting power of God.

     ·       Judas got the purse, then realized blood money stinks.

The plan worked…at first…just not in the way Judas expected.  It fell victim to the Wile E. Coyote syndrome…evil comes, but God overcomes.

For You Today

Being betrayed is hard to take. 

And, when a devotion ends with just that thought, you’re left to ponder what to do next on your own.  Kinda like betrayal’s aftermath.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Differences

 

Monday, December 20, 2021

Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children.  The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins.  But the two children struggled with each other in her womb.  So she went to ask the Lord about it.  “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.  And the Lord told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations.  From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals.  One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”  And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins!  The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat.  So they named him Esau.  Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel.  So they named him Jacob.  Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.  As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter.  He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home.  Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.  Genesis 25:21-28

Wellington (the reddish guy on the left of the picture) and Gracie Cotton, (somewhat older than Wellie, and now passed) were as different as one could imagine.  Gracie would chase anything that moved in our yard; Wellie barks, but moves like a battleship turns.  Given the opportunity of an unlatched-gate, Gracie would wander the neighborhood, while Wellie ambles closer to home.  Gracie loved to snuggle next to any human with a pulse.  Wellie wants to know you’re there, but he’s the Esau among us; he will lick you in the face for food, but let’s not overdo it, thank you.

Differences in Isaac’s children were evident from before they were born – they were having a wrestling match even in Rebekah’s womb.  At birth, Esau was anxious and entered the daylight first, but Jacob was not letting him out of arm’s reach.  These boys’ descendants are still in a tug-of-war to this moment.

Differences are as natural in a family as similarities.  And it’s not just appearances.  There are the dimensions of preference and spirit also.  Esau preferred having a bow in his hands, stalking game in the woods.  Jacob was a homebody.  He was the kid who would’ve been teased in the 6^th grade as a “mama’s-boy”.  And Scripture doesn’t hesitate to underscore that.  Rebekah’s favorite of the two was Jacob, while Esau’s hunting and cooking skills made his Dad, Isaac, a happy man.

It took Esau and Jacob about 40 years to come to terms with their differences.  Jacob was the ambitious one, willing to connive and deceive his way to wealth and control, while Esau took what he wanted with the weight of the firstborn.  Still, Esau was destined to serve his younger brother, Jacob.  In the final chapters of their relationship ^{(see Genesis 33)} Jacob and Esau meet after a 20 year separation. The elder, Esau, has graciously come to terms with how he was wronged by his brother, and the younger brother-deceiver has gone straight, preferring to trust God’s way rather than his own manipulative bent.  The differences have melted into the distant past, while the bond of humanity and brotherhood have surfaced to the forefront. 

Ultimately the squabble between Jacob and Esau resurfaced in their descendants, the two nations Rebekah was told were in her womb, and these are constantly in the news reports to this day.  It appears the Arabs and Jews will be at it until Jesus comes, as assuredly as the Republicans and Democrats are fighting each other under the Capitol Dome.

What do we make of that?  We must embrace the take-away-lesson of human relationships we see in the footloose hunter and the heel-grabbing manipulator; whatever you sow, you reap.  It matters little whether you care more for the stalk-and-kill, or the scheme-and-grab, anything other than God’s love-and-be loved will eventually come-‘round just as you sent-it-‘round.

For You Today

Take stock of your own nature today, hunter or homebody, gregarious or introvert, or whatever of the Meyers-Briggs personality combinations[1] you discover, and decide today that God is the maker of them all.  Differences don’t have to keep brothers at each other’s throats.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Russell Brownworth (own work)   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For other posts on this text see No Place Before God and No Place Before God - Part 2

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[1] Go HERE to find out more about the Meyers-Briggs Personality indicator

Partnering With the Devil

 

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.  I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world.  They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body.  Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.  Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve.  Be diligent so that you receive your full reward.  Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God.  But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement.  Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.    2 John 6-11

Some choices promise better than others, but there is a new choice every second of every lifetime:

          ·       To remain…or go; continue breathing…or not

          ·       To smile…or growl

          ·       To resist life’s tragedies…or embrace the challenges

          ·       To love…or partner with the devil.

I recall reading the account of a young man’s life, who, due to a skiing accident that crushed most of his body’s bones, left him facing the reality of climbing uphill for what was left of his days on this planet.  Those days were filled with pain, chronic, agonizing, and, at times, overwhelming pain.  Among the choices he entertained during that dark time was the possibility of ending it all…the pain, any hope of recovery, a miracle, or just the satisfaction of holding-on.  I cannot recall the man’s name, or where I read the story, but his words still ring deep in my soul: 

I do not have choice about the pain and the circumstances of my life, but, when it comes to joy, I can choose misery, or I can choose joy.

His testimony was that choosing joy over misery gave him a purpose; part of that purpose was to help others embrace whatever challenge life throws their way.

Apostle John, the same one whose Gospel account says that Jesus loved him, warned the church that there were merely two choices available in life – love God, or partner with the devil; the latter being a life built on deception, the chief of which was that Jesus hadn’t really come in a flesh-and-blood body, to die a horrible death for our sins.  That was beneath God’s dignity, and no self-respecting God would do such a thing.  In short, those living in deception denied Christ. 

The opposite side of that deception is truth, and to live in truth is to accept what is real. Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection means everything else He told us is true.  And, past that point of accepting Christ, we live as He told us to live, acting with love toward every other human being, and doing that, no matter if it is reciprocated. 

That is the way God loves, and our mission is to live like our God demonstrated.

For You Today

When facing particularly challenging circumstances remember the choice between misery and joy.  Partnering with the devil’s deception looks like a much easier way out, and it is – it’s your gateway to a life of misery without parole. 

The other choice will always seem more difficult, requiring faith, yielding control to Christ’s plan for your life.  But in doing so you will discover the pathway to genuine joy.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title image Pixabay.com  ∞ Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on 2 John see: Imposters and Old Words That are New